The Problem of 'Bio morphism' in the works of Elizabeth Murray

엘리자베스 머레이 작품에 나타난 '바이오 형상성'에 관한 문제

`Bio morphism` are constituted in paintings where the artists try to embody the elementary properties of living creature as of growth and durability. They are the most appropriate concept of painting to harmonize human being with nature closely. The formative ways of them attach great importance to both unconsciousness and desire , as well as variations or dynamics, by noticing a flow of natural senses and feelings of human being. In other words, the formative ways are based on a recognition of nature as the intrinsic force of life, with the result that aesthetics of incompleteness is embodied in images. Therefore they are clearly distinguished from that of functional, geometric images. A tendency of painting at that time, in a word, 'return to figure and expression', means a conversion into organic images like the incomplete, atypical, and biomorphic forms, while denying the mechanical or geometric. Elizabeth Murray are analyzed, for these works are remarkable in the characteristics of 'Bio morphism'. Consequently the features of organic images, that is, 'the formative acceptance of natural figures, or an informality' and 'the force of free will, or an incompleteness', could obviously be revealed. It is a type that obtains a motif out of natural figures like an animal, a plant, or the concrete figures of human being. In conclusion, this thesis is focused on not only emphasizing that 'Bio morphism' were a major tendency among the various trends of postmodern painting in the 20th century, but also analysing both the painterly formation of organic images and the structure of them. In addition to these points, it is a central aim to evoke that Bio morphism should accurately be evaluated and positioned in postmodern painting. A new recognition of 'Bio morphism' is a peculiarity of the times that reflects a cultural aspect of the present, hence it should be recognized as another way to approach the postmodern painting.