MORRIS, INA (1909-2001)

“Still Life With Pineapple” (c.1948)
Oil on board
57.5 x 73m
Details on verso
*private collection, Sydney
 
Morris is a forgotten Australian Modernist, and early member of the Merioola School (The Sydney Charm School). Morris began her studies at Swinburne Technical College in 1928 straight out of school, followed by a four year stint at the National Gallery School. By 1935 she was under the direct tutelage of leading Modernist instructor, George Bell, as a 'weekend' student at his Bourke St Studio. Here she became close with Russell Drysdale (he took her photo, image 2). .She exhibited at the Contemporary Art Society from 1935 & regularly exhibited as part of the acclaimed & exclusive "Group Twelve" Society collective of artists, alongside the likes of Moya Dyring, Arnold Shore & Bell himself at the Athenaeum Gallery in Melbourne..She joined the Victoria Artists' Society in the mid 1930s & in 1934 exhibited at the important Heidelberg Art Exhibition alongside all of the major Heidelberg School Artists including Streeton, Roberts, Conder, McCubbin, Phillips Fox, etc. She had a studio in Little Collins Street..In 1947 she relocated to Sydney, where she associated & collaborated with The Sydney Charm School painters such as Lymburner, Drysdale, Dobell, Smart, Olley, etc. .The Sydney Charm School, or Merioola School, was established as an art collective in a mansion in Woollahra in the 1940s. Their distinctive expressionist style was a darker form of Australian Modernism, & helped shape Mid Century Modern Art in Sydney. In 1960, Morris returned to her birthplace, Ivanhoe. 
 
This is the perfect example of the Sydney Charm School expressionistic style, and is very similar to the early work of famous Australian still life painter and friend of Morris, Margaret Olley.