Marjorie Jewel "Marlow" Moss (29 May 1889 – 23 August 1958) was a British Constructivist artist who worked in painting and sculpture.

Biography

Moss was born on 29 May 1889 in Kilburn in London. She was the daughter of Lionel and Fannie Moss. She studied at St John's Wood Art School, the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised a ...

, and the Académie Moderne. In her childhood music was her one great interest, but her music studies were interrupted for years when she contracted tuberculosis. Later Moss turned her attention to ballet. Around 1919 she changed her forename (from Marjorie) and adopted a masculine appearance. This was precipitated by a ‘shock of an emotional nature’ and the abandonment of her studies at the Slade, to live alone in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

. Moss was a pupil of

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as " tubism") which he gradually modified into a more figurative, p ...

and Amédée Ozenfant at the Académie Moderne. She was associated with

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...

and they mutually influenced each other's use of the double line. She was a founding member of the

Abstraction-Création Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in Paris in 1931 to counteract the influence of the Surrealist group led by André Breton. Founders Theo van Doesburg, Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo start ...

association and was the only British artist to feature in all five annuals published by the group. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Moss left France to live near Lamorna Cove in Cornwall, studying architecture at the Penzance School of Art. For the rest of her life she lived and worked in Cornwall, frequently visiting Paris. A neighbour, in Lamorna, described her as ″a dear little soul″ who used to give all the children of the village a Christmas present. The neighbour, when a child, used to peer into her studio to watch her paint,

... we'd see her pacing up and down, pacing, pacing. And then she would draw a straight line. Her work was all straight lines and cubes. Then she'd pace up and down again and then – uh, a square would be drawn.

Individual exhibitions of her work were staged by

Erica Brausen Erica Brausen (31 January 1908 – 16 December 1992), was an art dealer and gallerist who established the Hanover Gallery in London in 1948. She was an early champion of several influential contemporary artists, most notably Francis Bacon. Biogr ...

in the

Hanover Gallery The Hanover Gallery was an art gallery in London. It was opened in June 1948 by the German art expert Erica Brausen and financier and art collector Arthur Jeffress at 32A St. George's Street, W1, and closed on 31 March 1973. It was named after ...

in London in 1953 and 1958. Other exhibitions took place in the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam, in 1962 and in the Town Hall of Middleburg in Spring 1972. Moss died on 23 August 1958 in

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situ ...

Collections

Moss's work is in the collection of the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

, the

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of ...

in Otterlo, the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

in New York, and

Tate 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 ...

, UK.

Writings

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References

External links

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Marlow Moss
Tate Collection
Spatial Construction in Steel (1956-7)
Henry Moore Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Marlow 1889 births 1958 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century British sculptors Alumni of St John's Wood Art School Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Artists from London Deaths from cancer in England Lamorna Art colony Lesbian painters Lesbian sculptors English LGBT painters English LGBT sculptors English lesbian artists People from Kilburn, London

Biography

Collections

Writings

References

Further reading

External links