...In spite of divergencies in aim and result, it is helpful in fixing Murch's style to discuss the utilization of a light bulb in his work and that of Jasper Johns. Murch's first rendition in 1951 entitled The Bulb predates by more than a decade Johns' use of the same object. Both artists chose to elevate into an artistic context a device so commonplace that it is usually ignored on a day-to-day basis. Ordinarily, the presence of the light bulb in daily life is taken for granted as a fixture of technical accomplishment in western civilization. To find it present in art is to summon a reaction of surprise. Ultimately, the shock of finding an ignoble ready-made item as article as part of an art work may be traced to Dadaist dislocations intended to agitate a bourgeoisie audience. The impact of Dada has been of special import to Johns, not only in terms of a contradictory priority placed upon manufactured stuff generally overlooked and ignoble, but also in relation to Marcel Duchamp's analytical approach to art and emphasis upon idea. Johns' stance, not unlike that of Murch, is a contemplative one, but the younger artist is more matter-of-fact in his treatment of image-as-object in opposition to Murch's mystification of the object. Johns' brand of Dadaist intellectualization of art contrasted with Murch's greater idealization of objects on a more traditional still life stage. Both artists were concerned with establishing a painterly field, but again there is a difference. Johns' paint application existed as a more emphatic entity apart from representation, while Murch intertwined media and imagery. Johns' version, then, was the more pragmatic in relationship to Murch's empathetical attitude. [https://archive.org/stream/waltermurchpaint00whit/waltermurchpaint00whit_djvu.txt]