Annie Morris: When a Happy Thing Falls

This publication was created to coincide with the 2021 exhibition Annie Morris: When a Happy Thing Falls at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. A fully-illustrated publication to accompany Annie Morris’s first solo museum show in the UK with a text commissioned from Catherine Loewe and an interview between the artist and David Trigg, first published by Studio International online. With introduction by Helen Pheby and foreword by YSP Director, Clare Lilley. Exhibition photography by Jonty Wilde.

The Weston Gallery was filled with the artist's sculptures and a tapestry. It was like being in the artist's London studio, where sculptures, drawings and stitched works are in conversation with each other. The experience is like being in a family of artworks. In fact, The Family of Man by Barbara Hepworth, on long-term display at YSP, is a source of admiration for Morris.

“My sculptures are about holding onto something that's fallen, and to express the hope and defiance of life. The vibrant pigment on the surface is a way of trying to freeze the moment when paint hasn’t yet dried, and is caught in its most raw form. They assemble to create abstract paintings that escalate upwards and express the fragility we all feel in our lives. There is not a day that goes by that I don't draw something, and this is the beginning of all my work.” Annie Morris