Away and do your homework!: Five pages from Stuart Murray 'ER 7XYEVX 1YVVE] HVE[# (SIW LI GLSSWI RSX XS# (SIW MX VIEPP] QEXXIV# *SV WSQI ]IEVW RS[ XLI +PEWKS[ EVXMWX has produced, with near-obsessive asperity, his homework-jotter-style booklets of pictorial meanderings through bars, doorways and recently, the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland. Should we be covering our ‘Stuart 1YVVE]W´ [MXL SPH FMXW SJ [EPPTETIV ERH TSTTMRK XLIQ MRXS SYV WEXGLIPW [LIR [I LMX XLI XS[R# ;LEX HS XLIWI homework exercises, so untidy yet so oddly meticulous, centred on the page by the force of Murray’s obsession, XIEGL YW EFSYX XLI [SVPH EX PEVKI# Much of the power of Murray’s work lies in the invective, rants and verbal rambles scooped out of everyday life ERH PERKYEKI ERH VIGSVHIH MR LMW WPSTMRK LERH[VMXMRK ;VMXMRK ERH HVE[MRK GSRXIWX JSV WTEGI SR XLI ½ZI TEKIW we’ve set aside for him here; his bar crawlers and beer-bowsers seem to be extensions of their own words; doodles in the margins of some never-ending round of existential homework. Did he draw out these yarns as LI LIEVH XLIQ MJ WS HMH LI HSYFPI XEOI EX XLI QIRXMSR SJ ³PEKIV IRIQEW´ ¯ WII FIPS[ # 1YVVE] KMZIW YW ER MRO] oddly authentic worldview that makes his position upfront and obvious; he is no cool professional that turns his subject into a sleek, slick coffee-table set-piece, but a part of the subject. And perhaps this is why his drawings EVI WS HI½ERXP] YR½RMWLIH ¯ XLIVI MW RS GSRZIRMIRX IRHTSMRX JSV XLSWI SJ YW [LS EVI EPVIEH] XLIVI =IW 7XYEVX 1YVVE] LEH HI½RMXIP] HSRI LMW LSQI[SVO Speaking of which, one last question before you hand your sheets in for marking. Is it stretching it to compare his brand of rude draughtsmanship and homespun publishing to the YouTube generation currently making waves SR [IF ½PQ ERH XIPP]# =E XYFI QMKLX SJ GSYVWI FI QSVI ETTVSTVMEXI Mitch Miller www.stuartmurray.co.uk
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