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For Immediate Release (New York Morris Graves (1910-2001), State of the World, 1947, gouache, watercolor, pastel and ink on paper, 26” x 20”, signed FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (NEW YORK, June 7, 2019) Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is pleased As cup: (karmic cup) the contents of which, either pain or to present Calix, Cup, Chalice, Grail, Urn, Goblet: Presenting the Spirit, traditionally is unalterable and/or cannot ultimately Sexual Essence of Morris Graves, the gallery’s third solo exhibi- be rejected. tion for Morris Graves (1910-2001). On view from June 15 to Au- A more recent series of chalices has been used with the gust 2, 2019, this exhibition is a seven-decade survey exploring more individual personal meaning: the artist’s symbolic use of vessels in luminous, spiritual works Chalice with no empty space, i.e., the cup that holds noth- that exemplify the essence of his mystical relationship with na- ing. ture. From early oil paintings to surrealist works on paper and Chalice with inturning lip, i.e., the cup that holds some- later quiet still-lifes, the imagery of the chalice is reflective of thing back. Graves’s expansive world view. Chalice with division or with partition in the empty space, i.e., the cup that holds neither one opposite nor the other Drawn to its sensual form, Graves explained that the shape of the but both simultaneously. chalice originates from the sexual anatomy of flowers: the urn- Chalice on a distorted, bent, or tilted stem, i.e., the cup’s shaped calix bears the flower’s reproductive organs, defined by content willfully or consciously wasted. the “male” pollen-bearing stamen that surrounds the “female” Chalice shattered into pieces, i.e., the cup as a symbol of seed-bearing pistil. As receptacles, the calix, cup, chalice, grail, the negative effort to recapture the belief of Duality. urn and goblet contain the essential matter of life and embody Chalice articulated out of the stuff which apparently sur- its cyclical rituals. rounds it, i.e., the symbolizing of unity—or of the phenom- Graves explained in a 1952 letter the symbolic possibilities of enal being the illusory projection of consciousness, etc. 2 the chalice, calyx or cup: etc., etc. As calyx: contains the flower, the potential of essential The chalice was Graves’s private symbol for spiritual birth and experience and renewal, and of growth. the container for the soul, a motif through which he attempted 100 ELEVENTH AVENUE @ 19TH • NEW YORK, NY 10011 • 212.247.0082 MICHAELROSENFELDART.COM to encourage the viewer toward enlightenment. Presenting the year in the landmark traveling exhibition Milestones of American Sexual Essence of Morris Graves charts the evolution of this re- Painting in our Century, organized by the Institute of Contempo- curring form as a reflection on an artist who sought spiritual life rary Art, Boston, MA. and growth in a world that he felt was defined by disruption and disintegration. Like Tobey, a close friend and confidant, Graves was deeply in- fluenced by East Asian religions, particularly Zen Buddhism and About Morris Graves Taoism. But unlike Tobey, his interests also extended to Hindu- Known for contemplative, haunting images that immortalize the ism, from which Graves drew some of his imagery. Dominated by essence of the creatures that inspired him, Morris Graves (1910- images of birds usually surrounded by an abstract circle of color 2001) lived a life of personal exploration in harmony with nature. and forms, his work is strikingly silent, commanding the viewer’s An important American modernist, Graves achieved national intense focus. Graves’s work is deeply symbolic; birds, snakes, and international acclaim for his visionary and spiritual works moons, flowers all speak to the artist’s love of nature, his interest that poetically revealed the mysteries of nature. This commu- in the transcendental, and his quest for an art that would “guide nion with the natural world and its eloquent expression through our journey from partial consciousness to full consciousness.”5 gouache and watercolor was further inspired and influenced by But this full consciousness was also an internal state, and while Buddhism, particularly Zen, as well as the arts of East Asia and Graves painted identifiable animals and plants, his were paint- India. ings of internal images, a “vision of the inner eye.” One of the leading artists of the Pacific Northwest, Morris Graves For Graves, the mechanical cacophony of industry and technolo- spent most of his life on the West Coast, a location that had a gy—the airplanes that flew over his cottage, the cars that roared significant impact on his artistic development. Shortly after his down streets—was a major obstacle to this journey. As part of birth, his family moved from Fox Valley, Oregon to Seattle, WA his quest to escape the pollution of modernity, Graves moved to with the hope of finding better economic opportunities. Graves Ireland in 1954. That same year, Life magazine featured an article was stricken with pneumonia as a child and spent hours in the on him, Tobey, and fellow Pacific Northwest artists Guy Anderson family garden, where his keen eye for nature first developed. In and Kenneth Callahan. Paradoxically, technology was the inspi- 1928, he dropped out of high school and became a merchant sail- ration for the body of work that Graves created during the time or, traveling to China, Japan, and the Philippines; he was struck spent in Ireland; his Instruments for a New Navigation, a series with an instant affinity for East Asian culture. Upon his return of elegantly totemic sculptures in metal, glass and stone remi- to the United States, Graves traveled extensively before settling niscent of celestial bodies and telescopes, were executed during in Beaumont, Texas, where he finished high school and was de- the advent of the space program. Ireland proved significant for scribed in the yearbook as “a vagabond artist with a commanding Graves’s artistic evolution; the series represented his only foray mien—rushing here or there with flowers or canvas in hand.”3 into three-dimensions and related as much to an exploration of He eventually made his way back to Seattle, where he became a outer space as it did to his continuing interest in the spirituality of part of an influential artistic community that included Mark To- inner space. Graves continued to travel and exhibit extensively, bey, John Cage and Merce Cunningham. in group and solo shows, and in 1964, he returned to the United States and settled in Humboldt County, California. Graves was largely self-taught (his education was limited to high school), but his lack of formal art training did not limit his con- As the monumental scale of abstract expressionism and the iro- siderable talent. In 1933, his work won first prize at the North- ny of pop art came to dominate American modernism, Graves’s west Annual Exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum – an award audience shifted internationally. In 1957, he became the first US that led to the patronage and guidance of Dr. Richard Fuller, artist to receive the Windsor Award, bestowed by the Duke and the museum’s founding director. In 1936, Graves had his first Duchess of Windsor, and in 1962, he visited India at the invitation solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum, and that same year, of Indira Gandhi and met her father, Prime Minister Jawaharlal he began painting for the Federal Art Project. In 1940, Graves Nehru. In 1983, The Phillips Collection mounted a major retro- participated in two group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern spective,Vision of the Inner Eye, which traveled to the Greenville Art (MoMA), New York: 35 under 35 and Mystery and Sentiment. County Art Museum, Greenville, SC; Whitney Museum of Ameri- However, 1942 was a breakthrough year when, after visiting his can Art, New York, NY; Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA; Se- studio, Marian Willard Johnson and Dorothy Miller decided to attle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; and the San Diego Art Museum, champion his art. Johnson gave him a solo show—the first of a San Diego, CA. A solo exhibition focused on Graves’s early works, total of fourteen dedicated to Graves—at the Willard Gallery, Morris Graves: The Early Works 1932-1938, took place in 1998 at and Miller included his work in MoMA’s important showcase of the Whitney Museum of American Art; Museum of Northwest emerging American artists, Americans 1942: 18 Artists from 9 Art, La Conner, WA; Greenville County Museum of Art; and the States. As a result of those two exhibitions, MoMA director Al- Art Museum of South East Texas, Beaumont, TX. In 2000, the fred Barr purchased an unprecedented eleven works by Graves Humboldt Arts Council named their new museum after Graves, for the museum. Duncan Phillips—hailing Graves as an “original who donated over 100 works beginning in 1991. After his death genius”4—also acquired several works for The Phillips Collection in 2001, his house “The Lake” became home of the Morris Graves in Washington, DC. That same year, Graves was drafted into the Foundation, a non-profit retreat for artists. US Army, and when his application for conscientious objector sta- In 2010, a solo survey dedicated to Graves on the occasion of tus was declined, Graves spent the year in a military prison; he his centennial was shown at the Morris Graves Museum of Art was released in 1943. In 1949, the artist’s work was presented at (Humboldt Arts Council), Eureka, CA and Michael Rosenfeld Gal- the XXIV Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy; it was also included that lery mounted a concurrent exhibition, Morris Graves: Falcon of doros Stamos, Toshiko Takaezu, Lenore Tawney, Alma Thomas, the Inner Eye: A Centennial Celebration.
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