GRAVES, MORRIS (COLE)

born Aug. 28, 1910, Fox Valley, Ore., U.S. American painter best known for introspective works expressing a mystical approach to nature. His style was greatly influenced by the three trips he made to the Far East in 1928-30, and, like Mark Tobey, another painter of the Northwest school, Graves had a deep interest in Oriental art and religion, especially Zen Buddhism. In 1936 his first one-man show was presented at the Seattle (Washington) Art Museum. About 1937 he turned from oils to tempera or gouache, which he applied to Chinese paper. Some of his best known works followed, including "Blind Bird" (1940; Museum of Modern Art, New York City) and "Little Known Bird of the Inner Eye" (1941; Museum of Modern Art). He frequently used a calligraphic style in which delicate white lines appear against a dark background. A study Graves made of the Oriental art in the Honolulu Academy of Art in 1947 resulted in his series of paintings of Chinese bronzes. In 1954-56 he painted the birds and animals of Ireland. Shortly thereafter Graves left the United States to make his home outside Dublin, to escape, as he explained, "the onrush and outrage of machine noise." Before he left he painted "Spring with Machine-Age Noises-No.3" (1957), a visual cacophony sweeping over a stretch of grass.