The Magical City: George Morrison's New York
A lecture exploring Native American artist George Morrison's depictions of New York and his place in the Abstract Expressionist movement.
Why we picked this
Morrison was an Ojibwe artist working at the center of Abstract Expressionism who's been largely left out of that story — this lecture makes the case for putting him back in.
George Morrison, an Ojibwe artist from Minnesota, moved to New York in the 1940s and became part of the Abstract Expressionist milieu — studying at the Art Students League, exhibiting alongside his peers, and developing a distinctive landscape-based abstraction. This lecture examines his New York years and asks why he’s been marginalized in the standard telling of that movement’s history.
Morrison’s work draws on both the formal language of mid-century abstraction and a deep connection to the landscapes of Lake Superior and the Great Plains. The Art Students League, where Morrison himself studied, is a fitting venue for a reconsideration that’s long overdue — one that enriches the story of American modernism rather than simply appending a footnote.
Free and open to the public.