Andrew Lambirth

Welcome home, Malcolm Morley

The 'last wild man of modern art' says he makes his mistakes work for him

Malcolm Morley in his studio: ‘Two words characterise my art — diversity and fidelity’. Credit: © Jason Schmidt 
issue 26 October 2013
The Ashmolean Museum has taken the radical step of embracing contemporary art, and is currently hosting (until 30 March 2014) a mini-retrospective of Malcolm Morley’s work, curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal and borrowed entirely from the prestigious American-based Hall Art Foundation. Morley (born London 1931) was the first winner of the ever-controversial Turner Prize (apparently David Sylvester threatened to resign as a judge if Morley was not awarded the prize), but has lived in America since 1958 and visits these shores rarely. The last time he was here was in 2001, for a full-scale retrospective of his work at the Hayward Gallery. We haven’t seen enough of his art in this country over the past decade, so this show is a most welcome event. Critics have described him as an abstract painter, a Pop artist, a photorealist, and an expressionist. Morley accepts all these designations, for really he’s just an artist, a painter who modifies his style to fit the subject.

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