Mural by Carl Morris in the Eugene Post Office showing agriculture workers

Mural by Carl Morris in the Eugene Post Office showing lumber workers

Carl A. Morris (May 12, 1911 – June 3, 1993)Carl Morris biography
/ref> was an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, born in

Yorba Linda, California Yorba Linda is a suburban city in northeastern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and had a population of 68,336 at the 2020 census. Yor ...

. Morris studied at the Chicago Art Institute and in Paris and Vienna. He opened the

Spokane Art Center The Spokane Art Center in Spokane, Washington, was a community art school opened in 1938 as part of the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Art Project during the Great Depression. Its staff included many notable artists, and it was widely ...

through the Federal Art Project during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Morris met his wife, sculptor

Hilda Grossman Hilda Grossman (Deutsch) Morris (1911–1991) was an artist and sculptor of the Northwest School, working mainly in bronze. Biography Grossman was born in New York City in 1911. She studied art at Cooper Union and the Art Students League of Ne ...

, when he recruited her as a teacher for the center. Moving to Seattle in 1940, they met

Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophi ...

and became lifelong friends. In 1941, he was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts to paint murals for the post office in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. The Morrises settled in Portland, Oregon, and established their artistic careers, beginning as

figurative artists Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...

and gradually moving toward

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

. They often visited

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

to see friends such as Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell,

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the ...

and

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

but declined to relocate, wanting to avoid what they saw as a climate of commercialism and artistic distraction. Morris is known today for his strong

Abstract Impressionist Abstract Impressionism is an art movement that originated in New York City, in the 1940s.Eduoard Malingue Gallery. ''Impressionism to Modern Art.'' Hong Kong: Eduard Malingue Gallery, 2011. 10. It involves the painting of a subject such as real-li ...

paintings. His work can be seen in collections throughout the U.S., including those of the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Vollum Institute, Reed College, the

Boise Art Museum The Boise Art Museum (BAM) is located at 670 Julia Davis Drive in Boise, Idaho, and is part of a series of public museums and cultural attractions in Julia Davis Park. It is the permanent home of a growing collection of contemporary realism, moder ...

, the Denver Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. During his life, his work was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

and the Seattle Art Museum.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Carl 1911 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters American people of Welsh descent Artists from Oregon Culture of Eugene, Oregon Northwest School (art) Pacific Northwest artists Painters from California Artists from Spokane, Washington People from Yorba Linda, California School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Federal Art Project administrators Section of Painting and Sculpture artists American expatriates in France American expatriates in Austria 20th-century American male artists