Andrew Morgan '48 P'74 died on March 18, 2011, of Alzheimer's disease. The resident of Miami, Florida, was eighty-eight.
He was a history major at Kenyon and attended for two years before serving in the U.S. Army for four years during World War II, with considerable time spent in England. He then returned to Kenyon. He played football and basketball. Andrew did graduate work in history at Johns Hopkins University and earned a master's degree in fine art at the University of North Carolina.
He rented a "cheap studio" in New York City and became part of the city's vibrant art scene, becoming friendly with the abstract expressionists Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, according to the Miami Herald. While in New York, he also worked as an art critic for the Saturday Review. Andrew later became president of the Kansas City Art Institute and then taught art at the University of Mississippi. He joined the art faculty at the University of Miami in 1970, and, as chair for five years, is credited with expanding the department. He continued there until 1987, when he retired to become a prolific painter of Florida landscapes, the Herald said.
"He lived for art," his wife, Dahlia Morgan, told the newspaper. "Art was his religion. To the end ... he responded to anything visual." Dahlia Morgan is the former director of the Florida International University Frost Art Museum. Andrew painted abstracts with a sense of spontaneity, his wife said, but gradually became "more measured and organized abstract signs and symbols" before bringing his attention to landscapes.
Andrew worked with the oil bar, a thick oil-paint crayon. "His colors are gorgeous," said Brian Dursum, director of the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami. "Andrew's paintings have a kind of pastel look to them." Helen Kohen, retired art critic for the Herald, said Morgan landscapes have an "outward pleasantry" with an edge--"a snake, if you will, in paradise."
In an introduction to an exhibition of Andrew's paintings at the Gallery of Fine Art at Edison Community College in 2001, curator Ron Bishop said he was "caught off guard" when he first saw Andrew's work. "The paintings were exquisite. Andrew's work is technically masterful, fresh and lush, rich in color and visual imagery."
In his own statement for that exhibition, Andrew said, "Drawing was always a natural activity for me. This obsession was not always met with enthusiasm at the private elementary and prep schools that I attended. There were no art teachers. Even the college of my choice had no art department." The art landscape changed at Kenyon by the time Andrew returned to the College after his military service, in 1946. "This new teacher, David L. Strout ... was a fine painter and motivator--also my junior by a few months." He noted that his favorite landscape locations were the Oregon coast, the Florida Everglades, and "the magic of New Mexico."
His work was exhibited around the country, including at the Pietrantonio Gallery in New York City; Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut; Roko Gallery, New York City; Leedy Voulkos Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri; Lowe Art Museum; Viscaya Museum, Miami, Florida; and Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida; among others. His paintings can be found in a number of private collections. At various times, he was a consultant for the U.S. Office of Education; University of Michigan; Houston Museum, Houston; Chicago Art Institute; and the North Central Association of Colleges.
He was survived by his wife; sons Alex '74, Nicholas, and Vincent Morgan; stepchildren Adrian and Leslie Schreiber; and brothers James and David Morgan. Memorial donations may be sent to L'Chaim Jewish Hospice Program, 14875 NW 77th Ave., Suite 100, Miami Lakes, Florida, 33014.