Sarah Morris

Born in Sevenoaks, Kent, in southeast England,[3] to an English father and an American mother, Morris attended Brown University from 1985 to 1989, with a stint at Cambridge University,[6] then the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program in 1989–90.[3] In 1999–2000, she was a Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin; in 2001, she received a Joan Mitchell Foundation painting award.[7] Morris was married to artist Liam Gillick.[6]

Chimera, 2009. Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main

Morris is both a painter and filmmaker, seeing the two media as interconnected.[8] She describes the dual processes as “two sides of the same coin”, creating the paintings and films (which reference one another visually and thematically) simultaneously.[9]

She is best known for her abstract paintings that feature bright colour fields and graphic line work, often referencing elements of architecture and taking titles from bureaucratic institutions.[4]

Morris' films have been characterized as portraits 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 which define a specific place.[10] 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.[10][11]

Exhibitions

She has shown internationally, with solo exhibitions at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2001),[12] Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2005),[13] Fondation Beyeler in Basel (2008),[14] Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2009),[15] Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (2009),[16] and Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot (2012).[17]

She has created site-specific works for various institutions including the Lever House,[18] Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany [19] and the Gloucester Road tube station in London.[20]

Robert Towne, 2006. Lever House, Manhattan

Morris' films have been featured at the following:

• Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (Entire filmography),[21]
• Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (Strange Magic),[22]
• Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (Chicago),[23]
• Sotheby's in New York (Points on a Line),[24]
• Barbican Centre in London (Beijing, Midtown),[25]
• Guggenheim in New York (Midtown, AM/PM, Capital, Miami, Los Angeles) [26]
• Centre Pompidou (Midtown, AM/PM, Capital, Miami, Los Angeles).[27]

• Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo[28]
• Berardo Collection, Sintra, Portugal[29]
• British Council, London[30]
• Centre d’Art Contemporain, Le Consortium, Dijon[31]
• Centre Pompidou, Paris[32]
• Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York[33]
• Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas[34]
• Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris[35]
• F.R.A.C. Bourgogne, Dijon[36]
• F.R.A.C. Poitou-Charentes[37]
• Government Art Collection, London[38]
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York[39]
• Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen[40]
• Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg[41]
• Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich[42]
• Miami Art Museum[43]
• Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris[44]
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles[45]
• Museum of Modern Art, New York[46]
• Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt[47]
• Sammlung DaimlerChrysler, Berlin[48]
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam[49]
• Tate Modern, London[50]
• UBS Art Collection, New York[51]
• Yale Center for British Art, New Haven[52]
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London[53]

• Americans for the Arts, Member of the Artists Committee[54]

In 2011 Morris was sued by a group of six origami artists, including American 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 patterns, coloured them, and sold them as "found" or "traditional" designs. [55]

The case was settled out of court early in 2013; under the settlement, the creators of the crease patterns are to be given credit when the works are displayed.[56][57]

• Midtown (1998)[58]
• AM/PM (1999)[58]
• Capital (2000)[58]
• Miami (2002)[58]
• Los Angeles (2004)[58]
• Robert Towne (2006)[58]
• 1972 (2008)[58]
• Beijing (2008)[59]
• Points on a Line (2010)[60]
• Chicago (2011)[61]
• Rio (2012)[62]
• Strange Magic (2014)[63]
• Abu Dhabi (2016)[64]
• Finite and Infinite Games (2017)[65]
• Sakura (2019)

• Modern Worlds, 1999 ISBN 1-901-352-05-6
• Capital, 2001 ISBN 3-89611-098-5
• Sarah Morris: Bar Nothing, 2004 ISBN 0-9546501-1-5
• Los Angeles, 2005 ISBN 3-00-016363-8
• 1972, 2008 ISBN 978-3-86560-460-6
• Sarah Morris: Lesser Panda, 2008 ISBN 978-1-906072-16-2
• Beijing, 2009 ISBN 978-3-86560-646-4
• Sarah Morris: Clips, Knots, and 1972, 2010 ISBN 978-89-92819-55-8
• You Cannot Trust A Surface, 2011 ISBN 978-3-86984-054-3
• An Open System Meets an Open System: Sarah Morris and Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation, 2013 ISBN 978-3-7091-1031-7
• Sarah Morris: Bye Bye Brazil, 2013 ISBN 978-1-906072-82-7
• Sarah Morris: Mechanical Ballet, 2014 ISBN 978-2-36380-065-7
• Frédéric Paul, Sarah Morris: Capital Letters Rear Better for Initials. S.l.: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Konig. 5 November 2015. ISBN 978-3-941360-46-4.
• Morris, Sarah (2015). Crease Folds. Sarah Morris (ed.). Ivorypress LiberArs. ISBN 978-84-942820-7-2.
• Two Erasing Principles, 2016 ISBN 6055815370
• Sarah Morris, 2018 ISBN 978-952-5509-58-8

• Michael Archer. "Sarah Morris", Artforum, May 2009, p. 170
• Nick Haymes, "Sarah Morris", Art Review, May 2009, pp. 70–7
• Hans Ulrich Obrist, "Sarah Morris", Adam & Eve, March/April/May 2009, pp. 78–91
• Eric Banks, "Seeing Red", Men's Vogue, August 2008, pp. 114–119
• Adrian Searle, "Dazzled by the Rings", The Guardian, 30 July 2008
• Christopher Turner, "Beijing City Symphony", Modern Painters, July/August 2008, pp. 56–59
• Marcus Verhagen, "Nomadism", Art Monthly October 2006
• Tanja Widmann, "To Offer You Something", Texte Zur Kunst, September 2006, pp. 248–251
• Ezra Petronio and Stephanie Moisdon, "Bar Nothing by Sarah Morris", Self Service, Issue No.21, Fall/Winter 2004, pp. 302–315
• Art Now (25th Anniversary Edition), edited by Uta Grosenick, Burkhard Riemschneider, Taschen, pp. 196–199, 2005

• Sarah Morris at IMDb
• Official website