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Robert J. M. Morris - STATEMENT As a young artist in Australia, I have been working with abstraction most of my professional life. As a student ofMervyn Moriarty, the group I was with in Australia read & studied a great deal of Paul Klee's "The Thinking Eye".In 1967, a survey show of American Modern Art arrived in Sydney. Included in this show was Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko & many other abstract expressionists. Since then, I have been working towards that direction, yet pushing my own paintings in my own direction. Between the 1970's & 1980's, many of my paintings came directly from landscape. During this time, I was breaking the landscape into abstraction, color always played a very important role in my work. In 1987, while living & working in London, the "Mark Rothko Show" came to The Taft Gallery. While spending time at this show, I came to understand what I was trying to do. Seeing Mark Rothko's life only in color was the statement of his life being spiritual & color. Since 1987, I have been working towards this end in my own paintings: "I exist in a Time & Space that is simultaneously material & spiritual. The material is my painting & space is the environment in which I work. Time moves me tlirough this space to the next space or moment of existence. The spiritual is my inner self (gaining) understanding tlirough the act of painting".Back to Robert's Page |