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photo by
Bernard Mitchell. JOHN MEIRION MORRIS
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"Lleu ar Moch", 1989
drawing/conte/pastel
61x48cm
"Modron", 1991
bronze
68x38cm
"Bird Choir", 1996
bronze maquette on slate plinth
72x60cm(artist's collection)
Meirion Morris was born 1936 in Llanuwchllyn, Merionethshire, Mid-Wales. From 1955 to 1959 he studied at Liverpool College of Art, and in 1959/60 did a Postgraduate Year in Sculpture. In 1985 he obtained his M.Phil for research into Celtic La Tene Art. Between 1981 and 1985 he worked as a full-time sculptor at Llanuwchlly. In 1984 he was one of the founder members, and the first chairman, of GWELED - a society for the visual arts in Wales.
Artist's Statement: "I find that I tend to dismiss the majority of art today with contempt. It seems to be a form of self-indulgence or sensationalism. It is just as conventional and degrading as the populist sentimental landscape painting. Generally speaking, I do not feel art today...addresses our reality today - it does not address our needs, our fears, and our aspirations...I believe imagination is the key to what we see, feel, fear & hope about our world today. Not only that, I believe in an imagination steeped in a specific tradition. In my experience it was a specific Welsh tradition...that eventually led me to the magic of an old, old tradtition - the Celtic & Neolithic tradition - a tradition steeped in the spiritual, that addresses the needs of the people" (quoted from J.M.Morris, 1999, 'Imagination & the Magic of Tradition' in Certain Welsh Artists by Iwan Bala).
"To understand the significance of John Meirion Morris' sculpture we have to turn against the shaping energies of our century and dramatically re-envisage the role of the artist as a kind of spiritual agent, as the symbolic mediator of contending universal energies. This is no easy matter and the task is fraught with difficulty. from the start, one is almost bound to be misunderstood. Even the words we need - mystic, visionary, sacred, spiritual, cosmic - seem all but corrupt and close to inner exhaustion. The language necessary for the analysis hovers on the edge of vacuity, inviting conceptual confusion and the failure of any precise communication. And yet the attempt must be made, not only because, again & again, against the ideology of Modernism, many of the most significant artists throughout the 20th century have insisted on the religious nature of their work" (quoted from Peter Abbs, 1994, 'On the Fine Art of Sacred Sculpture' in PLANET 105, p.47).
Teaching Experience:
1961-64 Head of Art at Llanidloes High School in Wales. Also, first director of the Llanidloes Opera Society, producing Gilbert and Sullivan operas; 1964-66 Assistant Lecturer at the Mid-Warwickshire School of Art in Leamington Spa; 1966-67 Lecturer at the Faculty of Art, Kumasi University, Ghana, Africa; 1967-68 Lectures part time at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Liverpool; 1968-81 Appointed lecturer at University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Directs plays. Designs several stage sets for the theatre and the Drama Department; 1985-90 Head of Art at Normal College (now part of the University of North Wales);Awards: 1960/1 awarded A.T.D by Liverpool University.
Commissions: 1981-85 several bronze portrait heads for the National Library of Wales; 1995 design of a modern cauldron for Celtica, The National Heritage Centre in Machynlleth.
