Richard Allen Morris
The artistic biography of Richard Allen Morris is swiftly told, and it is astonishing how little space it takes up. Born in 1933 in Long Beach, California, Morris spent most of his life in San Diego, where he worked doggedly in small studios – almost on the edge of the art world, and always on the breadline. With two or three exceptions the list of his solo shows barely crosses the southern city limits of Los Angeles in over 40 years; his first gallery show outside San Diego took place in 1996, at Chac Mool Gallery in West Hollywood. In spite of this, the cliché of a mould-breaking Outsider cannot be applied to him – his painting is too saturated with contemporary and historical references for that. A more appropriate image is that of the artist’s artist, someone whose work is discussed and appreciated primarily by his peers. For John Baldessari, Morris remains an influential role model, and the painter David Reed sees in his diverse oeuvre ‘a whole Escuela de San Diego, all by one artist’.
Born in Long Beach, California in 1933, Morris lives and works in San Diego, California. He was the subject of retrospective exhibition at …
The artistic biography of Richard Allen Morris is swiftly told, and it is astonishing how little space it takes up. Born in 1933 in Long Beach, California, Morris spent most of his life in San Diego, where he worked doggedly in small studios – almost on the edge of the art world, and always on the breadline. With two or three exceptions the list of his solo shows barely crosses the southern city limits of Los Angeles in over 40 years; his first gallery show outside San Diego took place in 1996, at Chac Mool Gallery in West Hollywood. In spite of this, the cliché of a mould-breaking Outsider cannot be applied to him – his painting is too saturated with contemporary and historical references for that. A more appropriate image is that of the artist’s artist, someone whose work is discussed and appreciated primarily by his peers. For John Baldessari, Morris remains an influential role model, and the painter David Reed sees in his diverse oeuvre ‘a whole Escuela de San Diego, all by one artist’.
Born in Long Beach, California in 1933, Morris lives and works in San Diego, California. He was the subject of retrospective exhibition at Museum Haus Lange (Krefeld, Germany) and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. In addition to these major survey shows, Morris has had solo shows internationally, including "Richard Allen Morris: Mixed Bag" at Gallerie Anke Schmidt, Cologne, Germany (2014); "QUICK DRAW" at R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, California (2014); and "Richard Allen Morris: Boxer" at Häusler Contemporary Zurich, Switzerland (2010).
Courtesy of frieze magazine.
