Signed & Framed Silkscreen, limited edition 23/100. Titled Moon & Water and signed Margaret Morris 1962 (all in pencil). On heavy paper.
21.5in x 25 in
wire on the back
Margaret Morris of Great Britain.
Margaret Morris was a pioneering teacher whose avant-garde ideas of the 1920s and 1930s paved the way for modern and contemporary dance. Born in London, Morris studied as a dancer from an early age. However, by twelve she was rebelling against the limitations of classical ballet and began to develop a freer form of dance, before opening her own dance school in 1910. Three years later, during a trip to Paris, Morris met the Scottish artist J. D. Fergusson
1891-1980 Dancer, Choreographer, artist and writer, daughter of the artist William Bright Morris and wife of the artist J. D. Fergusson. She was a child stage prodigy who did ballet training at Theatre Royal in London. Later studying with Raymond Duncan, the dancer Isadora’s brother. Keen to extend the expressive power of dance, she invented her own technique which she began teaching prior to WW I in her own Margaret Morris Movement school, staging her own shows. In 1913 during a Paris tour she met Fergusson and they formed a creative partnership. Between the wars more Margaret Morris Movement Schools opened in France and Britain and the Morris-Fergusson artist circle widened enormously. After returning to Glasgow on the outbreak of WW II the pair played a big role in forming the New Art Club and New Scottish Group of painters and Morris founded the Celtic Ballet, which in 1960 developed into the Scottish National Ballet.
Fergusson encouraged his wife’s artistic talents and she emerged as a clever, decorative painter and draughtsman, adept at catching a likeness in movement.
Among her books was The Art of J. D. Fergusson, 1974. The first comprehensive show of her work occurred at Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow, 1984, which held a centenary show in 1991. After Morris’ death her dance work continued through the International Association of Margaret Morris Movements in many countries.