Betty Murtagh

Biography

Betty Murtagh’s vibrant serigraphs express her passion for jazz and natural form, especially marine life. There is also the human story of an intensity creative woman straddling the border of fine and commercial art, working out of her bedroom and basement, juggling a family and career and leaving a significant body of work that reflects the modern era in which they were made.  

Born Helen Elizabeth McGarr in 1925, in Lakewood, New Jersey, she received her BFA from Syracuse University in 1947 and worked for New York city advertising agencies. In 1963 she illustrated and co-authored her first published children’s book, “I Can Do Anything Almost”, with her neighbor Virginia Hartman. While raising five children she illustrated three more children’s books and produced 75 silk-screen Christmas card designs.  

In 1975 Betty moved to the Chicago suburb of Hinsdale where she began to actively produce, exhibit and sell her fine-art prints and collected numerous prizes and awards. Her prints are in corporate offices and private collections throughout the US and were selected for the Chicago Art and Indianapolis Museum of Art rental galleries.  

In May 2002, British artist Dr. Becky Shaw met Betty and curated her first solo exhibition at the Pratt gallery, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, NY. Other exhibitions followed at Utica College (2003), Syracuse University (2004) and in the MWPAI Easton Pribble Room (2009). Many of her prints have been auctioned in support of art organizations, breast cancer research and women’s shelters. A collection of work in on permanent view at the Resource Center for Independent Living in Utica, NY.  

Betty lived in Utica from 2001 – 2003 and was living in West Linn, a suburb or Portland, Oregon when she died in 2008 at the age of 83. Her existing prints (over 80) are now cataloged and available for sale and exhibitions.