Morris Louis (1912-1962)

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Morris Louis (1912-1962)
While Series II
magna on canvas
96 x 143 in. (243.8 x 363.2 cm.)
Painted in 1960.

André Emmerich Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1968

Specialist note

"If his technique of pouring paint down the canvas broke with the tradition of gestural brushwork, the Veils nevertheless remain as closely related in feeling to the complex, brushed surfaces of the action painters as they are to the evenly applied, flat color areas and geometricized forms of painting in the 60s. This technique was simply a means of achieving a desired effect; as such, it was devoid of the metaphysical significance that the action painters accorded to painting as an act of heroic self expression. The relationship between the artist and his materials, the flow of thinned paint over the canvas surface, and the manner in which it soaked into and spread through the fibers, could be only partially controlled. Ultimately, Louis's paintings, because of this quasi-accidental process, become self contained, organic entities" (D. Swanson, Morris Louis: The Veil Cycle, exh. cat., Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 1977, p. 13).