MORROW, ROSS (1932-1987)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"Shrimp & Fish" (c.1959)
oil on board
92 x 61cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
Morrow is an important, forgotten Australian Mid Century painter. Originally from Newcastle, Morrow studied at East Sydney Technical College under revered painter, John Passmore, and later became a prominent teacher at the institution. In his early career, with his raw palette borrowed from Drysdale, and eclectic, unique abstractions, his work was likened to friend and contemporary, Brett Whiteley. However, whilst Whiteley enjoyed a fruitful career & fame on the back of his Travelling Scholarship, Morrow's work was, and has remained, largely underappreciated. So much so, that despite the veneration he held amongst his contemporaries, Morrow only appears in one historical publication of significant Mid Century Painters, "The Australian Painters 1964-66" (Mertz Collection). He held his first one-man exhibition in Sydney in 1961. According to his friend, award-winning artist Keith Looby, "Ross was seen at the time by some of us younger students as a pioneer of anti-Expressionist sceptical interpretation of art form. Ross's work was too ironically glib to gain popularity but his approach was often re-interpreted and popularised by other artists... Morrow's re-interpretation of internationally accepted art form ignored art as a personal expression of the artist's ego it becomes, hence social expression, but to be accepted as such, a culture has to obtain the education, humour and intelligence of the artist who translates it." Leading art critic, Robert Hughes, wrote of Morrow, "Essentially a figurative painter, his emphasis on linear gesture relates him more to Olsen or Hill than to his teacher John Passmore. In 1961 a jeep trip through Northern Australia resulted in a number of landscapes whose rapidly scraped and flowing surfaces, in a narrow range of browns and reds, were indebted to Nolan; the blurred passage of the forms seemed linked with the experience of driving rapidly through a landscape rather than stopping to look at it from a fixed point." Morrow was as neglected as Whiteley was lionised. Tragic events in his life led to a battle with alcoholism, maybe too conventional to be glamourised by the art world. When he died tragically early as a result, his body was not found for several weeks, nor were there any obituaries. Due to this misfortune, Morrow's output was small and now his paintings are incredibly rare. However, his works are represented in a number of major institutions, including the NGV, AGNSW, AGWA & Newcastle Art Gallery.