Morris Cole Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as

Mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

, used the muted tones of the Northwest environment, Asian aesthetics and philosophy, and a personal iconography of birds, flowers, chalices, and other images to explore the nature of consciousness. An article in a 1953 issue of ''Life'' magazine cemented Graves' reputation as a major figure of the 'Northwest School' of artists. He lived and worked mostly in Western Washington, but spent considerable time traveling and living in Europe and Asia, and spent the last several years of his life in

Loleta, California Loleta (Wiyot: ''Guduwalhat'') is a unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California, United States. Loleta is located south of Fields Landing, and south of Eureka at an elevation of . The population was 783 at the 2010 census. For stati ...

Early years

Morris Cole Graves was born August 28, 1910, in

Fox Valley, Oregon Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, where his family had moved about a year before his birth, from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, in order to claim land under the

Homestead Act The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of Federal lands, government land or the American frontier, public domain, typically called a Homestead (buildings), homestead. In all, mo ...

. He was named in honor of Morris Cole, a favored minister of his

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

parents. He had five older brothers, and eventually, two younger siblings.Ament, Deloris Tarzan: Graves, Morris (1910-2001)HistoryLink.org essay5205; http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5205 retvd 6 24 15Humboldt Arts website - Morris Graves -'About Morris Graves'; retvd 6 24 15 Constant winds and cold winters made it much more difficult than expected to establish a working farm, and the struggle led to bankruptcy of the senior Graves' once-thriving paint and wallpaper store in Seattle. In 1911, a few months after Morris' birth, the family returned to the Seattle area, settling north of the city in semi-rural

Edmonds, Washington Edmonds is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located in the southwest corner of the county, facing Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to the west. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located ...

.Farr, Sheila:'The House That Morris Graves Built',''The Seattle Times'', Dec.9, 2001. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/20011209/pgraves09/the-house-that-morris-graves-built retvd 6 25 15 He was a self-taught artist with natural understandings of color and line. Graves dropped out of high school after his sophomore year, and between 1928 and 31, along with his brother Russell, visited all the major Asian ports of call as a steamship hand for the

American Mail Line American Mail Line of Seattle, Washington was a commercial steamship service with routes to and from Seattle, Washington and the Far East. American Mail Line was founded in 1920, by Pacific Steamship Company also with a $500,000 investment from ...

.Junker, Patricia A.:''Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical'', Seattle Art Museum/University of Washington Press; On arriving in Japan, he wrote:

Career

Rambling

In his early twenties, Graves finished high school in 1932 in

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (city ...

, while living with his maternal aunt and uncle. He then returned to Seattle, and received his first recognition as an artist when his painting ''Moor Swan'' (1933) won an award in the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

's Northwest Annual Exhibition and was purchased by the museum. He split his time between

and

La Conner, Washington La Conner is a town in Skagit County, Washington, United States with a population of 965 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Mount Vernon– Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. History La Conner was first sett ...

, where he shared a studio with

Guy Anderson Guy Anderson (November 20, 1906 – April 30, 1998) was an American artist known primarily for his oil painting who lived most of his life in the Puget Sound region of the United States. His work is in the collections of numerous museums inc ...

. Graves' early work was in oils and focused on birds touched with strangeness, either blind, or wounded, or immobilized in webs of light. Graves began his lifelong study of

Zen Buddhism Zen (; from Chinese: '' Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka ph ...

in the early 1930s. In 1934, he built a small studio on family property in

. When it burned to the ground in 1935, almost all of his work to date was lost with it. His first one-man exhibition was in 1936 at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM); that same year he began working under Bruce Inverarity at the Seattle unit of the WPA's

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

. His participation was sporadic, but it was there that he met

Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosop ...

and became impressed with Tobey's calligraphic line. In January 1937 Graves traveled to New York City to study with the controversial

Father Divine Father Divine (September 10, 1965), also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was an American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death in 1965. His full self-given name was Reverend Major Jealous Divine, and he was also known as "the Messen ...

's International Peace Mission movement in Harlem; on his return, in May, he bought on

Fidalgo Island Fidalgo Island is an island in Skagit County, Washington, located about north of Seattle. To the east, it is separated from the mainland by the Swinomish Channel, and from Whidbey Island to the south by Deception Pass. The island is named afte ...

. In 1938 he quit the FAP and went to the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...

and

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

to paint. In 1940, Graves began building a house, which he named The Rock, on an isolated promontory on his Fidalgo Island property. He lived at The Rock with a succession of cats and dogs, all called Edith, in honor of poet

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

The Rock

Graves was known for his personal charm and bursts of puckish humor, but also spent long periods in semi-isolation, absorbed in nature and his art. At the Rock, with the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

erupting, he retreated for a particularly long time and created a very large number of paintings. Many of them, such as ''Dove of the Inner Eye'' (1941) and ''Bird in the Night'' (1943), featured what would become Graves' iconic motif of birds trapped in layers of webbing or barbs, representing the artist's fears for the survival of man and nature in the face of modern industry and warfare. His near-isolation was interrupted in the spring of 1942 when the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York opened its ''Americans 1942: 18 Artists from 9 States'' exhibition. Critics raved over Graves' contributions, all of which were quickly snapped up by museums and collectors. At the same time the U.S. Army came looking for him, as he had failed to achieve the

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

status he had applied for. There was also suspicion of him due to his association with the International Peace Mission and the fact that among his few regular visitors at the Rock had been the brilliant Japanese-American designer

George Nakashima George Katsutoshi Nakashima ( ''Nakashima Katsutoshi'', May 24, 1905 – June 15, 1990) was an American woodworker and architect. In 1983, he accepted the Order of the Sacred Treasure, an honor bestowed by the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese ...

and his Japanese-born wife Miriam, prior to their being sent to the

Minidoka relocation center Minidoka National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the western United States. It commemorates the more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center during the Second World War.

. While his work was receiving further exhibition in New York and Washington D.C., and phenomenal sales, the artist himself spent much of that same time in the stockade at

Camp Roberts, California Camp Roberts is a California National Guard post in central California, located on both sides of the Salinas River in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties, now run by the California Army National Guard. It was opened in 1941 and is named afte ...

, where he went into a deep depression. He was finally released from military service in March 1943. With help from longtime supporters Elizabeth Willis, Nancy Ross, and Marian Willard, owner of the

Willard Gallery The Willard Gallery was a contemporary art gallery operating in New York City from 1940 until 1987. It was founded by Marian Willard Johnson. History In 1936, Marian Guthrie Willard had founded the East River Gallery as an art rental gallery at ...

in New York, Graves' work continued to enjoy popularity throughout the war years and beyond, with numerous exhibitions. In the late 40s he purchased land in Woodway, Washington, and began construction of a unique cinderblock house he came to call "Careladen".

Careladen years

Graves received a Guggehheim Fellowship allowing him to study in Japan, but only made it as far as Hawaii before his entry was blocked by Japan's U.S. military occupation authorities. He spent several months in 1947 painting and learning the Japanese language in Hawaii. By the late 1940s Graves' and Mark Tobey's moment as the stars of the New York art world had faded, supplanted by the post-war rise of

Action Painting Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical ...

and pure

Abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

. In 1949 Graves sailed to England aboard RMS ''Mauretania'', spending a month as the guest of art collector Edward James. He then spent three solitary winter months in France, sketching and painting the

Chartres Cathedral Chartres Cathedral (, lit. Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres) is a Catholic cathedral in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the List of bishops of Chartres, Bishop of Chartres. Dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary ( ...

. This austere interlude may have been in response to critical complaints of superficiality in his more recent paintings; however, after returning to Seattle in 1950, he destroyed most of his Chartres works. In 1952 photographer Dody Weston Thompson used part of her Albert M. Bender grant to photo document the unique home and surroundings of Graves, who she considered a close friend. In the spring of 1953, Graves staged the first Northwest art "Happening", sending invitations to everyone on the Seattle Art Museum mailing list: Guests, some in formal evening wear, arrived to find the driveway blocked by a trench; investigating on foot, they found a banquet table with a ten-day-old turkey feast being drenched by a garden sprinkler as dinner music and farm animal sounds played over speakers. With Graves and his cohorts refusing to answer the door, guests, amused and otherwise, responded by storming off, sketching the scene, or filching silverware from the table. In September 1953, largely through the efforts of Seattle gallery owner Zoe Dusanne, ''Life'' magazine ran a major article on the "Mystic Painters of the Northwest", focusing on Graves,

Kenneth Callahan Kenneth Callahan (1905–1986) was an American painter and muralist who served as a catalyst for Northwest artists in the mid-20th century through his own painting, his work as assistant director and curator at the Seattle Art Museum, and his wr ...

, and

as the major figures of a perceived Northwest School of artists. Ironically, by this time the four had for the most part fallen out over various personal, political, and artistic issues, and were barely on speaking terms with each other. Graves' mid-career works were influenced by East Asian philosophy and mysticism, which he used as a way of approaching nature directly, avoiding theory. He adopted certain elements of

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

and

Japanese art Japanese art consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes Jōmon pottery, ancient pottery, Japanese sculpture, sculpture, Ink wash painting, ink painting and Japanese calligraphy, calligraphy on silk and paper, Ukiyo-e, paint ...

, including the use of thin paper and ink drawing. He painted birds, pine trees, and waves. Works such as ''Blind Bird'' showed the influence of Mark Tobey, who was in turn inspired by Asian

calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

. Graves switched from oils to gouaches, his birds became psychedelic, mystic, en route to transcendence. The paintings were bold, applied in a thick impasto with a palette knife, sometimes on coarse feed sacks. In the 1950s, Graves returned to oils, but also painted in watercolor and tempera.

In Ireland

By 1954 Graves was feeling oppressed both by resurgent popularity and the encroachment of suburban development around his home. After spending several weeks in Japan, he rented Careladen to the poet

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1954 for his book '' The ...

and moved to Ireland. With companions Richard Svare and Dorothy Schumacher he lived in various parts of the country before settling on Woodton Manor, a rustic 18th century house near

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. In Ireland he created paintings known as the ''Hibernation'' series and became fascinated with the night sky. This led to ''Instruments for a New Navigation'', a collection of precisely rendered bronze, glass, and stone sculptures inspired by the dawning

Space Age The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the space race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events, beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and co ...

. Finding no market for these unusual pieces, they were disassembled and not displayed again until 1999. Graves returned to Seattle in 1964, living for several months in the so-called Pletscheff Mansion.

Later years

In 1965 Graves purchased 380 acres of redwood forest property, around a five-acre lake, in

, near

Eureka Eureka often refers to: * Eureka (word), a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes * Eureka effect, the sudden, unexpected realization of the solution to a problem Eureka or Ureka may also refer to: History * Eureka Rebellion, an 1854 g ...

. He hired architect Ibsen Nelsen to design a home which, after numerous technical and financial problems, was eventually constructed beside the lake. Graves would live on this property, which he called simply 'The Lake', for the remaining 35 years of his life. Although a sign posted at the entrance to the property read "No visitors today, tomorrow, or the day after", Graves' assistant Robert Yarber lived there with him much of the time, and he occasionally allowed visits by family members and old friends. In his sixties, Graves began a new phase of minimalist paintings of floral arrangements, works with a simplicity intended as a statement about the nature of beauty. He unpacked the "Instruments of a New Navigation" sculptures and completed them. He continued working in his garden, tending his flowers and manicuring the landscape of The Lake.Doran, Bob: "On The Lake: The mystic painter Morris Graves and his reclusive life in Humboldt", ''The North Coast Journal'', April 4, 2012. http://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/on-the-lake/Content?oid=2194383 retvd 6 26 15 Morris Graves died the morning of May 5, 2001 at his home in Loleta, hours after suffering a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

Legacy

Museum

The

Morris Graves Museum of Art The Humboldt Arts Council (HAC) is the official Humboldt County, California, USA arts council located in the Morris Graves Museum of Art (MGMA). Organized in 1966 and incorporated in 1971. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation dedicated to pr ...

, located in the restored Carnegie library building in

Eureka, California Eureka ( ; Wiyot: ; Hupa: ; ) is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco and south of the Oreg ...

, bears his name and contains a small collection of his works and much of his personal collection of works by other artists. Morris Graves Museum - Carnegie Library Building

Morris Graves Museum - Carnegie Library Building

Collections

Works by Morris Graves are included in the collections of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

, the

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art :see also the ''Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art'', Washington State University, Pullman, Washington Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (JSMA) is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. The original building w ...

(Eugene, Oregon), the

(New York City), the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

(New York City), the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

(Washington D.C.), the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

(Washington D.C.),

The Phillips Collection The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughli ...

(Washington D.C.), the

Ackland Art Museum The Ackland Art Museum is a museum and academic unit of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was founded through the bequest of William Hayes Ackland (1855–1940) to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is locat ...

(Chapel Hill, N.C.), the

Addison Gallery of American Art Addison may refer to: Places Canada * Addison, Ontario, a community United States * Addison, Alabama, a town * Addison, Illinois, a village * Addison, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Addison, Maine, a town * Addison, Michigan, a vil ...

(Andover, Massachusetts), the

Akron Art Museum The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, United States. The museum first opened on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute. It was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. The Institute offered clas ...

(Akron, Ohio), the

Brauer Museum of Art The Brauer Museum of Art is an art museum at Valparaiso University, a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is home to a collection of 19th- and 20th-century American art, world religious art, and Midwestern regional art. It is located i ...

(Valparaiso, Indiana), the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

, the

Figge Art Museum The Figge Art Museum is located on the north bank of the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa. The Figge, as it is commonly known, has an encyclopedic collection and serves as the major art museum for the eastern Iowa and western Illinois regio ...

(Davenport, Iowa), the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

(Boston, Massachusetts), the

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

(Washington D.C.), the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, the

Maier Museum of Art Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College features works by American artists from the 19th through 21st centuries. Randolph College (founded as Randolph-Macon Woman's College) has been collecting American art since 1907 and the Maier Museum of Art ...

(Lynchburg, Virginia), the

Memorial Art Gallery The Memorial Art Gallery is a civic art museum in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1913, it is part of the University of Rochester and occupies the southern half of the University's former Prince Street campus. It is a focal point of fine arts ac ...

(Rochester, New York), the

North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that ...

(Raleigh, N.C.), the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

(Philadelphia, PA), the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and Arabella Huntington in San Marino, California, United State ...

(San Marino, California), the University of Mississippi Museum (Oxford, Miss.), the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

(Minneapolis, Minn.), the

, the

Tacoma Art Museum The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the ...

(Tacoma, Wash.), the Henry Gallery (Seattle, Wash.), the

Museum of Northwest Art The Museum of Northwest Art (also referred to as MoNA) is an art museum located in La Conner, Washington La Conner is a town in Skagit County, Washington, United States with a population of 965 at the 2020 census. It is included in the ...

(La Conner, Wash.),

Old Jail Art Center The Old Jail Art Center (OJAC) is an art and regional history museum in Albany, Texas. It is housed in a former jail that was completed in 1878. After being replaced by a new jail in 1929, the old jail building was saved from demolition by local ...

(Albany, Texas), and many other institutions.

Exhibitions

(Partial listing of group and solo shows featuring Graves' work; some dates approximate) * 1936 - Seattle Art Museum, solo * 1942 - Museum of Modern Art (NYC), ''Americans 42: 18 Artists from 9 States'' * 1942 - Willard Gallery (NYC), solo. note: Graves' work was shown regularly at the Willard until its closing in 1987. * 1942 - Phillips Memorial Gallery (Washington, D.C.), ''Three Americans: Weber, Knaths, Graves'' * 1943 -

Arts Club of Chicago Arts Club of Chicago is a private club and public exhibition space located in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, a block east of the Magnificent Mile, that exhibits international contemporary art. It was founded in 1916, inspired ...

, solo * 1943 -

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

, solo * 1943 - University Gallery (Minneapolis), solo * 1943 - Museum of Modern Art (NYC), ''Romantic Painting in America'' * 1956 - Whitney Museum (NYC), retrospective * 1956 - Phillips Gallery (Washington D.C.), retrospective * 1956 - Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), retrospective * 1956 -

Des Moines Art Center The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa. History The Art Center traces its roots to 1916, when the Des Moines A ...

, retrospective * 1957 - M. H. de Young Museum (San Francisco), retrospective * 1957 - Art Galleries of U.C.L.A. (Los Angeles), retrospective * 2000 - Schmidt Bingham Gallery (NYC), ''Instruments for a New Navigation''. * 2010 - Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), ''Vortexhibition PolyphonicaUpchurch, Michael-"Seattle's Henry Art Gallery plays mix 'n' match with 'Vortexhibition Polyphonica' ", ''Seattle Times'', Jan.2, 2010 * 2014 - Seattle Art Museum, ''Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical''. * 2017
Woodside Braseth Gallery
Important Paintings & Drawings by Northwest Master Morris Graves (1910-2001)

References

External links

The Library, Humboldt State University

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon in Eugene

Woodside Braseth Gallery

Morris Graves papers at University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graves, Morris 1910 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters American Expressionist painters Pacific Northwest artists Painters from California Painters from Seattle People from Humboldt County, California Cornish College of the Arts faculty People from Grant County, Oregon Northwest School (art) Public Works of Art Project artists Federal Art Project artists People from La Conner, Washington 20th-century American male artists Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Early years

Career

Rambling

The Rock

Careladen years

In Ireland

Later years

Legacy

Museum

Collections

Exhibitions

References

Further reading

External links