Carl Morris

Well-known artist, Carl Morris (1911-1993) created luminous and affecting works inspired by the natural beauty of the Northwest landscape. For this exhibition, we will present a special selection of works on paper dating from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. These paintings, primarily sumi and tempera on rice paper, include work from series entitled, Shore and River and Inscription. Some of these works show the figure within environmental constructs not unlike the penetrating subject matter of Morris’ 1959 commission for the Oregon Centennial, History of Religions, recently shown at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, U of O. The works in this exhibition contrast with that commission in their diminutive scale and mysteriousness made darker by the sumi medium. Although Carl Morris began his education in California, his studied in Chicago, Vienna, and Paris. He was an original, first-generation abstract painter linked to the New York School of the 1950s exhibiting at the Kraushaar Galleries in New York. He had a lifelong friendship with Mark Rothko even though Carl and his wife, Hilda settled in Portland in 1941. They became significant artists grouped with the Northwest Mystics School along with Mark Tobey, Morris Graves and Kenneth Callahan. Carl has been recognized by museums across the country and his work has been reviewed and profiled extensively in numerous publications. His paintings have been exhibited internationally and are included in public and private collections around the world.  Morris died in 1993, the same year the Portland Art Museum honored him with a retrospective.