Keith Anthony Morrison, Commander of Distinction (C.D.), born May 20, 1942), is a Jamaican-born painter, printmaker, educator, critic, curator and administrator.
He has exhibited worldwide, including in the Venice Biennale; the Caribbean Biennale; the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, Monterrey, Mexico; the Smithsonian American Museum; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Pennsylvania Academy of Art; and the de Young Museum, San Francisco. In the USA he has had solo exhibitions in cities such as New York, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Boston. Worldwide he has exhibited in countries such as Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Japan, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, Liberia, Argentina, Mexico and India.
Morrison has had a significant career as a writer also, having published in many periodicals and museum catalogs. His 1979 article "Art Criticism: A Pan-African Point of View" (Pub. New Art Examiner) is widely considered a landmark theory of abstraction by African American artists. Among his many other publications are: "African American visual Aesthetics" (Smithsonian, Press 1996); "Pin-pricked Deities: The Art of Joyce Scott" (Baltimore Museum, 2000; Keith Anthony Morrison is also a curator, having organized exhibitions in Cuba, the USA and his native Jamaica. He represented Jamaica as an artist in the 2001 Venice Biennale. In 2008 he represented the USA as a critic at the Shanghai Biennale. Morrison served as Dean of Tyler School of Art; Temple University, Philadelphia; Dean for the College of Creative Arts, San Francisco State University; Dean for Academic Affairs, San Francisco Art Institute, and Dean for the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was previously Professor and Chair of the Art Department. He was also a Distinguished Visiting Artist/Scholar at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Previously he was Associate Dean and Associate Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago; Art Department Chair, DePaul University; and Assistant Professor of Art at Fisk University. Morrison studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a BFA in 1963 and MFA in 1965. Keith Morrison, a book written by art historian Dr. Rene Ater, was published by Pomegranate Press in 2004.
Career
Morrison studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with academics at the University of Chicago, and earned a BFA in spring 1963. In the fall 1963, he returned to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning an MFA in 1965. He completed further graduate study at DePaul University and Loyola University, earning the equivalent of a master's degree in Art Education in 1967. He holds the Jamaican title of National Honors, Commander in the Order of Distinction (C.D.).
Morrison has exhibited his paintings and prints across the US, his native Jamaica, and abroad and was selected to represent Jamaica at the 2001 Venice Biennale. His paintings, drawings and prints have been shown in countries such as China, Columbia, Brazil, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Liberia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Japan.
Collections
His works are included in numerous private and public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Art, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the National Museum of American Art; the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Museum of Modern Art, Monterrey, the High Museum, Mexico; the Caribbean Biennale, the Havana Biennale, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the World Bank; the Washington Post; the Burrell Advertising Collection, and the Jamaica Institute of Art.