A RETROSPECTIVE I A RETROSPECTIVE An exhibition he ld at the Univers ity of Oregon Museum of Art 1 Eug ene 1 Oregon FEBRUARY 8- MARCH 13 1 1966 Sponsored by Th e Friends of th e Mu seum EAGLE OF THE IN NER EYE, 194 1 Dr. and Mrs. Edwin E. Bo yse n, Pittsb urg, California I paint to evolv e a changing language of symbo ls, a language w ith whic h to remark upon the qualities of our own mysterious capacities which direc t us toward ultimate reality. - Morris Graves, as quoted in Morris Graves, by Frederick Wight, JohnTH:" Baur, Duncan Phillips CREDITS To the Wi ll ard Ga ll ery of New York 1 for permission to quote from comments by Morris Graves printed as indi cated in its cata logue, Morris Graves (New York: Will ard Ga ll ery, n.d.; ca. 1948}. To The Regents of the University of Cali­ fornia, for permission to quote as indicated from the monograph by Frederick S. Wight, John I. H. Baur,and Duncan Phillips, Morris Graves (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1956). To The Regents of the University of California and the Fine Arts Patrons of Newport Beach, for per­ mission to quote from the article by Frederick S. Wight printed as indicated in the catalogue, Morris Graves Retrospective (Balboa, California: The Pavilion Gall ery, 1963}. To Kenneth Rexroth, for permission to quote as indicated from his artie le, "The Visionary Painting of Morris Graves", pub I ished in Perspectives U.S.A., the Winter, 1955, issue (No. 10}, pages 63 and 65. To American Horizon, In c., for permission to qoute from "Creatures of the Iri sh Twilight", by John Montague, Horizon, Vol. II, No.6, July, 1960. To Horizon magazine for making avai labl e the co lor transparency of Morris Graves' painting, "B ird Singing in the Moonlight", owned by Nancy Wi lson Ross. To the Seattle Art Museum for permission to use photographs of works by Morris Graves, "Moor Swan", "Drawing for Eagle of the Inner Eye", "Waning Moon No.1", "Waning Moon No.2", and "Spring With Machine Age Noise". To the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for permission to reproduce "Message VII", "The Individual State of the World", and "Joyous Young Pine ". To the Munson-Williams-Proctor lnstilu te, Utica, New York, for permission to illus­ trate "Surf Reflected Upon Higher Space". To the Walk er Art Center, Minnea­ polis, Minnesota, for permission to illustrate "Jet Age Hibernation". LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Barnett, Bainbridge Island, Washington; Mrs. Frances Stimson Bayley, Seattle, Washington; Dr. and Mrs. Edwin E. Boysen, Pittsburg, California; Mr. and Mrs. James J. Brennen, Poulsbo, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. William L. Cumming, Seattle, Washington; Mr. Edward L. Cushman, Seattle, Washington; Mrs. Charles Gilman Davis, Portland, Oregon; Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth B. Edgers, Seattle, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. John H. Hauberg , Jr., Seattle, Wash ington; He nry Gallery, Seattle, Washington; Mrs. Jacquelin H. Hume , San Francisco, California; Marian Willard Johnson, New York; Mr. and Mrs. Ofe II H. Johnson , Seattle, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. Hans Jorge nsen, Edmonds, Wash ington; Paul Kantor Gallery, Beverly Hills, California; Mr. Leo Kenney, Seattle, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. William Leary, North Hollywood, California; Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm Le in, St. Paul, Minnesota; Mr. George Montor, Seattle, Washington; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute , Ut ica, New York; The North Carol ina Museum of Art, Raleigh 1 North Carol ina; Oak land Art Museum, Oak­ land, California; Mr. and Mrs. PhilipS. Padelford, Seattle, Wash ington; Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose Patterson, Seattle , Washington; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D. C.; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Randlett, Edmonds, Washington; Mrs. Julius N. Richert, Seattle, Washington; Nancy Wilson Ross (Mrs. Stanley P. Young), New York; Mr. James Schramm, Burlington, Iowa; Seattle Art Mu seum 1 Seattle, Washington; Mr. Bert A. Tucker, Seattle, Wash ington; UCLA Art Galleries, Los Angeles, California; Mrs. Julius Wads"!orth, Washington, D. C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Mr. and Mrs. Max Weinstein, Seattle, Washington; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Mr. FrederickS. Wight, Lo s Angeles, California; Willard Gallery, New York; Mrs. Elizabeth Bayley Willis, Bainbridge Island, Washington; Mrs. Thomas Woods, Lin co In, Nebraska; Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright, Seattle, Wash ington . ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Virginia (Mrs. William A.) Hase ltine , organizer of the Hase ltine Collec­ tion of Pacific Northwest Art for pe rmanent loan to the Museum of Art of the Univers ity of Oregon, who initiated the Graves in Oregon projec t and under it conceived of the present re trospec tive exhibition, e nlisted the support of the University's administration, the artist himse lf, his relatives and friends, his deale rs, and tireless ly stumped the country tracking down paintings, assembling catalogue material, writing an important cata logue article he rse lf, purchasing works to be included in the exhibition, and infe cting all co nce rned w ith her enthusiasm for it. To Morris Graves and his brother, Wallace, and to Dorothy Schumache r, w ith­ out whose friend ly cooperatio n the exhibition and its accompany ing catalogue cou ld not have been realized . To Marian Willard (Mrs. Dan R.) Johnson and her hu sband, of the Wi llard Gallery in N ew York, to Otto Se ligman of the Otto Se ligman Gallery in Se attl e , to Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Phillips of the Phillips Ga ll ery in Washington, D. C ., to Richard E. Fulle r and Edward B. Thoma s of the Seattle Art Mu seum, and to G e rvais Reed of the Henry Galle ry at the University of Washington, for the ir counse ls in se le cting works to be in­ c luded in the show , aswell asoffering loansof the ir own and he lping to secure loans from o the rs . To Nancy Wil so n Ross (Mrs. Stanley Young) of New York and Gerald Heard of Los An ge les, for their respective contributions to the catalogue , articles of rare insightintotheartist's life and work. ToHe lenBerry(Mrs. Me lv in) Moore, for her graciouslycontributed time andprofessional ski ll in designing the hand­ some format in which the present catalogue appe ars. To Be tty (Mrs. John) Bow en of the Seattle Art Muse um, for he r advice on pub­ licity for the exhibition. To Carol Ann lvey (Mrs. Jeff) Stewart of our own Muse um staff, for preparing news releases, acting as inte rm ediary with a II coll aborators and le nd e rs for the exhibition, and he lping to organize the ma­ te rial for both the exhibition and the catalogue. To Barbara (Mrs. Norman) Lane , Mu seum secretary, who played a key rol e as collaborator in every phase of the unde rtaking, including the exacting task, w ith Kathy Richardson, second Mu seum secre tary, of actually typing the fina l copy for the catalogue. To Mark Cl a rk e , curator, and other Museum staff, for the ir key work in design ing and installing th e show. La st in sequence but central in importance, to the le nd e rs who entrusted th e ir prec ious and often d e licate works to the not-always­ te nd e r merc ies of the transportation agenc ies, recogniz ing thatonly by so doing cou ld a re trospective of the scope and significance of the present exhibition be at all poss ibl e. TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• l Wa ll ace S. Baldinger SOMETH ING ABOUT MORRIS GRAVES .•••••••••••••.•••• 3 Nancy Wi \son Ross RELIGIOUS SYMBOLI SM IN THE WORKS OF MORRIS GRAVES ••••• ll Virg inia Hose \tine PRO PHETIC SPECU LATI ONS ON THE ART IST'S SYMBO LI SM •••••• 19 G e rald Heard THREE KINDS OF SPACE •••••••• ••••••••••• • • •.•• 41 Morris Graves CATALOGUE OF THE EXH IBITI ON. • 5 1 CHRONOLOGY OF MORRIS GRAVES • . 59 SE LECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ••••••• . 62 MOOR SWAN I 1933 Seattle Art Museum FOREWORD by Wallace S. Baldinger Many one-man shows at the Uni versity of Oregon have featured Pacific North­ west artists. This is only as it should be, considering the fact that the Univer­ sity's art museum has for years served as home for a steadi ly growing Hose lti ne Collection of Pacific Northwest Art and other permanent acquisitions represent­ ing the region's cultural advancement. No exhibition has yet, however, as­ sumed the particular quality of that which the present cata logue signals. The assemblage of paintings by Morris Graves here presented, numbering more than one hundred, covers the whole span of the artist's production. It bears witness to the immediate contemporaneity of h is development. It attests to the magnitude of his debt to the landscape of the region in which he has worked the greater part of hi s life. It does much more besides. The exhibition brings out as no other ever held in our galleries a depth of re i igious thought and feel­ ing the probing of which has been thought impossible to an artist of our so-called "godless" generation. We are accustomed to think of great religious art as be­ longing only to the past. In the presence of the pictures here displayed, we must now reviseour notion; forat his best inthem Morris Graves ranks with the truly great artists inspired by any wor ld religion. As Nancy Wi lson Ross points out in an essay which follows, the religious faith evolved by Morris Graves during the course of his career cannot be circum­ scri bed by the boundaries usuctlly taken to define the Christian rea lm .