Bart Jennings Morse (August 16, 1938 – April 20, 2010) was an American artist whose work focused on the American Southwest. Morse's style was figurative and largely landscape-based, but also distinctive in his color, surface, and imagery.
Morse was a long time art professor at the University of Arizona. He was appointed in 1970 and retired in 2002. During his career he influenced many students and was at various times the graduate program coordinator and head of the painting and printmaking departments.
Morse was born in Sandy, Utah, a farming community south of Salt Lake City along with his fraternal twin Bert. He grew up in a log cabin on a farm settled by Mormon pioneers in the late 19th century. The farm was nestled under the majestic Wasatch mountains and bordered Little Cottonwood Canyon. The marriage between his mother Helen Dee Labrum and father Jennings Bryan Morse did not last, and Morse never knew his father. From an early age, Morse and his twin brother helped on the farm with relatives from his mother’s side of the family. The Labrums, a colorful family, were involved in a variety of activities to augment their small farming income, like selling second-hand goods. The farm was a repository of broken-down trucks, cars, farm implements, and a variety of old wares and junk.
Morse saw education as an escape from his rural roots. As a youngster, he was an avid reader and had a potent visual memory. He was introduced to Abstract Expressionism by his Jordan High School art teacher Don Olsen, who had studied with Hans Hofmann in New York. He gained entry to Brigham Young University and completed his Bachelor of Science in 1962. During his undergraduate years, he served in the Army Reserve. In 1960, Morse married his college sweetheart Leslie Jean Frey. The couple moved to Seattle where Morse completed his Master of Fine Art in painting at the University of Washington in 1964. The couple had five children and the family made frequent outings together hiking, camping, and traveling throughout the Southwest.
Morse lectured at the University of Washington and held short term teaching contracts at the University of Idaho, Grinnell College, and Portland State University before becoming a member of the University of Arizona Art Department in 1970.
As a young artist, Morse experimented with color field painting, into which he introduced landscape elements. Later he took up watercolor painting and developed several major series of watercolor-based work during his life including Casa Seton, R.V. Trail, Southwest Panoramas, and Tangle of Natural Order. These series include paintings ranging from large format watercolors depicting the varied landscape of Arizona and Utah to the magical realism found in the still lifes and interiors.
Morse spent much of his career exploring the Southwestern landscape. In a statement about his landscape work, Morse wrote “I have obtained much visual information as well as aesthetic excitement by taking photographs and producing small scale, on-site drawings, and watercolor studies while hiking, backpacking and boating in these areas. As an avid outdoorsman, it has been a natural, and at times reoccurring struggle, to pictorially depict the aggressive, passive and illusive light of the Intermountain West’s high desert.”
Morse was influenced by artists Thomas Moran, William Holmes, Gustave Baumann, and Maynard Dixon.
He made two sabbatical trips to undertake scholarly research in Europe and after his middle child Brooke Morse Young married and moved to Australia, he made frequent trips to Australia that provided inspiration.
Morse’s work is represented in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States and Australia.
Born: August 16, 1938 in Salt Lake City, Utah
Died: April 20, 2010 (aged 71) in Newberg, Oregon
Nationality: American
Known for: Painting and printmaking
Spouse: Leslie Jean Frey Morse (m. Sept 14, 1960-April 20, 2010)
Children: Marc Morse, Maury Morse, Brooke Morse Young, Magen Morse, Aaron Morse