Morris Graves
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Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 - May 5, 2001) was an American painter and a founder of the Northwest School of Visionary Art.
He spent much of his professional life in Seattle and La Conner, Washington, but moved to Eureka, California in 1964, and remained there until he died. A museum there bears his name.
Along with Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, and Mark Tobey, Graves founded the Northwest School.
His works were influenced by East Asian philosophy and mysticism, which he used it as a as a way of approaching nature directly, avoiding theory. Graves adopted certain elements of Chinese and Japanese art, including birds, pine trees, waves and the Chinese and Japanese techniques, the use of thin paper and ink drawing. His works, such as Blind Bird often contain the work of American painter Mark Tobey, who was inspired by Asian calligraphy. His later paintings were increasingly abstract, and while they retained their delicacy, the Asian influence had gone from him.
