Want more images or videos?

Request additional images or videos from the seller

1 of 9

Mark Morrison
Dodo Bird
ca. 1940

Price:$1,600

About the Item

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) Dodo, ca. 1940 Carved granite 7.75" wide, 5" deep, height is 7" Provenance: Estate of Mrs. Mark Morrison. Born: Kingfisher, OK Education: University of Missouri John Flannagan, mentoring and private instruction ca. 1940 Art Students League with William Zorach and Jose de Creeft Exhibited: Sculpture Guild Annuals Audubon Artists Annuals National Academy of Design Annuals Pennsylvania Academy Annuals Metropolitan Museum Artists for Victory, 1942. Newark Fine Arts Museum Whitney Annuals International Exhibition, Fairmount Park, Phila. 1950 Nebraska Fine Arts Metropolitan Museum Exhibition, 1951 Boston Arts Festival National Sculpture Society Annuals Memberships: Sculpture Guild, Inc. Audubon Artists Awards: Ellen Prince Speyer Award, N.A. 1950 Architects League of New York, Avery Award, 1958, 1959. Museum Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art National Academy of Design Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Whitney Museum of American Art. Museum of Fine Arts, University of Arizona Mark Morrison began his life as a sculptor while nearing his professional retirement. In the late 1930s and into the 1940s, he like many of the younger artists in New York City availed himself to the great many academies, museums, teachers and mentors it offered. He studied with John Flannagan before his death, and then Jose de Creeft and Williams Zorach at the Art Students League. Having an attraction and aptitude for the ideas of the direct carving movement and good thorough craft, he took advantage of the growing public interest in a new American sculpture, and worked quickly to become a contemporary of his teachers. Through the 1950s, he exhibited with them, sold, entered competitions, and won awards. He was a sculptor with a sure hand, a head for academy, patience, and promise. Morrison died suddenly in October 1964 having had just married his second wife earlier the same year. Mrs. Mark Morrison would offer a small piece for one more exhibition with a Sculptors Guild in 1965. The work was never seen again until 2025. Morrison was born on New Year’s Day in 1895 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, a small rural city not yet a part of the Union. The only child of a Protestant minister, and one of only 16 that in 1913 would graduate from his high school in Higginsville, Missouri. He studied agriculture at the University of Missouri, at some point leaving to enlist in the army. He would reach the rank of Major. After the war, he married his first wife, moved to New York and began work for Tidewater Oil. He worked with them until 1954, retiring as a vice president. At the time he was living at 8 W. 13th St., his studio already set up in a corner of the basement in his apartment building. The earliest exhibition on record for a work by Morrison was the Artists for Victory show at the Metropolitan Museum, 1942. Earlier the same year, John Flanagan committed suicide. The death was a terrible blow. Flannagan had been a profound influence, sharing both technical instruction and philosophical guidance. The importance of their friendship during the 1930's cannot be overemphasized. Morrison is part of Flannagan's artistic legacy, his only known pupil during the mythical sculptor's short life. Born in the same year of 1895, both artists came to NYC from rural regions of the US: Oklahoma and North Dakota respectively. In contrast to Morrison's stable life, Flannagan was a deeply troubled, difficult, impatient and unpredictable man. To have considered mentoring Morrison, his teacher must have seen a kindred spirit and artist of extraordinary potential. In turn, Morrison must have been a sympathetic and patient pupil who recognized the importance of overlooking personal shortcomings for the invaluable instruction of an artistic genius. Morrison did not show regularly for almost 10 years spending this time educating himself, exhibiting here and there. He continued his sculpture studies at the Art Student League with Zorach and de Creeft, spending most nights working stones in his studio. His mature style would become clearly realized by 1950, a synthesis of the naïve and the sophisticated, what Flanagan called "the image in the rock", and the polished fluid marbles of Zorach. Black Swan was featured in the Sculptors Guild exhibition "In Time and Place" at the Museum of Natural History in March 1952. And exhibit pushing those points in their mission to assist the public to fuller appreciation of sculpture, and that the sculpture and the architecture of buildings may again be planned simultaneous and homogeneously. Morrison's swan was the centerpiece of the modern living room designed by Earnshaw, Inc. In the same hall of the museum one year earlier Morrison and other members of the group demonstrated process at work in seven makeshift studios. He would continue to exhibit in Guild annuals and Audubon Artist annuals. His sculpture "Gosling" was given a special honorable mention from the Architects League in the Avery Competition of 1958, runner up to Zorach. In 1959, when he showed "Grasshopper" he won outright. He had moved his studio to a larger more private space a few blocks away in Greenwich Village. By 1964 his work had become larger in scale, his groupings more challenging and lively, more considerate of light and the nature of the stone itself. He had lost weight and for a man of nearly 70 years old was in very good health. His death was unexpected and unfortunate, probably of a stroke . His legacy has survived, largely unknown until now in a small ranch in upstate New York.

Creator:
Mark Morrison (1895 - 1964, American)
Creation Year:
ca. 1940
Dimensions:
Height: 7 in (17.78 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)Depth: 7.75 in (19.69 cm)
Medium:
Granite
Movement & Style:
Realist
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Wilton Manors, FL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU245216298032

'Sitting Ballerina' Cast Bronze Figure on Granite Base

$500Sale Price|50% Off

H 7.75 in W 7.25 in D 5.5 in

'Sitting Ballerina' Cast Bronze Figure on Granite Base

Located in Toronto, ON

Bronze sculpture of a ballerina taking a rest. Her leotard is patinated to a lovely green shade to contrast with the bronze colour of the rest of her figure. Ballet slippers are visi...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Tony Hochstetler"Rough Skinned Newt" (2023) By Tony Hochstetler, Original Bronze Sculpture, 2022

$2,400

H 8 in W 10.5 in D 9.5 in

"Rough Skinned Newt" (2023) By Tony Hochstetler, Original Bronze Sculpture

Located in Denver, CO

Tony Hochstetler's "Rough Skinned Newt" (2022) is an original handmade bronze sculpture that depicts a newt curiously looking upwards. Tony Hochstetler is a sculptor of unusual anim...

Category

2010s Realist Still-life Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Sergey OganovGolden Fleece, sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2015. Bronze, 2015

$13,153

H 12.21 in W 17.33 in D 4.34 in

Golden Fleece, sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2015. Bronze

Located in Riga, LV

Sergey Oganov was born in 1974 in the family of the famous Belarusian sculptor Lev Oganov. Sergey began his first steps in the world of art while still being a schoolboy, helping hi...

Category

2010s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Sergey OganovGlove. Sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2012. Bronze, 2012

$10,761

H 7.88 in W 16.15 in D 6.3 in

Glove. Sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2012. Bronze

Located in Riga, LV

Sergey Oganov was born in 1974 in the family of the famous Belarusian sculptor Lev Oganov. Sergey began his first steps in the world of art while still being a schoolboy, helping hi...

Category

2010s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Sergey OganovNomad. Sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2014. Bronze, 2014

$13,153

H 14.18 in W 14.18 in D 4.34 in

Nomad. Sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2014. Bronze

Located in Riga, LV

Sergey Oganov was born in 1974 in the family of the famous Belarusian sculptor Lev Oganov. Sergey began his first steps in the world of art while still being a schoolboy, helping hi...

Category

2010s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Sergey OganovRook of Heroes, sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2021. Bronze

$14,348

H 15.7 in W 9.8 in D 7.1 in

Rook of Heroes, sculpture by Sergey Oganov. 2021. Bronze

Located in Riga, LV

Sergey Oganov was born in 1974 in the family of the famous Belarusian sculptor Lev Oganov. Sergey began his first steps in the world of art while still being a schoolboy, helping hi...

Category

2010s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Gary AlsumKimiko, 2005

$22,500

H 54 in W 19 in D 20 in

Kimiko

By Gary Alsum

Located in Loveland, CO

Kimiko by Gary Alsum Bronze ed/7, 54x19x20", comes with 3" high, 24" diameter sandstone round base as pictured in the garden images. Young woman in traditional attire holding an fan. Ideal scale for a garden setting. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Taking the knowledge passed on from artists such as Fritz White, Glenna Goodacre...

Category

Early 2000s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Sandstone, Bronze

Irena OrlovWild Running Horse Three-Dimensional Painting Sculpture on Wood 40HX30" W, 2019

$7,800Sale Price|22% Off

H 40 in W 30 in D 1.5 in

Wild Running Horse Three-Dimensional Painting Sculpture on Wood 40HX30" W

By Irena Orlov

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Wild Running Horse Three-Dimensional Painting on Wood 40H X 30" W 2019 in Los Angeles Collaborative Artwork - Irena Orlov-Zeev Orlov SPECIFICATIONS: Combines Painting and Sculptur...

Category

2010s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Alabaster

Irena OrlovWild Running Horse Three-Dimensional Painting on Wood 40H X 30" W, 2019

$15,000

H 40 in W 30 in D 1.5 in

Wild Running Horse Three-Dimensional Painting on Wood 40H X 30" W

By Irena Orlov

Located in Los Angeles, CA

Wild Running Horse Three-Dimensional Painting on Wood 40H X 30" W 2019 in Los Angeles Collaborative Artwork - Irena Orlov-Zeev Orlov SPECIFICATIONS: Combines Painting and Sculptur...

Category

2010s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Alabaster

Salvatore AlbanoScultura in marmo italiana ritratto di fanciulla religiosa del XIX secolo, 1890

$7,174

H 18.12 in W 9.06 in D 10.24 in

Scultura in marmo italiana ritratto di fanciulla religiosa del XIX secolo

Located in Florence, IT

Il busto marmoreo, datato 1890, appartiene alla sua età adulta, nello specifico all’ultimo anno della sua vita, quando era molto richiesto e aveva uno studio molto prolifico a Firenz...

Category

1890s Realist Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Marble

More From This Seller

View All

Mark MorrisonMonkey, ca. 1940

Monkey

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) Monkey, ca. 1940 Carved New Hampshire granite 8.5" by 5", height is 16.5" Provenance: Estate of Mrs. Mark Morrison. Born: Kingfisher, OK Education: ...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Sculptures

Materials

Granite

Mark MorrisonSleeping Cat, ca. 1940

Sleeping Cat

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) Sleeping Cat, ca. 1940 Carved Vermont granite 7.5" wide, 5" deep, height is 7" Provenance: Estate of Mrs. Mark Morrison. Born: Kingfisher, OK Educat...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Sculptures

Materials

Granite

Mark MorrisonCinnamon Bear, ca. 1950

Cinnamon Bear

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) Cinnamon Bear, ca. 1950 Carved red granite 11" wide, 11" deep, height (including wood base) is 15" Provenance: Estate of Mrs. Mark Morrison. Born: ...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Sculptures

Materials

Granite

Mark MorrisonEmbryo Lizard, ca. 1960

Embryo Lizard

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) Embryo, ca. 1940. Carved Italian granite. 12.5" wide, 8.5" deep, height is 5" Measurement are for stone form alone. It sits 12.5 inches tall at a pitch ...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Sculptures

Materials

Granite

Mark MorrisonWeather Prophet (Rooster), ca. 1960

Weather Prophet (Rooster)

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) "Weather Prophet", Rooster. ca. 1940. Carved Granite. 7.25" wide, 10.25" deep, height is 19.25" Exhibition History: Whitney Museum, 1949 Annual of Con...

Category

Mid-20th Century Realist Sculptures

Materials

Granite

Mark MorrisonMountain Goat, ca. 1950

Mountain Goat

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Mark Morrison (1895-1964) Mountain Goat, ca. 1950. Carved granite. 6.25" long, 3.25" wide, height is 6.25" Born: Kingfisher, OK Education: University of Missouri John Flannag...

Category