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George L. K. Morris

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George L. K. Morris
Born
George Lovett Kingsland Morris

(1905-11-14)November 14, 1905
New York City, US
DiedJune 26, 1975(1975-06-26) (aged 69)
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, US
Alma materYale University
Art Students League of New York
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1935)​
RelativesNewbold Morris (brother)
Augustus Newbold Morris (grandfather)

George Lovett Kingsland Morris (November 14, 1905 – June 26, 1975) was an American artist, writer, and editor who advocated for an "American abstract art" during the 1930s and 1940s, and is best known for his Cubist sculptures and paintings.[1]

Early life

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Morris was born into a privileged family in Manhattan, New York City on November 14, 1905. He was the second son of Augustus Newbold Morris[2] and Helen Schermerhorn Kingsland, who were married in 1896.[2] His brothers were Newbold Morris, a lawyer, president of the New York City Council, and two-time candidate for mayor of New York City,[3] and Stephen Van Cortlandt Morris,[2][4] a diplomat.[5]

His paternal grandparents were Augustus Newbold Morris and Eleanor Colford Jones. His grandmother's parents were General James I. Jones and Elizabeth (née Schermerhorn) Jones,[6] the older sister of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, also known as "The Mrs. Astor." He was a direct descendant of Lewis Morris, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence,[7] from the prominent Colonial-era Morris family of the Morrisania section of the Bronx.[4]

Morris attended Groton School, and graduated from Yale University in 1928. From 1928 to 1929, he studied with realist painters John French Sloan and Kenneth Hayes Miller at the Art Students League of New York. In 1929, he traveled to Paris with Albert Eugene Gallatin. In Paris, he continued his studies with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant.[8]

Career

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Heraldic Abstraction (1942), The Phillips Collection

While in Paris, he became a confirmed abstractionist, and continued writing and publishing on modern movements upon his return to New York.[1] During World War II, Morris worked for a naval architect's firm as a draftsman.

Although Morris exhibited frequently during the 1930s and 1940s, his paintings and sculpture received greatest recognition after the war. He remaining a dedicated practitioner of his own form of Cubism, even as colleagues and friends turned to expressionism in the postwar era.[1]

From 1937 through 1943, Morris served as editor, art critic, and patron of the relaunched radical literary magazine Partisan Review,[9] where he advocated for abstract art.[10] After 1947, he began writing less and focused primarily on painting and sculpture. He was also a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, serving as president of the group in the 1940s.[11]

Legacy

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In 2014, Harry Holtzman and L. K. Morris, two founding members of American Abstract Artists were paired in an intimate 2-man exhibit, curated by Kinney Frelinghuysen and Madalena Holtzman, and designed to evoke an informal conversation between the two artists. L.K. Morris Harry Holtzman Pioneers of American Modernism: Points of Contact[permanent dead link‍]. Essays by T. Kinney Frelinghuysen, Madalena Holtzman, Wietse Coppes. Catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition from June 26 to October 12, 2014 at the Frelinghuysen Morris House and Studio in Lenox.[12]

This exhibition marked also the beginning of a collaboration between the Estates of George L. K. Morris and Holtzman, with support of the Netherlands Institute for Art History. The collaboration aimed at sharing, editing and exhibiting new historical materials related and connected to the world of abstract art of the seminal period of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe and in the USA. For this reason in this first show were present also the works of other European protagonists of the time like Jean Hélion, Cesar Domela, and Ben Nicholson. A project, that duly enlarged and in the details curated will be evolving into a wider exhibition initiative.[13][14]

Morris' artworks appear in numerous museum collections, including The Phillips Collection and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is best known for his brightly colored, geometric hard-edge paintings, such as Recessional, from 1950, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art.[15]

Personal life

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In 1935, Morris married fellow artist Estelle Condit "Suzy" Frelinghuysen (1911–1988). She was the daughter of Frederick Frelinghuysen (1848-1936) and his wife Estelle B. Kinney.[16] Their Lenox, Massachusetts home and studio, constructed in 1930-1941, is now a museum.[17] They had a dog, a red haired Pekingese named "Miss Rose," who was listed in the Social Register in 1936.[18]

Morris died in an automobile accident, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on June 26, 1975.[19][20]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "George L.K. Morris". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  2. ^ a b c "NEWBOLD MORRIS DIES IN HIS SLEEP; President of Metropolitan Club, Trustee of Columbia and Lawyer. WITH PERSHING IN THE WAR Lieutenant Colonel on General Staff --Family One of Most Illustrious in United States". The New York Times. December 21, 1928. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  3. ^ Morris, Augustus Newbold (19 April 1960). "Ivy Leaguer in Park Job". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  4. ^ a b Huberdeau, Jennifer (July 21, 2016). "The Cottager | Brookhurst: Modern art finds a home on former estate's property". The Berkshire Eagle. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Stephen V. Morris, 74, Dead; U.S. Diplomat for 25 Years". The New York Times. 29 February 1984. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  6. ^ The American Historical Magazine. Publishing Society of New York. 1908. pp. 674–675. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  7. ^ New York University, The Park Avenue Cubists
  8. ^ "Heraldic Abstraction, by George L.K. Morris". The Phillips Collection. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  9. ^ Saunders, Francis Stonor (2013). The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. The New Press. p. 282. ISBN 9781595589422. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  10. ^ "George L.K. Morris". Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  11. ^ "ARTISTS DENOUNCE MODERN MUSEUM; 'Avant Garde' Demands to Know if It Really Stands for Latest Advances". The New York Times. 17 April 1940. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  12. ^ Dobrzynski, Judith H. (5 July 1998). "TRAVEL ADVISORY; An Artists' Retreat Opens in the Berkshires". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  13. ^ "Mondriaan - News". Archived from the original on 2014-07-26. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
  14. ^ "Pioneers of American Modernism - Points of Contact - frelinghuysen.org". Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
  15. ^ George Morris on AskArt,com
  16. ^ "Suzy Frelinghuysen, Artist, Is Dead at 76". New York Times. March 23, 1988. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  17. ^ "Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio". Artists Homes. Retrieved 2015-07-05.
  18. ^ "Mr. and Mrs. G.L.K. Morris's Dog, Miss Rose, Is Enshrined in Social Register as 'Junior'". The New York Times. 31 July 1936. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  19. ^ "George L.K. Morris". Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio. Retrieved 2015-07-06.
  20. ^ "George L. K. Morris Is Dead; Abstract Artist and Sculptor". The New York Times. 27 June 1975. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
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