Des Moines, 1918 – Southampton, 1979

Kyle Morris was born in Des Moines (Iowa), studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1935 to 1940, at Northwestern University, where he graduated in 1940, and completed his studies in 1947 at Cranbrook Academy, after serving in the Air Force during World War II.

A painter and art historian, Morris took a studio in Manhattan in the 1950s, moving away from the figurative art of his early practice to devote himself exclusively to abstract painting, influenced by the expressionist style of the New York School.

His first major solo exhibition was in 1952 at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, followed by various exhibitions at the Stable Gallery and Kootz Gallery in New York. In 1961, he was included in the landmark exhibition ‘American Abstract Expressionists and Imagists’ at the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York. In the 1970s, his abstract language became more minimal, with a more rarefied use of colour and line.

He received prizes and awards from the San Francisco Museum in 1953, the Walker Art Center in 1998, and the Ford Foundation in 1963. He has taught at Cooper Union, the universities of Minnesota, Texas and Berkeley, Stephens College in Missouri and was a visiting critic at Yale University Graduate School.