George L. K. Morris

Morris was born into a privileged family in Manhattan, New York City on November 14, 1905. He was the second son of Augustus Newbold Morris (1868–1928)[2] and Helen Schermerhorn Kingsland (1876–1956), who were married in 1896.[2] His brothers were Newbold Morris (1902–1966), a lawyer, president of the New York City Council, and two-time candidate for mayor of New York City,[3] and Stephen Van Cortlandt Morris (1909–1984),[2][4] a diplomat.[5]

His paternal grandparents were Augustus Newbold Morris (1838–1906) and Eleanor Colford Jones (1841–1906). His grandmother's parents were General James I. Jones (1786–1858) and Elizabeth (née Schermerhorn) Jones (1817–1874),[6] the older sister of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1830–1908), also known as "The Mrs. Astor." He was a direct descendant of Lewis Morris, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence,[7] from the prominent Colonial-era Morris family of the Morrisania section of the Bronx.[4]

Morris attended Groton School, and graduated from Yale University in 1928. From 1928 to 1929, he studied with realist painters John French Sloan and Kenneth Hayes Miller at the Art Students League of New York. In 1929, he traveled to Paris with Albert Eugene Gallatin. In Paris, he continued his studies with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant.[8]

While in Paris, he became a confirmed abstractionist, and continued writing and publishing on modern movements upon his return to New York.[1] During World War II, Morris worked for a naval architect's firm as a draftsman.

Although Morris exhibited frequently during the 1930s and 1940s, his paintings and sculpture received greatest recognition after the war. He remaining a dedicated practitioner of his own form of Cubism, even as colleagues and friends turned to expressionism in the postwar era.[1]

From 1937 through 1943, Morris served as editor, art critic, and patron of the relaunched radical literary magazine Partisan Review,[9] where he advocated for abstract art.[10] After 1947, he began writing less and focused primarily on painting and sculpture. He was also a founding member of the American Abstract Artists, serving as president of the group in the 1940s.[11]

In 1935, Morris married fellow artist Estelle Condit "Suzy" Frelinghuysen (1911–1988). She was the daughter of Frederick Frelinghuysen (1848-1936) and his wife Estelle B. Kinney.[16] Their Lenox, Massachusetts home and studio, constructed in 1930-1941, is now a museum.[17] They had a dog, a red haired Pekingese named "Miss Rose," who was listed in the Social Register in 1936.[18]

Morris died in an automobile accident, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on June 26, 1975.[19][20] He was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.[21]