Morris Louis (1912-1962) made some of the most enigmatic, unabashedly beautiful paintings in the history of abstraction, confrontational expanses that stir our feelings through pure relationships of color and gesture.

— The Wall Street Journal, October 15 2013

Illuminating unknown aspects of the ground breaking artist’s practice, Morris Louis: Unveiled presents more than 25 works, including several large-scale paintings and a number of rarely seen drawings that comprise a recent gift to the BMA from the artist’s widow’s estate. Exhibition highlights include two unusual and exuberantly gestural paintings Silver III, 1953, and Untitled 5-76, 1956 as well as the iconic Dalet Beth 'veil' painting.

Born, raised, and educated in Baltimore, Louis became a celebrated originator of the Washington Color School. Related works on paper by Klee, Matisse, Miró, Picasso, and Pollock demonstrate his range of influences.

Leading up to the exhibition, Curator of Contemporary Art Hileman worked with emerging art historian Antonia Pocock, a Ph.D. candidate at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Pocock has been investigating Louis' approach to abstraction, especially in the BMA's atypical examples of paintings and drawings from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s. New research by Pocock will be published in a free exhibition brochure and also presented in a public lecture.