Maker and choreographer: George L.K. Morris.
Assisted by S. Frelinghuysen, D. Macdonald, N. Macdonald, N. Merrill, and T. Prideaux.
Original format: 16mm sound film 1.37:1
Restored to 35mm in 2001 by Bruce Posner
Featuring S. Frelinghuysen, D. Macdonald, N. Macdonald, N. Merrill, and T. Prideaux.
New music: Shane Ryan
Courtesy: Suzy Frelinghuysen, George L.K. Morris Foundation

The oddest... forms in nature may sometimes be the seed for abstract pictures. The markings may be made by a leak on the ceiling, a cloud, a piece of some mechanism, a newspaper advertisement, almost anything can suggest a shape for a painting. -George L. K. Morris 1941

Morris's films are the only known examples of an established American abstract painter creating purposeful film abstractions. Like his paintings, Morris's films combine rigorous formal experiments with humorous asides. Making brief appearances alongside the mustachioed Morris are his red-headed wife, Suzy Frelinghuysen, a brunette friend, and three Partisan Review colleagues. -Gregory Galligan

George L.K. Morris (1905-1975), artist, painter, sculptor, and first art critic of Partisan Review, studied painting with John Sloan and Fernand Léger. A proponent of Parisian cubism, Morris insisted that art aspire to a state of abstract purity. His work is defined by geometric stasis and calm, sometimes mixed with quirky references to indigenous American culture. -Gregory Galligan