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PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION

MALCOLM MORLEY (British, b. 1931)
Horses, 1967
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Dr. and Mrs. Leonard Kornblee, New York (label verso);
Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York (label verso);
Acquired by the current owner from the above in 1973.

LITERATURE:
L. Meisel, Photo-Realism, New York, 1980, p. 478, no. 1092, illus.

Morley was born in London in 1931 and did not discover painting until a brief stint in prison for theft. He studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1952-53 and then at the Royal College of Art from 1954-1957. He then left London for New York where he met abstract painter Barnett Newman (1905-1970). After experimenting with several styles of abstraction, Morley developed a 'superrealist' style in which his paintings were made to look like photographs. His early works were often based on postcards and travel brochures which later expanded into many leisure and sporting scenes.

At first glance, the present work's bright colors and flat surface appear to be a literal representation. However, the complicated process of painting he developed was inspired by the abstract movement in New York. Morley begins by dividing photographic images into smaller grids which he then paints square by square onto a large canvas, often upside down. These smaller squares are thus mini-abstractions which, when joined together, recreate the original photograph. Morley controversially won the first Turner Prize in 1984.