Lynda Morris / “Dear Lynda…”

White Columns is proud to present “Dear Lynda …” an exhibition that considers the ongoing practice of the British curator and writer Lynda Morris. This is White Columns’ second exhibition in an occasional series of exhibitions and accompanying publications that focus on the work of maverick curatorial figures. (The first exhibition in 2008 considered the activities of New York-based writer and curator Bob Nickas.)

Morris’ exhibition consists of material drawn from her personal archive, including artworks, artifacts, catalogs, posters, invitation cards, and other related printed matter. The material relates directly to exhibitions she organized, artists she worked with, and the larger social and cultural context of her activities. Accompanying the exhibition is an 80 page autobiographical guide, available from the gallery that begins with Morris’s time as an art student in the late 1960s and ends as she approaches retirement after more than thirty years in charge of the Norwich Gallery at the Norwich School of Art & Design in Norwich, England. Along the way Morris records her encounters and collaborations with an extraordinary group of artists including Art & Language, Gilbert & George, Andre Cadere, John Baldessari, David Lamelas (whose early works Morris appeared in), Richard Hamilton, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Marcel Broodthaers, Gustav Metzger, Stephen McKenna, Nigel Henderson, John Wonnacott, Jeremy Deller, Lucy McKenzie, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, and John Stezaker, among hundreds more. The exhibition and publication can only scratch the surface of Morris’s extraordinary life and her commitment to working with and for artists.

As with the term ‘artist’s artist’ there should perhaps be an additional category of ‘artist’s curators’ for which Morris would be an exemplary figure. Having worked for most of her career in regional British cities (inc. Nottingham and Norwich), Morris’ ongoing advocacy for the social realities and political necessity of art is evident in her most recent major project “Picasso: Peace and Freedom” an exhibition and accompanying book that she organized for Tate Liverpool, England, a project that considered the legacy of Picasso’s involvement in and support of the Peace movement.

Organized by White Columns in collaboration with Lynda Morris, “Dear Lynda …” will subsequently travel to London’s Chelsea Space in the summer of 2012.

The publication “Dear Lynda …” edited and designed by Freddie Checketts and Jeff Eaton is available from the gallery priced $10.00.

For more information please contact the gallery at info@whitecolumns.org