Abelardo Morell (born 1948,

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba) is a contemporary artist widely known for turning rooms into camera obscuras and then capturing the marriage of interior and exterior in large format photographs. He is also known for his 'tent-camera,' a device he invented to merge landscapes with the texture and composition of the ground where he places his camera and tripod to record the simultaneity of close and far, majestic and mundane. Formerly, Morell was a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Life and career

Morell and his family fled

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

in 1962, moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Morell earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

in 1977, and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

School of Art in 1981. He received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree from Bowdoin in 1997. Morell is well known in the photographic community for creating ''

camera obscura A camera obscura (; ) is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. ''Camera obscura'' can also refer to analogous constructions such as a box or tent in w ...

'' images in various places around the world and photographing these. Morell was awarded the

Cintas Foundation Oscar Benjamin Cintas y Rodriguez, (31 Mar 1887 in Sagua la Grande, Cuba – 11 May 1957 in New York City, N.Y.) was a prominent sugar and railroad magnate who served as Cuba's ambassador to the United States from 1932 until 1934. Career ...

fellowship in 1992 and the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowships to professionals who have demonstrated exceptional ...

Fellowship in 1993. Other awards he has received include the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award in 2011. In 1998 Morell was an artist-in-residence at Boston's Gardner Museum, and the following year, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts hosted his retrospective ''Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye''. Morell served as a professor (now

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

) of photography at the Massachusetts College of Art. Edwynn Houk Gallery is his exclusive representation, with his first show with the gallery displayed in their Zürich, Switzerland location in June 2013. A documentary on elements of Morell's life and work, ''Shadow of the House'', was released in 2007.Shadow of the House (2007)
/ref> The first retrospective of Morell's work in fifteen years was held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013, in an exhibition entitled ''Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door''. It was subsequently shown at the

Getty Center The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion center opened to the public on December 16, 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overl ...

in Los Angeles.

Books by Morell

*''A Camera in a Room''. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995. *''Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye''. Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, Calif. 1999. *''A Book of Books''. Bulfinch, 2002. *''Camera Obscura''. Bulfinch. 2004. *''Abelardo Morell''. Phaidon. 2008. * ''The Universe Next Door'' published by The Art Institute of Chicago. 2013 * ''Tent-Camera'' published by Nazraeli Press. 2018 * ''Flowers for Lisa'' published by Abrams Books. 2018

References

External links

Photographer's websiteAbelardo Morell at Gallery 339Abelardo Morell on Widewalls.ch
1948 births Living people American photographers Bowdoin College alumni Yale University alumni Cuban emigrants to the United States Massachusetts College of Art and Design faculty Cuban photographers {{cuba-artist-stub