Elizabeth Murray has radically altered the structure of modernist painting. Her shaped and constructed canvases, often topologically modeled in three dimensions or fitted together out of multiple jigsaw-like parts, treat figure and ground in unprecedented ways, giving the elastic shapes of classic Surrealism a space in their own image. The most detailed examination of Murray's art yet mounted, showing its development from Pop-oriented reliefs in the 1960s to the extraordinary volumetric formats of her recent work. With an essay by Robert Storr, the book explores Murray's relation to artists such as Joan Miró, Stuart Davis, Claes Oldenburg, and Frank Stella. 212 pp.; 175 illus.