Altdorf – A 95-year-old artist visits her exhibition at Haus für Kunst Uri

Despite her old age, Amy Morrow has maintained amazingly in shape, especially mentally. When walking, the elegant little woman leans on a cane. But she makes her way effortlessly and decisively, with palpable joy and also proudly, through the exhibition rooms at Haus für Kunst Uri. She is 95, speaks only French and English, and she welcomes a large exhibition in the canton of Uri, of all places. To date, her work has been shown on a smaller scale, especially in western Switzerland and France.

Filmmaker Barbara Zürcher saw pictures of Amy Morrow for the first time nearly four years ago at “Peinture en promo” with Ian Anoll at Haus für Kunst Uri. In 2017, he showcased finds from his extensive collection in Altdorf. Barbara Zürcher was impressed with the artist’s work. Now she has curated the current show with the very appropriate “Everyday Poetry” with Ian Anol and gave Amy Morrow a lot of space.

Amy Morrow traveled to Altdorf with her two daughters. I stayed at a nearby hotel. I admired the canton of Uri: “the landscape, the lake and the majestic mountains fascinate me.”

I started drawing at the age of 16. Then she says in an interview, “I’ve already painted all of my life.” Ten years ago I stopped drawing due to my old age. But she has not yet fully finished her artistic work: “Today I still love to draw with colored pencils.”

Rediscovering especially in the selfies that can be seen as a young woman

Amy Morrow was influenced by her photo space at Haus für Kunst Uri. “I am re-discovering my photos,” she says. It has been a long time since these panels were created. You find it special, for example, when you look at the photos she featured in selfies from a young age. Amy Morrow was born in Paris in 1926, where she also studied painting. Today she lives in Le Lignon near Geneva. She traveled a lot with her family. The artist’s studio was always traveling with me. With her now deceased husband, internationally active mathematician Michelle Kerfer, and their two daughters, Amy Morrow, she travels between France, Switzerland and the United States. Time and time again she recorded impressions of her surroundings in her paintings. Like the picture taken in New York. It shows the view from Aimée Moreau’s studio in the 29th-floor high-rise building in Greenwich Village, where the family lived at the time.

Photos were often created in her studio over the course of several months

Aimée Moreau’s portraits surprise with their attention to detail and capture every day with the style of new objectivity. Light and shadow, the reflections in things, brought everything exactly on the canvas. “I arranged the most varied things I found in my studio environment so that it suits me.” There is a tidy boot in Still Life, a rubber glove next to an elegant white women’s glove, a doll and an open flower or turntable, a folding table, a rocking horse. Later, more and more plastic items were added. “Sometimes I paint a picture for a month or two,” she recalls. “And I happened to draw two pictures at the same time.”

The artist also captured the casualness of everyday life. Half-empty or empty wine bottles, broken glasses and dead animals hanging upside down. “I had to quickly advance in drawing,” says Amy Morrow with a smile. After all, she was also responsible for preparing the food. Her husband really enjoyed eating what he bought and used as a model for drawing.

The exhibition runs at Haus für Kunst Uri until May 16. In addition to paintings by Amy Morrow, installations and objects by Argentine Martin Milli are on display as well as paintings and miniature texts by Ulrich Meister for Schaffhausen.

More information about Art House website.