George Morrison (1919–2000) was a child when he first began to make art, learning to draw while stuck in a full-body cast as he recovered from tuberculosis. Having grown up in poverty on the shores of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, Morrison, who was of Ojibwe heritage, studied at an art school in Minneapolis before securing a scholarship with the Art Students League. This New York establishment was set up in 1875 and attracted a growing number of painters who would go on to become Abstract Expressionists – Jackson Pollock was among their number. This exhibition at the Met shows just how transformative New York was for Morrison’s art and world view (17 July–31 May 2026). The vastness of the cityscape, the avant-garde culture – particularly literature and jazz – and the presence of other experimental artists, including Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Louise Nevelson, all informed the colourful abstract paintings Morrison made in the years he spent in what he called the ‘magical city’.
Find out more from the Met’s website.
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