Sarah Morris (born 20 June 1967 in

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is an American and British artist. She lives in

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 ...

in the United States.

Personal life and education

Morris was born in

, in south-east England, on 20 June 1967. She attended

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

from 1985 to 1989,

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, and the Independent Study Program of 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 1989–90. She was a Berlin Prize fellow at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...

in 1999–2000; in 2001 she received a

Joan Mitchell Foundation Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

painting award.Werner Miester (27 March 2010)
Best Works by Sarah Morris on View at Gallery Meyer Kainer
Art Knowledge News. Archived 30 March 2010. She was married to

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

Work

Morris works in both painting and film, and considers the two to be interconnected. From about 1997 her paintings were geometric

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

grid designs with flat planes of colour; a related series was of glass-faced skyscrapers with geometric landscape designs reflected in their façades. Among her earlier painting styles were

screen-print Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

s reminiscent of

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

, word-paintings, and paintings of shoes. Morris' films have been characterized as

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

s that focus on the psychology of individuals or cities. Her films about cities, like ''Midtown'', ''Chicago'', ''Los Angeles'', and ''Rio'' depict urban scenes, capturing the architecture, politics, industry and

leisure Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure ...

which define a specific place. Other films describe a place through the viewpoint of an individual, like psychologist Dr. George Sieber describing the terrorist event at the Olympic Stadium in Munich in the film ''1972'' or the industry politics of Hollywood from the viewpoint of screenwriter and producer in the eponymous film

Robert Towne Robert Towne (born Robert Bertram Schwartz;''Easy Riders, Raging Bulls'' by Peter Biskind page 30, 1999 Bloomsbury edition November 23, 1934) is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor. He started with writing films for Roger Corm ...

Exhibitions

She has shown internationally, with solo exhibitions at

Hamburger Bahnhof Hamburger Bahnhof is the former terminus of the Berlin–Hamburg Railway in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstrasse in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as a contemporary art museum, the , part of the Berlin Nati ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(2001),

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(2005), Fondation Beyeler in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

(2008),

Museum für Moderne Kunst The Museum für Moderne Kunst (''Museum of Modern Art''), or short MMK, in Frankfurt, was founded in 1981 and opened to the public 6 June 1991. The museum was designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein. Because of its triangular shape, it ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

(2009),

Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna The Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna or MAMbo is a purpose-designed museum of modern and experimental art in Bologna, Italy. The , which displays a large collection of works by Giorgio Morandi, is temporarily housed in a part of it. History Now a ...

(2009), and Musée National Fernand Léger in

Biot The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 ...

(2012). She has created site-specific works for various institutions including the

Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue (Manhattan), Park Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The building was designed in the International style (architecture), International Style by Gordon Bunshaft a ...

Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (german: Kulturmeile). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded ...

in Germany, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany, the lobby of

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

in New York City and the

Gloucester Road tube station Gloucester Road is a London Underground station in Kensington, west London. The station entrance is located close to the junction of Gloucester Road and Cromwell Road. Close by are the Cromwell Hospital and Baden-Powell House. The station is ...

in London.Coline Milliard (12 June 2012)
Sarah Morris On Taking Big Ben Underground at London's Gloucester Road Tube Station
''ArtInfo''. Archived 18 December 2014. Robert Towne Installation

Morris' films have been featured at the following: *

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art UCCA Center for Contemporary Art or UCCA () is a leading Chinese independent institution of contemporary art. Founded in 2007. Located at the heart of the 798 Art District in, China, it welcomes more than one million visitors a year. Originally k ...

in Beijing (Entire filmography), *

Fondation Louis Vuitton The Louis Vuitton Foundation (French: ''Fondation d'entreprise Louis-Vuitton''), previously Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation (''Fondation Louis-Vuitton pour la création''), is a French art museum and cultural center sponsored by the group LV ...

in Paris (''Strange Magic''), *

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

in Chicago (''Chicago''), *

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

in New York (''Points on a Line''), *

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

in London (''Beijing, Midtown''), * Guggenheim in New York (''Midtown, AM/PM, Capital, Miami, Los Angeles''), *

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

(''Midtown, AM/PM, Capital, Miami, Los Angeles'').

Public collections

* Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo * Berardo Collection, Sintra, Portugal *

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

, London * Centre d’Art Contemporain, Le Consortium, Dijon *

, Paris * Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York *

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

, Dallas *

, Paris * F.R.A.C. Bourgogne, Dijon * F.R.A.C. Poitou-Charentes *

Government Art Collection The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in t ...

, London *

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 *

, Bremen *

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is an art museum in central Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, opened 1994. It presents modern and contemporary art and is financed by the ''Kunststiftung Volkswagen.'' It takes up aspects of the industrial city of Wolfsburg, whic ...

, Wolfsburg * Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich *

Miami Art Museum Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

* Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris *

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

Museum of Modern Art, New York 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 ...

* Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt * Sammlung DaimlerChrysler, Berlin * Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam *

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

, London * UBS Art Collection, New York *

Yale Center for British Art 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 worl ...

, New Haven *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London

Filmography

* ''Midtown'' (1998) * ''AM/PM'' (1999) * ''Capital'' (2000) * ''Miami'' (2002) * ''Los Angeles'' (2004) * ''Robert Towne'' (2006) * ''1972'' (2008) * ''Beijing'' (2008) * ''Points on a Line'' (2010) * ''Chicago'' (2011) * ''Rio'' (2012) * ''Strange Magic'' (2014) * ''Abu Dhabi'' (2016) * ''Finite and Infinite Games'' (2017) * ''Sakura'' (2019)

Other activities

Americans for the Arts Americans for the Arts is a nonprofit organization whose primary focus is advancing the arts in the United States. With offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, with more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to rep ...

, Member of the Artists CommitteeArtists Committee

Origami lawsuit

In 2011 Morris was sued by a group of six

origami ) is the Japanese paper art, art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of pape ...

artists, including

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Robert J. Lang. They alleged that in 24 works (eventually discovered to be 33 or more) in her "Origami" series of paintings Morris had without permission or credit copied their original

crease pattern A crease pattern is an origami diagram that consists of all or most of the creases in the final model, rendered into one image. This is useful for diagramming complex and super-complex models, where the model is often not simple enough to diagram e ...

s, coloured them, and sold them as "found" or "traditional" designs. The case was settled

out of court In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a lawsuit, legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. A collective settlement is a settlement of multiple similar legal cases. The term also has other mean ...

early in 2013; under the terms of the settlement, the creators of the crease patterns are to be given credit when the works are displayed.