However, unlike Man Ray, Murphy really did not dabble in art until he reached Paris. Ray had painted and worked as an artist in the States for years before moving to France. Murphy, on the other hand, was a working class man until he began painting without as much formal training after he had already moved to France (Turner et al., 1996). Murphy moved to France after marrying Sara Sherman Wiborg, and together, the two took the Parisian art scene by storm (Rothschild, 2007). During his time in France, Murphy took up still paintings, but without the traditional realism that had been attached to the genre before the twentieth century. Murphy's still lifes were incredibly abstract, yet still reminiscent of the object they resembled in real life. He also painted in cubist and precionist styles, making him a leader in more modern conceptions of abstract artistic expression at the time (Groseclose & Vierich, 2009). He was incredibly influenced by American Jazz music, which he brought with him from the States to France. There, he was well received based on a growing fascination with American culture and abstract forms of artistic...

Essentially, the French were very accepting of their new and raw American idealism, with its emphasis on taking art into abstraction. The two helped shape a new, abstract artistic movement in Europe that seemed to be influenced by the American culture emerging in modernity.
References

Baum, Timothy, Ray, Man, & Gallery, Middendorf. (1989). Man Ray's Paris Portraits, 1921-39. Middendorf gallery.

Bizardel. Yvon. (1960). American Painters in Paris. Macmillan Publishing.

Groseclose, Barbara S. & Wierich, Jochen. (2009). Internalizing the History of American Art: Views. Penn State Press.

Rothschild, Deborah Menaker, Williams College. Museum of Art, Yale University. (2007). Making it New: The Art and Style of Sara and Gerald Murphy. University of California Press.

Turner, Hutton, Elizabeth, Ellis, Elizabeth Garrity, & Davenport, Guy. (1996). Americans in Paris: Man Ray, Gerald…