Untitled (#14-13) WMAA(9)
Week 9 Odds & Ends (1041-1045)12/08 – 12/12/2019 ID 1044ab
Rebecca Morris American, Honolulu/Los Angeles 1969 -
Untitled (#14-13) , 2013
Oil on canvas
In response to criticisms of abstract painting, Rebecca Morris wrote her manifesto, “For Abstractionists and Friends of the Non-Objective,” as a tongue-in-cheek yet absolutely sincere call to arms for practitioners of the form. This list of missives to herself, her students, and her fellow artists—including “Never stop looking at macramé, ceramics, supergraphics and suprematism”; “Perverse formalism is your god”; and “When in doubt, spray paint it gold”—reveals the directness and contradictions characteristic of her work.
Morris’s paintings are serious, while raising issues of taste in an almost humorous way; they draw from historical forms and innovations and also are completely new and forward-looking. Deeply invested in paintings as a medium, her works are inspired by all craft that responds to the idiosyncrasy of the artist’s hand. The paintings share a strong underlying composition based on a gridded structure. On this foundation, Morris builds up her flat surface with tightly interlaid geometric shapes in a variety of textures and surface treatments to create pockets of expansiveness. Together these building blocks result in a completely personal language that Morris has developed, with a unique internal logic whose constituent parts are not always readily apparent.
Collection of the artist; Courtesy Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
(Still in the Breuer)
From the Placard: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Morris
whitney.org/exhibitions/2014-biennial/Rebecca-Morris
hyperallergic.com/162745/beer-with-a-painter-rebecca-morris/
Untitled (#14-13) WMAA(9)
Week 9 Odds & Ends (1041-1045)12/08 – 12/12/2019 ID 1044ab
Rebecca Morris American, Honolulu/Los Angeles 1969 -
Untitled (#14-13) , 2013
Oil on canvas
In response to criticisms of abstract painting, Rebecca Morris wrote her manifesto, “For Abstractionists and Friends of the Non-Objective,” as a tongue-in-cheek yet absolutely sincere call to arms for practitioners of the form. This list of missives to herself, her students, and her fellow artists—including “Never stop looking at macramé, ceramics, supergraphics and suprematism”; “Perverse formalism is your god”; and “When in doubt, spray paint it gold”—reveals the directness and contradictions characteristic of her work.
Morris’s paintings are serious, while raising issues of taste in an almost humorous way; they draw from historical forms and innovations and also are completely new and forward-looking. Deeply invested in paintings as a medium, her works are inspired by all craft that responds to the idiosyncrasy of the artist’s hand. The paintings share a strong underlying composition based on a gridded structure. On this foundation, Morris builds up her flat surface with tightly interlaid geometric shapes in a variety of textures and surface treatments to create pockets of expansiveness. Together these building blocks result in a completely personal language that Morris has developed, with a unique internal logic whose constituent parts are not always readily apparent.
Collection of the artist; Courtesy Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
(Still in the Breuer)
From the Placard: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Morris
whitney.org/exhibitions/2014-biennial/Rebecca-Morris
hyperallergic.com/162745/beer-with-a-painter-rebecca-morris/