Malcolm Morley Artist - his colourful & energenic scenes have the effect of heightening the viewers’ perceptions

Although an American citizen, Malcolm Morley (1931 – 2018) was born in London and therefore British enough to win the first Turner Prize in 1984. Morley`s work is a colourful combination of autobiography & myth.

Malcolm Morley was born in 1931 and grew up during the blitz. He spent time as a youth in prison, but changed direction and graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1958. Soon after Morley left for New York to be part of the abstract expressionist movement.

Increased representation in Morley`s art led to his ‘photorealist’ style which was counterpoint to his pop-art contemporaries. Salvador Dalí dubbed this artwork “Sharp Sybaritic Realism.” Dali predicted that Morley would `outgrow` this Super-realism which he did by inventing `Neo-Expressionism` - paintings of colourful & energenic scenes, many of disasters, effectively heighten the viewers’ perceptions.

Initially Morley sourced inspiration from newspaper pictures and in time expanded to mythology & historical scenes such as this series of prints from the Odysseys of Enoch Suite. At Roomscape we have the complete series.

In 2001 London’s Hayward Gallery featured a major retrospective of Malcolm Morley’s work. This year, in 2014, Malcolm Morley is featured at The University of Oxford´s Ashmolean museum until end of March.

In addition to the Odysseys of Enoch Suite , we also have the Fallacies of Enoch Suite .

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