Dr Desmond Morris: World famous Artist, Anthropologist - and Swindonian
The monthly Ink Heritage Focus
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This is our monthly ‘Heritage focus’ editions which will normally appear on the third Thursday of every month. The first Thursday is ‘Business’, and the second Thursday of the month is ‘Education’, and the final Thursday is ‘Food & Drink’.
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The scientist, artist and pioneering TV personality with firm local roots
By local historian and author Angela Atkinson
The reopening of Museum and Art Swindon in the lovely Art Deco civic offices is coming soon. Or at least I hope it is. Like everyone, I await this event with bated breath. And, if I have to bate it anymore I’ll turn purple. And that’s soooooo not my colour. To be fair, I rather think the local elections have got in the way.
Anyway!
The prospect of getting to see our art and museum collections – and yes Swindon’s famous crocodile (gharial to be precise) – once more is a good excuse to talk about Dr Desmond Morris. And there’s three reasons for that. In the first instance he’s a son of Swindon. Well, Purton to be precise, but it’s close enough eh? Secondly, as a respected surrealist artist, he has some works in the Swindon collection. And then, in the third instance, he’s the patron of the Friends of Museum and Art Swindon. And more of that in a bit.
A familiar family
Born on 24 January 1928, he is a zoologist, ethnologist and popular author on the topic of socio-biology. His parents were Marjorie (née Hunt) and children’s fiction author Henry Morris.
Dr Morris’ grandfather was none other than the founder of the Swindon Advertiser newspaper, William Morris. There’s some useful info about him here on the Swindon Heritage blue plaque site. Do not, as many do, confuse this William Morris with he of Kelmscott Manor and the arts and crafts movement. They’re not the same person.
1933 saw the family move to Swindon itself.
Dauntsey’s, a boarding school in Wiltshire, formed the seat of education for the young Desmond. Then, later, 1946 saw him enter the army for two years of National Service. (Topical!) At length he became a fine arts lecturer at Chiseldon Army College.
Morris the artist
Aged five, Morris moved to Victoria Road in Swindon and attended the now long-gone Swindon High School on Bath Road. There he displayed an obsession for art.
At the age of 20, Morris held his first one-man show of his own paintings at Swindon Arts Centre and created a furore. Some 44 years later he returned to Swindon for a major retrospective.
Desmond, whose surrealist works have been exhibited all over the world, said at the time: ‘People think my painting is a hobby, but it isn’t. I was doing it long before the other stuff and it’s more important to me than anything else.’
In 2002, Swindon Council acquired a Morris original with the help of £1,000 each from the Friends of Museum and Art Swindon, and the V&A.
Girl Selling Flowers is a collage of colourful imagery with a gorgeous pair of ruby red lips at its heart. Desmond painted it aged eighteen, after returning to Swindon from London’s Petticoat Lane market.
Said Morris of this work: ‘I wanted to capture the colour and noise from hundreds of market stalls. Diana, who was a couple of years younger than me, was my girlfriend at the time.
‘I decided to incorporate her into the painting. Those big red lips symbolised Diana – they were her logo. These days stars have surgical treatment to get lips like that but Diana’s were natural.’ He added: ‘I have very vivid memories of Diana’s lips.’
Indeed, who wouldn’t!?