Sarah Morris (born 20 June 1967 in Sevenoaks, Kent, England) is an American and British artist. She lives in New York City in the United States.
Personal life and education Morris was born in Sevenoaks, Kent, in south-east England, on 20 June 1967. She attended Brown University from 1985 to 1989, Cambridge University, and the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1989–90. She was a Berlin Prize fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in 1999–2000; in 2001 she received a Joan Mitchell Foundation 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.
Work Morris works in both painting and film, and considers the two to be interconnected.
From about 1997 her paintings were geometric Modernist 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-prints reminiscent of Andy Warhol, word-paintings, and paintings of shoes.
Morris's 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. 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.
Exhibitions She has shown internationally, with solo exhibitions at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2001), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2005), Fondation Beyeler in Basel (2008), Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2009), Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (2009), Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot (2012), M Museum, Leuven, Belgium (2015), Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna, Austria (2016), Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland (2017), UCCA, Beijing, China (2018), Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2024)
Her mid-career retrospective titled "All Systems Fail" traveled to multiple cities and museums in 2023 and 2024 including: Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany , Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany , Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland and Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Germany .
She has created site-specific works for various institutions including the Lever House, Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany, the lobby of UBS in New York City, the Gloucester Road tube station 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. the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Dutch Kills / 39th Ave Subway Station, Ad-Diriyah Biennale in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, St. Louis Lambert International Airport, General Dynamics Headquarters in Reston, Virginia, Tulsa Convention Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gateway School for Sciences, Queens, New York, and Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, Key Biscayne Community Center, Key Biscayne, Florida.
Morris's films have been featured at the following: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (Entire filmography) Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (Strange Magic) Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (Chicago) Sotheby's in New York (Points on a Line) Barbican Centre in London (Beijing, Midtown) Guggenheim in New York (Midtown, AM/PM, Capital, Miami, Los Angeles) Centre Pompidou (Midtown, AM/PM, Capital, Miami, Los Angeles) M+ in Hong Kong (ETC) Locarno Film Festival, Locarno, Italy (Rio) Tribute
Public collections
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo Berardo Collection, Sintra, Portugal Beyeler Foundation, Riehen, Switzerland British Council, London Centre d’Art Contemporain, Le Consortium, Dijon Centre Pompidou, Paris Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas DekaBank, Frankfurt am Main Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris F.R.A.C. Bourgogne, Dijon F.R.A.C. Poitou-Charentes Government Art Collection, London Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum fur Gegenwart, Berlin Jumex Museum, Ciudad de Mexico Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich Luma Foundation, Arles, France Miami Art Museum Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, New York Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt M+, Hong Kong Nakanoshima Museum of Art, Osaka National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Neue Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin Saastamoinen Foundation Art Collection Sammlung DaimlerChrysler, Berlin Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam Tate Modern, London Yale Center for British Art, New Haven Victoria and Albert Museum, London UBS Art Collection, New York
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) ETC (2024)
Other activities Americans for the Arts, Member of the Artists CommitteeArtists Committee Americans for the Arts.
Origami lawsuit 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.
The case was settled out of court 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. +List of affected paintings/modelsPainting titleYear paintedSquare painting edge sizesModel titleModel composerAngel2009214 cmHarpyJason KuBat2007214 cmBatNoboru MiyajimaBlack Ant2009214 cmHarvestman (Phalangium)Manuel SirgoCalypte Anna2007214 cmRuby-throated Hummingbird, opus 389Robert J. Lang2008289 cmCat200753.5 cmCatNoboru Miyajima214 cmChaser2008214 cmDragonfly, opus 369Robert J. LangClerid Beetle2009214 cmScorpion (Buthus)Manuel SirgoCrane2008214 cmDancing Crane, opus 460Robert J. LangCuttlefish2009214 cmSepiaManuel SirgoDragon2007214 cmKNL Dragon, opus 132Robert J. LangFalcon2007214 cmCooper’s Hawk, opus 464Robert J. Lang200853.5 cmGoatfish2007152.5 cmGoatfish, opus 202Robert J. LangGrasshopper200776.6 cmGrasshopper, opus 83Robert J. Lang289 cmHercules Beetle2007214 cmHercules Beetle, opus 271Robert J. LangJune Beetle2009214 cmCyclommatus metalliferNicola BandoniKawasaki Cube200853.5 cmKawasaki Cube #1Toshikazu Kawasaki53.5 cm214 cm2009289 cmLeaf Mantis2009214 cmLeaf MantisManuel SirgoLion2007214 cmLionNoboru MiyajimaMommoth200753.5 cmMommothNoboru Miyajima214 cmMouse2007122 cmRat, opus 159Robert J. LangNight Hawk2008214 cmStealth Fighter, opus 324Robert J. LangNight Hunter2007214 cmNight Hunter, opus 469Robert J. LangOrchis2008214 cmOrchid, opus 392Robert J. LangParrot2009214 cmMacawManuel SirgoPegasus200753.5 cmPegasus, opus 325Robert J. Lang214 cmPraying Mantis2007214 cmPraying Mantis, opus 246Robert J. LangRabbit2007122 cmRabbit, opus 186Robert J. LangRaccoon Dog2007122 cmRaccoon DogNoboru MiyajimaRhino Beetle2008214 cmEupatorus gracilicornus, opus 476Robert J. LangRockhopper200720.8 cmPenguinNoboru Miyajima122 cm2009289 cmSwan2007122 cmSwanNoboru Miyajima214 cm289 cm200853.5 cmTarantula200853.5 cmTarantulaRobert J. Lang214 cmWeasel200776.6 cmWeaselNoboru Miyajima214 cm2008122 cm289 cmWolf2007289 cmWolfNoboru Miyajima
Notes
References
Further reading
Modern Worlds, 1999 Capital, 2001 Sarah Morris: Bar Nothing, 2004 Los Angeles, 2005 1972, 2008 Sarah Morris: Lesser Panda, 2008 Beijing, 2009 Sarah Morris: Clips, Knots, and 1972, 2010 You Cannot Trust A Surface, 2011 An Open System Meets an Open System: Sarah Morris and Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation, 2013 Sarah Morris: Bye Bye Brazil, 2013 Sarah Morris: Mechanical Ballet, 2014 Frédéric Paul,
Two Erasing Principles, 2016 Sarah Morris, 2018 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