Charles E. Murphy

(Born 1933, deceased 2005)
Charles E. Murphy, a New York City native and lifelong resident, was an artist, Art Director and Designer. He was primarily responsible for a variety of jazz, easy listening, classical and pop releases from 1959 through the 1960s on Enoch Light's Command Records jazz label. Murphy's visual design style was highly informed by modern art, color theory, and jazz itself, and used a great deal of vivid color, geometric shapes, repetition, and painted textures. Murphy served in the U.S. Army, and also studied Art at Yale School of Art and Architecture under widely respected painter and color theorist Josef Albers (he later commissioned Albers and select other artists to create influential illustrations and paintings for several of the Command albums he art directed.)

Murphy had a lifelong devotion to painting the urban New York City cityscape, including a decades-long series of oils on linen entitled “New York Impressions.” The Museum of the City of New York has selected works from Murphy in its collection. Murphy's final solo exhibition was in 2005 at the National Arts Club.