Have I Reasons: Work and Writings, 1993–2007

Robert Morris, a leading figure in postwar American art, is best known as a pioneer of minimalist sculpture, process art, and earthworks. Yet Morris has resisted affiliation with any one movement or style. An extraordinarily versatile artist, he has produced dances, performance pieces, prints, paintings, drawings, and installations, working with materials including plywood, felt, dirt, aluminum, steel mesh, fiberglass, and encaustic. Throughout his career, Morris has written influential critical essays, commenting on his own work as well as that of other artists, and exploring through text many of the theoretical concerns addressed in his artwork-about perception, materiality, space, and the process of artmaking.Have I Reasonspresents seventeen of Morrisrsquo;s essays, six of which have never been published before. Written over the past fifteen years, the essays, along with the volumersquo;s many illustrations, provide an invaluable record of the recent thought of a major American artist.The writings are arranged chronologically, beginning with ldquo;Indiana Street,rdquo; a vivid autobiographical account of the artistrsquo;s early years in Kansas City, Missouri.Have I Reasonsincludes reflections on Morrisrsquo;s own site-specific installations; transcripts of seminars he conducted in conjunction with exhibitions; and the textual element ofThe Birthday Boy, the two-screen video-and-sound piece he installed at the Galleria dellrsquo;Accademia in Florence, Italy, on the occasion of the five hundredth anniversary of Michelangelorsquo;sDavid. Essays range from original interpretations of Ceacute;zannersquo;s Mont Sainte-Victoire paintings and Jasper Johnsrsquo; early work to engagements with one of Morrisrsquo;s most significant interlocutors, the philosopher Donald Davidson.Have I Reasonsconveys not only Morrisrsquo;s enduring deep interest in philosophy and issues of resemblance and representation but also his more recent turn toward directly addressing contemporary social and political issues such as corporate excess and preemptive belligerence.

Author: Robert Morris

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 288

Publisher: Duke University Press Books

Publication Date: 2008-03-14