About

Morris (b. 1949) is a contemporary American artist working in the Surrealist tradition. Restless artist experimenting with a wide range of mediums, his early drawings gave way to intricate collages in the style of Max Ernst. In the 1980s his haunting, solarized photographs were a distinctive part of his style, while since the 1990s he has worked primarily in the digital realm. Is work is marked by a disheartening sense of claustrophobia and paranoia. Along with his work, Morris is also known as a pioneering publisher of small press books and journals, the most well-known of which is Nyctalops, the first Lovecraft-oriented publication.

1949) is a contemporary American artist working in the Surrealist tradition. A restless artist experimenting with a wide range of mediums, his early drawings gave way to intricate collages in the style of Max Ernst. In the 1980s his haunting, solarized photographs were a distinctive part of his style, while since the 1990s he has worked primarily in the digital realm. His work is marked by a disheartening sense of claustrophobia and paranoia.

1949) is a contemporary American artist working in the Surrealist tradition. A restless artist experimenting with a wide range of mediums, his early drawings gave way to intricate collages in the style of Max Ernst. His work is marked by a disheartening sense of claustrophobia and paranoia. In the 1980s his haunting, solarized photographs were a distinctive part of his style, while since the 1990s he has worked primarily in the digital realm.

There is no irony in the artwork of Harry Morris However sophisticated it may be in technique and depth of purpose, there is in it an absence of urbanity, that hallmark of the worldly mmersing himself in the project at hand, Harry Morris does not stand on the sidelines paring his nails and chuckling faintly at something that, in its essence, does not take itself seriously.

Irony, usually unwitting, has been ruinous for superlative art that, for whatever reason, has fallen under the generic head of horror n the late 1970s, Harry did a series of works collectively titled Halloween in Arkham But his Halloween was not that of the child who is being tricked into participating in a ritual whose lamentably ironic message is that death and horror can be fun.

Or was it a version of Arkham as a Lovcraftian theme park where monsters pop up every second or so rather than whispering of the death and horror that the human race must deal with on a daily basis Like the phony dance of death and celebration of horror enacted annually on the last day of October, the skulls and tentacles depicted on the cover of many an anthology of supernatural tales more often give us a childish thrill, a sense of mortality and existential chaos with tickles or some strange and rare reason, however, Harry Morris seems incapable of trading in this kind of funhouse fare, this prophylactic irony.

Not that he is self-righteously serious, the artistic counterpart of a churchman pounding the Bible and preaching a hell-fire sermon t is just that he is in there, in the place of dreadful dreams, and he is sending out to us what he sees And nothing in these dreams is ironic, nothing is ever revealed to be just a joke on the dreamer ut none of this is to say that the visions of Harry Morris's art are not agreeably captivating and mysteriously hypnotic as gateways for those who like their dread served up in its purest possible form Thanks to the art of Harry Morris, pure dread finally possesses a geography, a home deep in some interior landscape where we watch ourselves rave in scenes of contorted glory, where we watch ourselves sleep in the paradoxical peace of perdition, and where we watch ourselves watching ourselves with the infinite eyes of dread his collection of over 300 images contains both a preface by Richard Matheson, an introduction by Thomas Ligotti, and a fascinating autobiography of Morris replete with period photographs he print run is limited to 300 copies, each one signed by Harry O Morris, Thomas Ligotti, and an Estate-approved facsimile signature by Richard Matheson.

Edition Details

• Limited to 300 copies.
• Signed by Harry O. Morris and Thomas Ligotti.
• Introduction by Thomas Ligotti.
• Preface by Harry O. Morris.
• Loaded with gorgeous full-page, full-color prints.
• Mohawk Carnival dustjacket, cloth with image onlay on front board, ribbon marker, signature page.
• Gorgeous dustjacket.
• Book size is 5½ × 7½ inches.

External Links

• Harry O. Morris: A Portfolio. Centipede Press page for Harry O. Morris: A Portfolio
• Harry O. Morris (ISFDB). ISFDB entry for Harry O. Morris