Hilda Grossman (Deutsch) Morris (1911–1991) was an artist and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

of the Northwest School, working mainly in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

Biography

Grossman was born in New York City in 1911. She studied art at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

and the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

. Her first husband was Arthur Deutsch, from whom she was divorced in 1930. In 1938 the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

hired her to establish the sculpture program at 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 ...

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

. In Spokane she met the artists

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately follo ...

Guy Anderson Guy Anderson (November 20, 1906 – April 30, 1998) was an American artist known primarily for his oil painting who lived most of his life in the Puget Sound region of the United States. His work is in the collections of numerous museums inc ...

, and the

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

painter Carl Morris whom she married in 1940. Their marriage sparked a life-long partnership between the two artists which enabled them to continuously improve upon their own work through mutual support, without one overshadowing the other in the spotlight. Morris and her husband settled in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

in 1941. Except for extended trips to her hometown

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 ...

and in later years

Pietrasanta, Italy Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...

to cast bronze sculptures, she worked in Portland. Her work introduced rigorous thinking about abstraction to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

incorporating the rhythms of

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, emphasizing the organization of organic structure. Hilda and Carl's friendship with fellow artist and Northwest School founder

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 ...

also contributed influences on the styles and symbolism she would explore in her work, including Eastern calligraphy techniques. In addition to what she accomplished through her teaching positions, Morris’ involvement with the Northwest School movement also brought national attention to the growing modernist art scene in the Pacific Northwest area. Hilda Morris' works have been shown in exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Portland Art Museum; Seattle Art Museum; Dayton Art Institute; Amon Carter Museum; University of Illinois; Seattle World's Fair; University of California, LA; Brooklyn Museum; Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and American Federation of Arts traveling exhibitions. In 1960 she was awarded a major fellowship by the Ford Foundation. Commissioned sculptures by Hilda Morris are in the Seattle Opera House (''Muted Harp'');

Standard Plaza Standard Plaza is a 16-story office building in downtown Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. At in height, it was the largest office building in Oregon when it was completed in 1963. The structure, occupying a city block on SW 6th Avenue betwee ...

, Portland (''

Ring of Time ''Ring of Time'', also known as ''The Ring of Time'', is an outdoor bronze sculpture by Hilda Grossman Morris, located at the entrance to the Standard Plaza in Portland, Oregon. The allegorical sculpture was created during 1965–1967 and is owned ...

''); and Pacific National Building, Tacoma, Washington (''Sea Myth''). Her work is represented in the collections of the Chase-Manhattan Bank; California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Museum of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute; University of Oregon Museum of Art; Reed College (''

Wind Gate ''Wind Gate'', also known as ''Wind Passage'' and ''Windgate'', is an outdoor bronze sculpture by American artist Hilda Grossman Morris, located in front of Eliot Hall on the Reed College campus in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was created d ...

''); University of Victoria, BC; Tacoma Art Museum;

Walter P. Chrysler Jr. Walter Percy Chrysler Jr. (March 27, 1909 – September 17, 1988) was an American art collector, museum benefactor, and collector of other objects such as stamps, rare books, and glassworks. He was also a theatre and film producer. Early lif ...

, Collection of the Virginia Museum; and San Francisco Museum of Art. Morris died in 1991 in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before ...

. A retrospective of her work was held at 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 ...

in 2006.

References

External links

Portland Art Museum Special Exhibit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Hilda Grossman 1911 births 1991 deaths Artists from New York City Modern artists Artists from Portland, Oregon Northwest School (art) 20th-century American sculptors American women sculptors 20th-century American women artists Sculptors from New York (state) Sculptors from Oregon