Back
Marlow Moss: About
Marlow Moss
by Stephen Storm
This is what I wrote on the SnapDragon site in 2002, rewritten in 2012 and now brought up to date.
Marlow Moss is, perhaps, the most underestimated modern British artist. Most (myself included, at first) would probably struggle to correctly identify her gender, much less her oeuvre. She was largely ignored in herlifetime, when the likes of Nicholson and Hepworth were lauded, and is forgotten in the tawdry age of Hirst and Emin (or, perhaps, that should read forgotten until Lucy Howarth got to work).
My interest derives from my study of the works of Mondrian:
- My first encounter in 2002 was in a paper by Robert Welsh, when I started this page.
- I found Florette Djikstra's book on her efforts to reconstruct Moss's lost works.
- And while I was waiting for that to arrive from Amazon, found a catalogue from a 1962 exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, written by A. H. Nijhoff, from which the photograph is taken (thanks Frans Melk, dead link). The catalogue is almost entirely in Dutch, but provided the illustrations above and below and a brief history.
- My knowledge at the time was restricted to the notion that (to quote from the previous version of this page), "Moss had some correspondence with (and seemingly some influence over) Mondrian on the subject of the use of double lines in compositions. See here for more details."
- The next spurt of interest was in October 2010. In updating The Pictures pages, I learned that, in addition to her own work, two Mondrians were lost in WW2 which Ms Moss had borrowed from Wim and Tonia Stieltjes. Further details and eventual reconstruction here.
- Then in January 2012 I saw the Rome Mondrian exhibition which included three Moss's from the Haags Gemeentemuseum, my first encounter with the real thing.
- Back home, I decided that this page must be due for a rewrite and in a web search for new material found,
- a 2008 PhD thesis on Moss by Lucy Howarth which is available from the British Library EThOS service. This contains (probably) all that is known about Moss, including a Catalogue Raisonné. It even contains a reference to my Snap Dragon: first in a list of obscure web-site references to Moss and praised as "amongst the oddest".
- I made contact with Lucy Howarth and had the pleasure of meeting her briefly at the Moss show she curated at Tate St Ives in 2013 (reviewed here by Charles Darwent). Lucy has kept me informed of subsequent Moss developments including the 2017 Zurich show.
Nick Blackburn, June 2017
Contact
If you wish to contact the author with any comments or suggestions, please write to mail at ej-walsingham.co.uk
Disclaimer
I have tried to ensure that the information on this website is accurate, however, I will not accept liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this website. While I endeavour to provide a service of the highest quality, I cannot guarantee that this will be uninterrupted or error-free. I am not responsible for claims brought by third parties arising from your use of this website. I am not responsibile for the contents of linked websites. The inclusion of any link should not be taken as endorsement of any kind of the linked website or of any association with its operators. I have no control over the availability of the linked pages.
Copyright
Material on this website, including text and images, is protected by copyright, in many cases held by other parties and that is identified where known. It may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Prior written consent of the copyright holder must be obtained for any other use of material. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the copyright owner(s) as specified. No part of this site may be distributed or copied for any commercial purpose.
Data protection
The site complies with the Data Protection Act 1998 (the "Act"). For the purposes of the Act, the web administrator is the Data Controller.
No information on the site's users is stored on-site and so none can be given or sold to anyone.
Cookies
Anonymous site traffic statistics are recorded by Google Analytics, Flag Counter.com and LCN.com, the service provider. External sites (for example those on the links page, when there is one) will have their own policies on the use of cookies and should provide explanations of those policies. Users can turn off cookies in their internet settings, but this might affect the user experience when viewing other sites.
The Gov.uk web site links to about.cookies.org for further details on how to manage cookies.
Accessibility
Many sites link to the BBC's My Web My Way pages for suggestions on improving users' experience of web pages (although the pages are no longer being maintained).
Acknowledgements
The site is indebted to the those who have produced its source material, notably Dr. Lucy Howarth and Florette Dijkstra. These are detailed on the Sources page.