Long-Time ABN Columnist Emmett Murphy Passes Away

Art Business News, April, 2001 by Jo Yanow Schwartz

NEW YORK--Emmett Murphy, contributing editor to Art Business News for 19 years, died in New York City on Feb. 16. Murphy wrote "Art Hotline" and "Murmurs," two of the magazine's most popular columns. With his keen observations, in news articles and features, he covered auctions, galleries, films on art, art cons and thefts--the great moments and the small ones in the ever-changing scene. His wide-ranging interests and deep sense of humor were reflected in writing that was erudite and sophisticated. This style was once described by a reader "as seemingly effortless and as handsome as Nat King Cole's singing." An example can be found in any issue, as in this past December's "Art Hotline" where he informed readers about Durer woodcuts alongside a snippet about vandals cutting off the head of a Snoopy statue in Minnesota. "How low can you sink, sir?" he asked the sinners.

A writer in every milieu and medium, his 1961 documentary, Project Hope on the teaching hospital's maiden voyage to Indonesia, won an Academy Award. His feature films included Walk East on Beacon. He scripted hundreds of documentaries and informational films for government agencies and corporations that took him around the world several times (he proudly held a lifetime membership in the Bangkok Sports Club).

His book credits included Great Bordellos of the World, a pithy, illustrated history on the world's oldest profession. He had just completed the manuscript for a new book on America's art colonies. His articles also appeared in Travel & Leisure, the Saturday Evening Post and other magazines.

Lesser known facts about Murphy reflected his love and understanding of English, such as his pamphlet on the most obscure words in the English language. His motto was "learn one new thing every day," and so he read the encyclopedia every night. He'd recently started on the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary (which he'd completed up through the Fs).

Murphy was also a great researcher and helped friends and business associates, including editors, ferret out information they needed in the New York Public Library. He could have written a fine book on the great institution he loved and knew so well. He had also sketched and created prints since he was a teenager and tried his hand at sculpting and rug hooking.

Murphy, who recently decided it was time to give in and learn the computer, was among the last holdouts in the country who continue to write on a typewriter.

A graduate of Yale University, Murphy is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren. He was born in Providence in 1927, attended the Taft School in Connecticut and served in the Navy in the Philippines during World War II.

Jo Yanow Schwartz is a former editor of Art Business News and long-time friend of Emmett Murphy.