| Lynda Morris | |
| Birth Place: | Gourock |
| Nationality: | British |
| Occupation: | Art curator |
| Notable Works: | EASTinternational, Picasso: Peace and Freedom |
Lynda Morris (born 1947) is a British curator who has worked with numerous significant artists including Richard Hamilton and Gilbert and George and given several internationally-renowned artists, such as Agnes Martin, Bernd and Hilla Becher and Gerhard Richter, their first exhibitions in the United Kingdom. Morris has made a significant contribution to the development of contemporary art in the UK through her commitment to supporting emerging artists and through the organisation of EASTinternational, an annual open submission exhibition that took place in Norwich from 1991–2009.[1] Morris is emeritus professor of curation and art history at Norwich University of the Arts.
Morris was born in 1947 in Gourock, Scotland.[2] She studied painting at Canterbury College of Art from 1964 to 1969. Between 1969 and 1971 she worked at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, first, in 1969, on the installation of the seminal exhibition of conceptual art When Attitudes Become Form: Works-Concepts-Processes-Situations-Information, curated by Harald Szeemann, and Keinholtz 10 Tableau. While working at the ICA Morris took over the catalogue stand and developed their first bookshop.
From 1971 to 1974 she worked for the art dealer Nigel Greenwood, organising the exhibition Book as Artwork 1960–72 with Germano Celant – the first exhibition dedicated to artists' books with accompanying catalogue. Morris began an MA at the Royal College of Art. During this time she worked with the Arts Council to organise a touring exhibition – their first UK exhibition – of photographers Bernd & Hilla Becher. In 1974, Morris submitted her MA thesis on art and art education with case studies on art & language courses at Coventry College of Art, Joseph Beuys at Düsseldorf Academy and the Projects Class at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, Canada.
In 1973 Morris was Richard Hamilton’s assistant for his major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York.[3] From 1974 to 1976 she taught at the Slade School with William Coldstream, Euan Uglow and Lucian Freud. While working at the Slade, Morris hosted a screening of Marcel Broodthaers' film Figures of Wax (Jeremy Bentham) beside University College London's waxwork of Bentham.
In 1977, Morris relocated to Nottingham to be the curator at The Midland Group, Nottingham. Here she organised a programme of exhibitions including Towards Another Picture with Andrew Brighton, Terry Atkinson's First World War Pictures (both 1977), Gerhard Richter’s 48 Portraits (1978), René Magritte Photography and Films and Nigel Henderson's Photographs of Bethnal Green 1949–1952 (both 1978).[4]
In 1980 Morris relocated to Norwich, Norfolk to run the Norwich School of Art gallery and teach art history. Morris renamed the gallery Norwich Gallery. She would go on to curate Norwich Gallery until its closure in 2007.
In 1982 she curated Artists' International Association 1933 to 1953 – a history of British artists covering the Spanish Civil War, the Artists' Refugee Committee, World War Two and the Cold War – at Modern Art Oxford. The catalogue for this exhibition remains the authoritative work on the AIA.[5] In 1985 she interviewed DDR artists who spent 1939–1945 in London and edited Third Text 15: British Art and Immigration 1870-1990.
From 1980 to 2012 she taught at Norwich School of Art and Design (now Norwich University of the Arts) with John Wonnacott, John Lessore, Ed Middleditch and Nigel Henderson.
Morris curated About Life: John Wonnacott & John Lessore at East Gallery and Norwich Castle which opened in November 2014.[6]
In 2010 Picasso Peace and Freedom, co-curated by Morris with then director of Tate Liverpool, Christopher Grunenberg, opened at Tate Liverpool. This major exhibition, which explored the socialist elements of Picasso and his work, was the culmination of 30 years of research by Morris.[7]
EASTinternational was an annual open submission exhibition that took place from 1991 to 2009 in Norwich Gallery and the historic buildings of Norwich University of the Arts.[8] Two different selectors were invited each year, and included Konrad Fischer, Richard Long, Lawrence Weiner, Marian Goodman, Peter Doig, Jeremy Deller, Nicholas Logsdail and Neo Rauch among others. In this time it became the largest international open submission exhibition in the UK.
Exhibiting artists have included several Turner Prize nominees and winners whose work first came to prominence through the exhibition including Martin Creed, Barbara Walker, Tomoko Takahashi, as well as many artists who have gone on to have significant reputations within contemporary art such as Rose Wylie, Phyllida Barlow and Lucy McKenzie.