Michael William Morris
(Canadian, 1942–2022)
Leverhulme Scholarship, c. 1965–1968
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions (Framed): 49.5 × 55 in. (125.7 × 139.7 cm)
Description
Leverhulme Scholarship is a pivotal early canvas by Michael Morris, executed around his foundational period at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1965–1966). Measuring over four feet across in its frame, the composition features a central stepped ziggurat marked by fine gold striations alongside a secondary dark pyramidal form. Set against a structured field of slate gray, primary blue, terracotta, and forest green, a fluid peach ribbon sweeps across the lower foreground, connecting rigid geometric structure with painterly movement. The ziggurat motif became a primary symbol throughout Morris' career, representing a bridge between ancient architecture, concrete poetry, and modernist spatial geometry.
Winning the Leverhulme Canadian Painting Scholarship in 1965 placed the 23-year-old Morris in the heart of 1960s "Swinging London." Studying under painter Harold Cohen, he absorbed the visual language of British Pop art (such as Richard Smith and David Hockney), Marcel Duchamp's conceptualism, and European Fluxus movements. During this time, Morris spent extensive hours studying the Indian miniature collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, drawing on their compartmentalized spaces, flattened perspectives, and jewel-like color blocking to organize his canvases into distinct geometric zones. Departing from traditional art-school color theory, he built a commercial palette directly from mass media, candy wrappers, pool-table felts, cigarette packaging, and print advertising—blending these saturated hues with a fascination for 1930s Art Deco cinema and Busby Berkeley musical set design to transform ziggurats and stepped forms into metaphors for modern glamour and urban spectacle.
Upon returning to Canada in 1966, Morris brought this high-energy European aesthetic back to the Pacific Northwest. Appointed Acting Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery, he leveraged his international connections to help transform Vancouver into a major hub for contemporary experimental art. This transformative era laid the direct groundwork for his subsequent co-founding of Image Bank (with Vincent Trasov in 1969) and the Western Front (in 1973), two of North America's most influential artist-run conceptual spaces.
Major Accolades & Recognition
Leverhulme Canadian Painting Scholarship: Awarded to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1965).
Avant-Garde Leadership: Co-founder of seminal Vancouver institutions Image Bank (1969) and the Western Front (1973).
Governor General's Award: Recipient in Visual and Media Arts (2011).
Audain Prize: Awarded for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (2015).
Selected Permanent Collections
Museum of Modern Art / MoMA (New York, NY)
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
Art Gallery of Ontario / AGO (Toronto, ON)
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC (Vancouver, BC)
Michael William Morris
(Canadian, 1942–2022)
Leverhulme Scholarship, c. 1965–1968
Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions (Framed): 49.5 × 55 in. (125.7 × 139.7 cm)
Description
Leverhulme Scholarship is a pivotal early canvas by Michael Morris, executed around his foundational period at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1965–1966). Measuring over four feet across in its frame, the composition features a central stepped ziggurat marked by fine gold striations alongside a secondary dark pyramidal form. Set against a structured field of slate gray, primary blue, terracotta, and forest green, a fluid peach ribbon sweeps across the lower foreground, connecting rigid geometric structure with painterly movement. The ziggurat motif became a primary symbol throughout Morris' career, representing a bridge between ancient architecture, concrete poetry, and modernist spatial geometry.
Winning the Leverhulme Canadian Painting Scholarship in 1965 placed the 23-year-old Morris in the heart of 1960s "Swinging London." Studying under painter Harold Cohen, he absorbed the visual language of British Pop art (such as Richard Smith and David Hockney), Marcel Duchamp's conceptualism, and European Fluxus movements. During this time, Morris spent extensive hours studying the Indian miniature collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, drawing on their compartmentalized spaces, flattened perspectives, and jewel-like color blocking to organize his canvases into distinct geometric zones. Departing from traditional art-school color theory, he built a commercial palette directly from mass media, candy wrappers, pool-table felts, cigarette packaging, and print advertising—blending these saturated hues with a fascination for 1930s Art Deco cinema and Busby Berkeley musical set design to transform ziggurats and stepped forms into metaphors for modern glamour and urban spectacle.
Upon returning to Canada in 1966, Morris brought this high-energy European aesthetic back to the Pacific Northwest. Appointed Acting Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery, he leveraged his international connections to help transform Vancouver into a major hub for contemporary experimental art. This transformative era laid the direct groundwork for his subsequent co-founding of Image Bank (with Vincent Trasov in 1969) and the Western Front (in 1973), two of North America's most influential artist-run conceptual spaces.
Major Accolades & Recognition
Leverhulme Canadian Painting Scholarship: Awarded to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, London (1965).
Avant-Garde Leadership: Co-founder of seminal Vancouver institutions Image Bank (1969) and the Western Front (1973).
Governor General's Award: Recipient in Visual and Media Arts (2011).
Audain Prize: Awarded for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (2015).
Selected Permanent Collections
Museum of Modern Art / MoMA (New York, NY)
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
Art Gallery of Ontario / AGO (Toronto, ON)
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, UBC (Vancouver, BC)
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