Everybody Knows... Elizabeth Murray

Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray is an intimate portrait of the groundbreaking artist Elizabeth Murray. This film explores the relationship between Murray’s family life and career, and reconsiders her place in contemporary art history. Verité footage, home videos and excerpts from her journals, voiced by Meryl Streep, tell of Murray's internal struggles and incredible ambition. Exclusive interviews with art world luminaries provide the historical backdrop for the New York art scene.

Elizabeth Murray moved to New York City in 1967. In 2005, almost forty years later, Murray was the fifth woman to be celebrated with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray traces Murray's life, from years as a struggling single mother to having a bustling, growing family and thriving career. From her early 1960’s “funk-inflected pop” to her painterly minimalism in the 70’s, and on to her dynamic fractured canvases of the 1990s and 2000s, Murray worked without hesitation through – and often in spite of – market trends, historical movements and her failing health.

Murray's paintings defy efforts at categorization. She broke convention, and made an indelible imprint on contemporary art. This film chronicles her remarkable journey from an impoverished childhood to artistic maverick, before she lost her life to cancer in 2007. Everybody Knows... Elizabeth Murray cements Murray’s legacy as one of the great painters of our time.

Everybody Knows...Elizabeth Murray is co-production of RubyRed Productions and the Human Arts Association.