Robert Morris (February 9, 1931 – November 28, 2018) was an American sculptor, conceptual artist and writer. He was regarded as having been one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism along with

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism (a term he nonetheless stridently disavowed).Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In ...

, but also made important contributions to the development of

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, land art, the Process Art movement, and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

.Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art. Oxford University Press. 2009. p. 481 Morris lived and worked in New York. In 2013 as part of the October Files,

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

published a volume on Morris, examining his work and influence, edited by Julia Bryan-Wilson.

Early life and education

Born in Kansas City, Missouri to Robert O. Morris and Lora "Pearl" Schrock Morris. Between 1948 and 1950, Morris studied engineering at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

.Josine Ianco-Starrels (April 27, 1986)
Robert Morris Works Focus On Environment
''

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''. He then studied art at both the University of Kansas and at

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approx ...

as well as philosophy at

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

br>
He interrupted his studies in 1951-52 to serve with the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

in Arizona and Korea. He married dancer

Simone Forti Simone Forti (born March 25, 1935), is an American Italian Postmodern artist, dancer, choreographer, and writer. Since the 1950s, Forti has exhibited, performed, and taught workshops all over the world. Her innovations in Postmodern dance, inclu ...

in 1955 and later divorced in 1962. After moving to New York City in 1959 to study sculpture, he received a master's degree in art history in 1963 from Hunter College.

Work

Initially a painter, Morris’ work of the 1950s was influenced by Abstract Expressionism and particularly

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

. While living in California, Morris also came into contact with the work of La Monte Young, John Cage, and Warner Jepson with whom he and first wife

collaborated. The idea that art making was a record of a performance by the artist (drawn from

Hans Namuth Hans Namuth (March 17, 1915 – October 13, 1990) was a German-born photographer. Namuth specialized in portraiture, photographing many artists, including abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. His photos of Pollock at work in his studio increa ...

’s photos of Pollock at work) in the studio led to an interest in dance and choreography. During the 1950s, Morris' furthered his interest in dance while living in San Francisco with his wife, the dancer and choreographer

.Robert Morris

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, New York. Morris moved to New York City in 1960. In 1962 where he staged the performance ''Column'' at

the Living Theater The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...

in New York based on the exploration of bodies in space in which an upright square column after a few minutes on stage falls over. In New York City, Morris began to explore the work of

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

, making conceptual pieces such as ''Box with the Sound of its Own Making'' (1961) and ''Fountain'' (1963). In 1963 he had an exhibition of Minimal sculptures at the

Green Gallery The Green Gallery was an art gallery that operated between 1960 and 1965 at 15 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. The gallery's director was Richard Bellamy, and its financial backer was the art collector Robert Scull. Green Gallery ...

in New York that was written about by

. The following year, also at Green Gallery, Morris exhibited a suite of large-scale

polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on ...

forms constructed from 2 x 4s and gray-painted plywood.Robert Morris, ''Untitled (Corner Piece)'', 1964

, New York. In 1964 Morris devised and performed two celebrated performance artworks ''21.3'' in which he

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

s to a reading of an essay by

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. Panofsky's work represents a high ...

and ''Site'' with Carolee Schneemann. Morris enrolled at Hunter College in New York (his masters thesis was on the work of Brâncuși) and in 1966 published a series of influential essays "Notes on Sculpture" in

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

. He exhibited two ''L Beams'' in the seminal 1966 exhibit, "

Primary Structures Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors was an exhibition presented by the Jewish Museum in New York City from April 27 to June 12, 1966. The show was a survey of recent work in sculpture by artists from the Northeast United Sta ...

" at

the Jewish Museum The Jewish Museum is an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in the former Felix M. Warburg House, along Museum Mile on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The first Jewish museum in the Unit ...

in New York. In 1967 Morris created ''Steam'', an early piece of Land Art. By the late 1960s Morris was being featured in museum shows in America but his work and writings drew criticism from

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...

. His work became larger scale taking up the majority of the gallery space with series of modular units or piles of earth and felt. ''Untitled (Pink Felt)'' (1970), for example, is composed of dozens of sliced pink industrial felt pieces that have been dropped on the floor. In 1971 Morris designed an exhibition for the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

that took up the whole central sculpture gallery with ramps and cubes. He published a photo of himself dressed in S&M gear in an advertisement in ''

'', similar to one by

Lynda Benglis Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She maintains residences in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kastellorizo, Greece, and Ahmedaba ...

, with whom Morris had collaborated on several videos. He created the Robert Morris Observatory in the Netherlands, a "modern Stonehenge", which identifies the

solstice A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countr ...

s and the

equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...

es. It is at coordinates 52°32'58"N 5°33'57"E. During the later 1970s, Morris switched to figurative work, a move that surprised many of his supporters. Themes of the work were often fear of nuclear war. In 2002, Morris designed a set of seventeen pale blue and beige-coloured

stained-glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

s for the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Maguelone Cathedral, near Montpelier in France. The windows, which depict the

ripple Ripple may refer to: Science and technology * Capillary wave, commonly known as ripple, a wave traveling along the phase boundary of a fluid ** Ripple, more generally a disturbance, for example of spacetime in gravitational waves * Ripple (electri ...

s of a pebble dropped in water, were produced by Ateliers Duchemin glassmakers and placed in restored romanesque window lights around the cathedral building. At the time of his death in late November 2018 an exhibit of Morris' recent work "Banners and Curses" was on display at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City. The exhibition ran through January 25, 2019. Morris attended the opening night reception for the show at the gallery.

Death

Morris died on November 28, 2018, in

Kingston, New York Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the United ...

, from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

at the age of 87. He had married Lucile Michels in 1984. He is survived by his wife Lucile and a daughter Laura Morris.

Artist books

* ''Hurting Horses'', 64 pages, 23,5 x 16,5 cm. Limited edition of 1500 copies. Produced and published in 2005 b
mfc-michèle didier

Writing

* ''Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris'', October Books, MIT Pres

* 'Notes on Sculpture'

Critical reception

In 1974, Robert Morris advertised his display at the Castelli Gallery with a poster showing him bare-chested in

sadomasochistic Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...

garb. Critic

Amelia Jones Amelia Jones (born July 14, 1961) originally from Durham, North Carolina is an American art historian, art theorist, art critic, author, professor and curator. Her research specialisms include feminist art, body art, performance art, video art, ...

argued that the body poster was a statement about hyper-masculinity and the stereotypical idea that masculinity equated to homophobia. Through the poster, Morris equated the power of art with that of a physical force, specifically violence.

Robert Morris's art is fundamentally theatrical. (…) his theater is one of negation: negation of the avant-gardist concept of originality, negation of logic and reason, negation of the desire to assign uniform cultural meanings to diverse phenomena; negation of a worldview that distrusts the unfamiliar and the unconventional. (
Maurice Berger Maurice Berger (May 22, 1956 – March 22, 2020) was an American cultural historian, curator, and art critic, who served as a Research Professor and Chief Curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore ...
, ''Labyrinths: Robert Morris, Minimalism, and the 1960s'', p. 3.)

In Morris' book, ''Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris'', the artist includes a collaborative project with the art critic G. Roger Denson in which he lampoons the criticism of his work published over the course of his career up to the early 1990s. The chapter, entitled "Robert Morris Replies to Roger Denson (Or Is That a Mouse in My Paragon?)", lists thirteen questions submitted by Denson, with each question representing the criticism of Morris' work written by a different unnamed critic responding to a specific exhibition, installation, or art work. Instead of answering the questions, Morris has written an elaborate, comically absurd, satirical narrative that in many ways epitomizes the "only possible response" to criticism that had become fashionable in the so-called "demise of criticism" that some writers of the 1980s and 1990s heralded following the "deconstruction of logocentrism" postulated by the post-structuralist theorist Jacques Derrida. As one commentator, Brian Winkenweder, wrote: "In his reply o Denson's questions Morris compartmentalized diverse aspects of his oeuvre into nine, named alter-egos such as Body Bob, Major Minimax, Lil Dahlink Felt, Mirror Stagette, Dirt Macher and Blind. He also appropriated the brick-hurling Ignatz Mouse from

George Herriman George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip '' Krazy Kat'' (1913–1944). More influential than popular, ''Krazy Kat'' had an appreciative audience ...

's comic strip Krazy Kat as rhetorical flourish to enhance his written answers to Denson's questions." Winkenweder then cites the mockery to which Morris' critics are subjected in his absurdist satire, as bricks are hurled at each of Denson's questions. "Hey, what's going on, Ignatz? Everybody is rolling on the floor and laughing. I've never seen such a hysterical gang of assassins. What, you read that ticket about our 'new tone of ironic self-reference?' And what? Body Bob threw the I-Box at the Major who then bent Stagette out of shape with the Corner Piece and Blind smeared cup grease on Dirt Macher's … wait a minute, Ignatz. You started this bedlam by throwing bricks at everyone, I bet....Get Body Bob out of that Kraut helmet immediately…No, I did not give it to Lil Dahlink Felt with the Card File. How could you think such a thing, Ignatz? You are so surly today. Why don't I punch my own ticket?" (Morris, 1993, 307).

Exhibitions

Morris' first exhibition of paintings was held in 1958 at the Dilexi Gallery in San Francisco. Numerous museums have hosted solo exhibitions of his work, including the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

in New York (1970), the Art Institute of Chicago (1980), the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporar ...

and the Newport Harbor Art Museum (1986), and the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

, Washington, D.C. (1990). In 1994, the

, New York, organized ''Robert Morris: The Mind/Body Problem'', a major retrospective of the artist’s work, which traveled to the

Deichtorhallen The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are iconic in style, with their open steel-and-glass structures. Their archi ...

in Hamburg and the

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. In 2021 it ranked 10th in t ...

in Paris.

Notable Works

* ''Box with the Sound of Its Own Making (1961)'', Seattle Art Museum * '' Steam Work for Bellingham-II (1974)'',

Western Washington University Public Sculpture Collection The Western Washington University Outdoor Sculpture Collection is a public sculpture collection founded in 1960. The collection contains thirty-six public sculptures spanning 190 acres of the Western Washington University campus. History In 1957, ...

, Bellingham, Washington *''Untitled (L-Beams) (1965)'',

, New York *
Labyrinth
198
Gori Collection
Italy

Art market

As a conceptual artist, Morris at times contractually removed work from circulation. When a collector, the architect

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

, did not pay Morris for a work he had ostensibly purchased, the artist drew up a certificate of deauthorization that officially withdrew all aesthetic content from his piece, making it nonexistent as art.Holland Cotter (November 1, 2012)
Works That Play With Time
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Notes

References

* Berger, Maurice. ''Labyrinths: Robert Morris, Minimalism, and the 1960s,'' New York: Harper & Row, 1989 * Busch, Julia M., ''A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s'' (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia; Associated University Presses: London, 1974)

External links

*
Guggenheim Robert Morris bio

Robert Morris, Publicportfolio at columbia.edu

Robert Morris
in th
Video Data Bank

Land Reclamation und Erdmonumente
article in German by Thomas Dreher

near Lelystad/Oost Flevoland in Netherlands, illustrations

article in German by Thomas Dreher on the competing theories on art by Allan Kaprow and Robert Morris {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Robert 1931 births 2018 deaths Artists from Kansas City, Missouri Reed College alumni Kansas City Art Institute alumni Military personnel from Missouri United States Army Corps of Engineers personnel 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters Hunter College alumni University of Kansas alumni Minimalist artists 20th-century American sculptors 20th-century American male artists American male sculptors Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)