Ree Morton was an American artist who became known in the 60s and 70s for her abstract installation and sculptural works that expressed themes of women’s liberation and feminism. Her works often used soft, decorative household objects to make commentary on more serious sociopolitical subject matter.

Morton was associated with the postminimalist movement, a movement of the 70s that sought to build on the styles and trends of minimalist art.

The studio here looks like a busy, yet fun place. With the playful nature of Morton’s work on full display here, there’s colorful materials and objects placed together in ways that express an imaginative internal logic. There seems to be a lot going on in general – though there appears to be at least three or four distinct works in the photographic frame, it’s hard to tell where one work ends and another begins.

The studio space itself looks fairly clean and simple, with the white walls and polished concrete floors that one so often encounters in artists’ work spaces. The relatively un-cluttered space makes an ideal staging area for Morton’s installation works.

Morton also sometimes used text in her work – there’s a few moments of text visible on the wall hanging piece at the back of the room in this photograph. The artist often created text using traditional media like crayon and pencil – I imagine that there’s a desk covered in drawing materials somewhere just out of frame.

Ree Morton died in a car crash in 1977, but her work has left a lasting legacy including a 2009 retrospective at the Drawing Center in New York. 

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