Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry (2015)

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Black Dog Publishing (Nov. 24 2015)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 2.5 x 27.3 cm
ISBN-10: 1910433004
ISBN-13: 978-1910433003
 
Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry profiles Canadian artist Michael Morris during the period between 1964–1971 with a particular focus on his relationship with concrete poetry, considered to be among the first global art movements, springing up in South and North America, Japan and Europe.
 
Artist, educator and curator Michael Morris has been a key figure in the West Coast art scene for more than four decades. His interest in concrete poems underlies his desire to develop the relationship between one medium and another—this was a period in which his work shifted from primarily painting to photography, sculpture, performance and video.
 
Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry, a series of six painted triptychs executed in the late 1960s that form the basis of this book, embody this interdisciplinary thinking. Incorporating vertical mirrors, they were imagined not only as objects in themselves, expressing the pivotal role light plays in painting, but also as "props", before which a dance performance might take place.
 
The book features essays on Morris’ ambitious paintings of this period alongside texts on international and Canadian concrete poetry as represented by the work of Ugo Carrega, Henri Chopin, Lily Greenham, Jirí Kolár, Ferdinand Kriwet, Arrigo Lora-Totino, Steve McCaffery and Gerhard Rühm.
 
About the Authors
 
Scott Watson: Scott Watson (Vancouver, Canada) is director/curator of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and professor in the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Jamie Hilder: Jamie Hilder is a an artist and critic based in Vancouver. He has shown and published work in the United States and Europe, and maintains an active collaborative practice with Vancouver artist and educator, Brady Cranfield.

Michael Turner: Michael Turner is a writer of fiction, criticism, and song based in Vancouver. His books include Hard Core Logo (1993), The Pornographer’s Poem (1999) and 8x10 (2009).

William Wood: William Wood is an art historian and critic concentrating on the history of conceptual art and contemporary work in photography, moving pictures and installation.