When someone comes back from a wonderful time away, it鈥檚 a treat to listen to their travel tales. Michael Morris has just returned from seven weeks in Venice, and when we sat down in the garden of his Brentwood Bay home, he told me all about it.
Morris is the winner of this year鈥檚 Audain Award for the Arts, British Columbia鈥檚 most prestigious (and richest) art prize.
鈥淚n a way, I鈥檓 glad I didn鈥檛 have to go to the ceremony,鈥� he sighed. Instead, he sent a representative, and posted a letter and a couple of pictures from Venice.
His residence in Venice was sponsored by the Emily Harvey Foundation and, while there with his partner-in-art Vincent Trasov (a.k.a. Mr. Peanut), Morris did quite a bit of writing in preparation for a big show of the Morris/Trasov Archives scheduled for 2018.
He was clearly glad to be back in Brentwood.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so green,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ot 10,000 tourists right in front of your face every time you open the door.鈥�
His apartment was near the Rialto Bridge and the fish market.
鈥淚 saw some lovely things, nice surprises, big collections, this, that and the other. The big collections aren鈥檛 in Venice, actually,鈥� he told me. 鈥淭he best of Venetian art was taken away and you find it in the National in London, and at the Met in New York.鈥� The finest Canaletto and Guardi paintings are in the gallery in Dresden.
Yet all is not lost.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l find a small thing just by surprise, by accident. You鈥檒l come into some typical little palazzo 鈥� Venice is filled with them 鈥� lots of furniture and glass.
鈥淎nd all of a sudden a beautiful della Francesca that just like stopped me completely. Across the wall from that was a Boticelli of the Judgment of Paris. It鈥檚 a long painting with the three beauties, and Paris with the golden apple. He鈥檚 presenting one of them with it, and there it is. There鈥檚 nothing else there, just those two wonderful things. It鈥檚 lovely to find things like that.鈥�
Morris was there in time for the run-up to the 56th Venice Biennale.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an interesting Biennale,鈥� he reported, 鈥渄irected by Okwul Enwelor. It was very anti-marketplace. The artists showing and presenting are not big names, a lot of artists from Asia and Africa.鈥� He mentioned one artist who spent the entire time reading Karl Marx鈥檚 Das Kapital to the public.
Venice doesn鈥檛 really have much of a contemporary scene. Artists can鈥檛 afford to live in Venice anymore.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all curators that you run into,鈥� Morris observed, 鈥渓ots of curators around, and lots of shows.鈥� He took in a Cy Twombly retrospective, war paintings by Jenny Holzer, a show of German art from the Weimar period 鈥� 1918 to 1933. He especially enjoyed the show at Peggy Guggenheim鈥檚 palace.
鈥淓very piece is a masterpiece,鈥� he gushed. 鈥淪he had Marcel Duchamp to select pieces for her collection. They鈥檙e all of that period, wonderful stuff.
鈥淚t was nice seeing the [Jackson] Pollocks. I鈥檝e never really seen a lot of Pollocks, but they鈥檝e got a couple of galleries filled with them. That鈥檚 an experience, to see the real thing.鈥�
From Venice you can take day trips to Padua, Ravenna and Trieste.
鈥淭hings have changed in the 15 years since I was last in Italy,鈥� he reminisced. 鈥淧adua has the best Giottos in a chapel there, but now you have to make an appointment, and there is a limit to the number of people at one time. Of course, they are maintaining the treasures, but when I think back to the access we took for granted, I realize now how spoiled we were.鈥�
Toward the end of his stay, Ruth Wittenburg, president of the board of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, arrived for a 10-day cooking course with her friend Jackie Hamilton. Also on hand from Victoria was the gallery鈥檚 chief curator, Michelle Jacques.
鈥淪he has been to biennales before,鈥� Morris reminded me. 鈥淭wenty years ago, when she started at the Art Gallery of Ontario, she was there assisting Jessica Bradley. They were in charge of a film in which Rodney Graham, dressed like an 18th-century pirate, had fallen asleep under a palm tree. And a coconut fell on his head. Michelle was the assistant and had to run all over the place looking for things 鈥� it was her first time in Venice.鈥�
This year, she was accompanied by Haema Sivanesan, a new curator who has just taken up a position in Victoria.
鈥淚t was nice in that sense of being right away from things,鈥� Morris mused, 鈥渂ut I missed the seasons going by. In Venice you are not aware of that. The whole place is stone 鈥� not a blade of grass anywhere. Because it floods with salt water, you can鈥檛 plant trees. There are only pigeons and gulls, no bird song anywhere.鈥�
He contented himself with buying big bunches of flowers from the market to brighten up his room, which, being on a narrow passageway, was dark even at midday.
Morris is 74, and had a few difficult years health-wise, but he has blossomed in 2015.
鈥淵es, for sure it鈥檚 turning out to be a good year,鈥� he concluded. 鈥淎part from getting a cold when I got home, I鈥檓 just now getting the garage cleaned up [for use as a studio], and getting ready to get some work done.鈥�
In addition to the planned 2018 retrospective, he hopes to be part of the next Venice Biennale, perhaps showing with Attila Richard Lucaks and Lawrence Paul.
See you there.
