• the artist;
• with Andrew Emerich Gallery, New York;
• from whom bought, under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 1967, by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

• Morris Louis: Paintings never before exhibited: 1957û60
  • Andre Emmerich Gallery Inc. 1966-03- – 1966-04-
• Two decades of American painting
  • The National Museum of Western Art 15 Oct 1966 – 27 Nov 1966
  • The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto 10 Dec 1966 – 22 Jan 1967
  • Lalit Kala Gallery, New Delhi 28 Mar 1967 – 30 Apr 1967
  • National Gallery of Victoria 06 Jun 1967 – 09 Jul 1967
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales 26 Jul 1967 – 20 Aug 1967
• Abstract Expressionism: the National Gallery of Australia celebrates the centenaries of Jackson Pollock and Morris Louis
  • 14 Jul 2012 – 24 Feb 2013

• Waldo Rasmussen, Irving Sandler, Lucy Lippard, and G.R. Swenson, Two decades of American painting, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria 1967, cat. 50, [no p. no.], illus.;
• Bulletin, Sydney, 9 September 1967;
• Michael Fried, Morris Louis, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1970, illus. pl. 138;
• David Saunders, ‘Gallery building’, Art and Australia vol. 10 no. 1, July 1972, p. 49 illus col. (installation shot);
• Renee Free, ‘European collection’, Art and Australia vol. 10 no. 1, July 1972, p. 75, illus col. p. 71;
• Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales 1972, pl. 42, illus b&w;
• Diane Upright, Morris Louis: The complete paintings, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1985, cat. 164, p. 208, illus. col. p. 147;
• Robert Hobbs, Milton Avery: The late paintings, New York: American Federation of Arts 2001, p. 16, illus b&w;
• Anthony Bond, Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales contemporary collection, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales 2006, p. 425;

Literature

• Waldo Rasmussen, Irving Sandler, Lucy Lippard, and G.R. Swenson, Two decades of American painting, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria 1967, cat. 50, [no p. no.], illus.;
• Bulletin, Sydney, 9 September 1967;
• Michael Fried, Morris Louis, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1970, illus. pl. 138;
• David Saunders, ‘Gallery building’, Art and Australia vol. 10 no. 1, July 1972, p. 49 illus col. (installation shot);
• Renee Free, ‘European collection’, Art and Australia vol. 10 no. 1, July 1972, p. 75, illus col. p. 71;
• Art Gallery of New South Wales picturebook, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales 1972, pl. 42, illus b&w;
• Diane Upright, Morris Louis: The complete paintings, New York: Harry N. Abrams 1985, cat. 164, p. 208, illus. col. p. 147;
• Robert Hobbs, Milton Avery: The late paintings, New York: American Federation of Arts 2001, p. 16, illus b&w;
• Anthony Bond, Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales contemporary collection, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales 2006, p. 425;

Discussion of the work

Morris Louis produced several large series in his last years: two sets of Veils from 1954 and 1958–59 and the Unfurled 1960–61 are perhaps the most memorable. Louis’s period of artistic maturity lasted only about eight years, from his realisation of the liberation made possible by staining canvas instead of painting with a brush until his death at 49 in 1962. Ayin 1958 belongs to the second set of Veils, and is named arbitrarily with the 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, just as later works were to be titled by Greek letters.

By tilting a large, often unsized and unprimed canvas, then flooding it with separate waves of acrylic paint thinned with turpentine, Louis detached painting from drawing. There is no graphic structure, no armature or lines in these works, only waves of overlapping colour. The Veils usually consist of a central image of striated hues. In Ayin a tidal wave seems to pour down the canvas toward the viewer, who is pinned in front of the painting to experience it bodily. Because of their large size, the accidental effects of this technique are visible in areas of pooled paint at the base of the work, or evidence of folding the huge, unstretched cotton canvases to fit into Louis’ studio. The paintings appear to be illuminated from within.

Ayin was part of the ground-breaking exhibition Two decades of American painting, which toured Japan, India and Australia in 1966 and 1967. Visitors to the exhibition in Melbourne and Sydney usually received their first exposure to American Abstract Expressionism and its heroes: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. They also saw works by Helen Frankenthaler, Louis and Kenneth Noland, the new painters of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, and recent Pop Art by Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. Interestingly, the Art Gallery of New South Wales bought Louis’ Ayin for the collection, while the National Gallery of Victoria purchased Frankenthaler’s Cape (Provincetown).

Christine Dixon