Morris Louis was a pioneer of color field painting—a movement that succeeded abstract expressionism in the 1950s. Floral exemplifies his command of stain-painting techniques, in which he poured thinned acrylic across the canvas so that medium and support became one, working outward from the center as though the paint were literally “flowering” from the core of the piece. It is one of twelve paintings in the Floral series, all of which are unique for their condensed centrality and their allusion to floral imagery.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Louis studied fine art in Maryland. From 1936 to 1940, he lived in New York and worked in the easel division of the Federal Art Project that supported artists during the Great Depression. He later returned to the Baltimore area, where he experimented with different materials and paint applications in sessions he called “Jam Painting”.
Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Website
http://morrislouis.org/
