Morris Graves
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Bird
Signed and dated Graves -44. Wash and tempera on paper 63 x 79 cm.
Provenance
Willard Gallery, New York.
Private Swedish collection, acquired at the above gallery in 1966/67.
More information
Compare similar work at MoMa, New York, "Crow", 1942, object no. 277.1978.
"As Graves saw it, truth, when honestly and persistently pursued in art, invariably led to beauty. Not necessarily the sort of beauty associated with sumptuous flowers and dazzling sunsets, but the more quietly interior kind that induced insights and intuitions, inspired greater self-awareness, and invited a contemplative mood.
Grave's early works offer excellent examples of this. Neither Blind Bird, 1940, nor Wounded Gull, 1943 could possibly be described as beautiful in the usual sense of the word. Blind Bird, a harsh almost brutal depiction of a stumpy young bird with huge, sightless eyes, cuts right to the heart and soul on anyone viewing it." (Theodore F. Wolff, "Morris Graves, Flower paintings", University of Washington Press, text opposite ill no. 9.)