Life and career
Origins and training
Born in Kansas City, Morris moved through engineering, art and criticism. Dance became important during his San Francisco years with his wife, choreographer Simone Forti.
Places, turning points and artistic change
In New York, simple geometric objects made viewers aware of their own movement. Later cut felt, loose materials and earthworks let gravity and process shape the result instead of fixing every contour beforehand.
Beyond the studio
His dance, performances and essays helped connect sculpture with the moving body. Conservation and later fabrication are part of the history of works that can have more than one authorised realisation.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
Reading the selected works together
The felt tangle, hanging felt and performance show the body both encountering materials and becoming the work.
- 01
1964
1964
Site
- Material / technique
- Performance
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Guggenheim
A performance work; photographs document an event rather than reproduce a self-contained object.
- 02
1967
1967
Untitled (Tangle)
- Material / technique
- See museum catalogue
- Attribution / role
- Collection / source
- The Museum of Modern Art
Artist-wide context
Simple volumes look different as we move, making our position in the room part of what we see.
- 03
1969
1969
Untitled
- Material / technique
- Felt
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA
Cut strips accept gravity rather than preserve a carved contour.
Materials, marks and colour
Media and surface
Rigid boards and steel contrast with flexible felt.
Marks and structure
Cutting, dropping and hanging let gravity determine some relationships.
Palette and light
Material colour, shadows and bodily position can replace a conventional painted palette.