Writing Archive Journal Archive
Exhibition Note: On "Morris Graves: Falcon of the Inner Eye, A Centennial Celebration” at the Michael Roesenfeld Gallery, New York
The New Criterion, October 2010 (link to orignal article)
There is an irony in Morris Graves’s status as a modern artist: in certain respects he was a medieval character. He worked mainly in tempera. He fled from one remote locale to another until he found himself on 195 acres in Humboldt County, California, which was finally sufficient to isolate him from the encroachments of modern life. A mystical bent prompted him to study Hinduism and embrace Zen. His efforts resulted in some of the finest religious art of the twentieth century—and not despite its syncretism and consequent lack of affiliation, but because of it.
[This article can be viewed in its entirety at The New Criterion.]