George Morrison

Artist Price Guide for George Morrison Artworks

The value of your George Morrison painting, print, or sculpture is built upon a variety of factors. In what follows we break them down into five important factors to help you evaluate the piece in your collection. If you’d like to have your George Morrison artwork appraised or reviewed for insurance or fair-market value, request a free estimate.

“I seek the power of the rock, the magic of the water, the religion of the tree, the color of the wind, and the enigma of the horizon.”

— George Morrison

1. The medium of your George Morrison artwork

Paintings

The vast majority of George Morrison’s works are paintings. He created a wide variety, working in oils, watercolors, and gouaches. The value of his paintings are relatively equal in terms of medium, though watercolors tend to be worth less than oils.

Prints

Many of Morrison’s works were drawings later made into prints. He even had a show at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis exhibiting a number of them. They tend to be highly geometric and very detailed. Although their value usually only reaches about 1/10 of a painting’s, Morrison’s prints are still very desirable in today’s market.

Drawings

George Morrison’s drawings inspired many of his prints. They are very appealing but don’t command nearly the size and value of the paintings. Most drawings are worth about double his prints and about a fifth that of a painting of similar size.

Sculptures

George Morrison’s most famous works happen to be sculptures. He often made them very large and placed them in particularly public places at the behest of patrons who wanted to buy big dramatic works from him. These typically take one of two forms: large driftwood collages or large totems. More common but less valuable are his smaller works — desktop-sized churingas.

Currently the outstanding price ever paid for Morrison’s work remains a large driftwood sculpture. The sculptures can be valued in the six figures or more. Small sculptures that fit on a desktop tend to be worth about 1/10 of the largest sculptures. He also made a few metal sculptures, but they are less common; one has not been available for sale in a very long time, so pricing is difficult to compare, though they are worth about 25% more than their wooden counterparts.

Collages

For clarity, here we use collage to refer to his paper collages (not the driftwood sculpture-collages). These have a fascinating, distinct style — several pieces of paper, usually cut out of an illustration from another artist whose work he admired. Revere has sold many George Morrison collages. They tend to be worth about the same as his prints and about 1/10 of his paintings.

2. The subject of your George Morrison artwork

The subject matter of George Morrison’s paintings is a huge driver of value. The subjects of his body of artworks include horizons, frozen lakes, still lifes and representational images, totems and other similar small sculptures, inclusion of driftwood and other found objects, surrealist automatism / automatic drawings, loosely-defined abstract shapes, a group of paintings referred to as the “white paintings,” and his most famous Abstract Expressionist works. His Abstract Expressionist works of art seem to be currently worth about double of most of his other works from different periods. However, the market has been rapidly developing and changing over the last several years. The least-valuable works in his market today are his representational works.

3. The size of your George Morrison artwork

Size is one of the only consistent components of high value for Morrison’s work. Across different mediums and thematic periods, value is driven up linearly in relation to the size of the artwork. This is interesting because his later works — the small horizon canvas paintings — tend to be worth less than his larger, earlier, more impressive Abstract Expressionist works. But the size of the horizon artworks simply represented the availability of small canvases that he had prepared and his physical limitations later in life. His struggles with Castleman disease required him to make his paintings smaller so he could limit his movements and cope with the physical limitations the pain imposed.

4. The date of your George Morrison artwork

The date of a George Morrison work strongly reflects its style, so it’s difficult to separate the date of creation from style. Date remains relevant to the value.

Pre-1940

Before 1940, Morrison was just beginning to come into his own understanding of art by attending the Minneapolis College of Art and studying at other art institutions. At this time he had not yet moved to New York and was working in a very impressionist or realist style. These works tend to be worth the least.

The 1940s

The 1940s was an interesting period for Morrison. It saw him garner attention and exposure for still life and semi-abstract works which were very popular in New York at the time. These works are valuable today but less so than the Abstract Expressionist work that followed.

The 1950s–60s

The 1950s–60s mark Morrison’s prime as a New York Abstract Expressionist. He moved fluently among the major figures of the movement, and the work from this period — both abstract paintings and works on paper — commands the highest prices in his market today.

The 1980s

The 1980s saw Morrison settled in Minnesota teaching at the University of Minnesota. His work from this period centered on sculptural collage and the early horizon paintings. These are highly valued, particularly the larger driftwood works.

The 1990s

The 1990s are Morrison’s mature horizon paintings — smaller canvases looking out across Lake Superior from his studio at Red Rock. They are deeply collected in Minnesota and increasingly nationally, though prices remain below his 1950s-60s peak.

5. The condition of your George Morrison artwork

Condition is a major issue for all artworks being brought to the market. Any damage whatsoever can easily take 30% off the value once sold. Morrison’s Abstract Expressionist period, while being his most expensive, is also the period in which his art is most prone to damage and cracking. If you have a George Morrison artwork from this period, please let us know so we can assess whether it is heavily damaged and help you make sure that it is conserved and preserved properly.

The last and perhaps least significant aspect of value regarding George Morrison’s artworks is provenance — the story of its history of ownership.

Extras that may add 10% of value

• Was the artwork in a show or exhibition?
• Does the artwork have a museum label attached to it?
• Was the artwork in a museum collection at any point?
• Was your artwork owned by an important collector?
• Was the artwork published in a book or article? If you’re wondering, send us a picture and we can check our extensive archive of Morrison documentation.
• Is there a famous dealer who owned this work?
• Is there an interesting and unique story about Morrison working on this object or where it was in its history?

Notable George Morrison Auction Results

Untitled, Abstract Oil on Paper Painting

George Morrison oil on paper abstract painting. Signed and dated 1957.

• Sold: $60,000

Landscape, Mixed Media on Strathmore Paper

Mixed media on Strathmore paper titled “Landscape” depicting an abstracted layered landscape, 1953. Signed and dated along the lower center. There is an unfinished still life painting along the verso.

• Sold: $55,000

Untitled, Pen and Ink Line Drawing

Black ink on Strathmore paper depicting a horizon comprised of thousands of lines, 1972. A thread of lines runs through the center of the composition, connecting the upper and lower halves of the drawing.

• Sold: $40,000

Dappled Light Shadows (Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape), Acrylic on Canvas on Board

Acrylic on canvas on board titled “Dappled Light Shadows (Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape)” depicting a deep red and purple sunset on Lake Superior, 1993. Signed, dated, and titled along the verso. Housed in a frame custom built by Morrison.

• Sold: $38,000

Mirrored Image, Gouache on Paper

Gouache on paper titled “Mirrored Image” depicting an abstracted layered landscape in rich yellows and oranges with hints of green, 1956. Signed and dated along the lower left; titled along the left margin behind the mat.

• Sold: $36,000

Descent on the Avenue, Oil on Canvas Painting

Oil on canvas painting titled “Descent on the Avenue” depicting an abstract scene painted with thick and vivid colors harmoniously dancing along the surface of the canvas, 1962. Signed and dated along the lower right. Further signed and titled along the verso.

• Sold: $30,000

Hot Town Round Up: J. Quick To See Smiths, Paper Collage

Paper collage titled “Hot Town Round Up: J. Quick To See Smith,” depicting a fragment collage referencing his relationship to Jaune Quick-To-See Smith (Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Nation, b. 1940), 1982. With a plan of the artwork along a fragment of notecard affixed to the verso. Pencil signed and dated along the lower left.

• Sold: $13,000

Untitled Still Life with Pipe, Oil on Canvas Painting

Oil on canvas still life of a pipe on a chair, 1949. Signed and dated along the upper right. Pencil inscriptions along the verso of the frame.

• Sold: $11,000

Untitled Figures, Mixed Media on Paper

Mixed media on paper painting depicting an abstracted figure in blue, red, yellow, and black, 1946. Pencil signed and dated along the lower right.

• Sold: $11,000

Untitled Woodgrain Collage, Woodcut on Paper

Woodcut on paper depicting an intricate pattern of contrasting woodgrains in gold metallic ink, 1976–78. Pencil signed and dated along the lower right; numbered P.P. 1/4 along the lower left; Vermillion Editions Limited blindstamp along the lower left.

• Sold: $9,500

Arterial Structure, Ink and Watercolor Painting

Abstract ink and watercolor painting on paper titled “Arterial Structure.” Signed, inscribed “Antibes,” and dated January 1953 along the lower margin. Further signed and titled in pen along the backing. Inscribed “Purchased May 1955 at Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis, Minn” in red pen along the backing.

• Sold: $9,000

Surrealist Landscape, Lithograph

Color lithograph on Japan paper titled “Surrealist Landscape” depicting a horizon in vibrant colors, 1990–96. The colors fit together perfectly, as if pieces of a puzzle, to form a colorful whole. Pencil signed and dated along the lower right; numbered CTP 10/22 along the lower center; titled along the lower left.

• Sold: $7,000

Mountainside, Drawing

Ink on paper drawing titled “Mountainside” depicting a New Mexico landscape, 1982. Signed and dated along the lower left. Inscribed along a piece of paper affixed to the verso: “Western Landscape – ‘Mountainside’ – Imaginative Drawing – Frottage Technique – Chimayo, New Mexico – Dec. 23, 1982.”

• Sold: $5,500

Untitled Cast Metal Sculpture

Cast metal sculpture, similar in form to his Chiringa Form sculptures, which were inspired by aboriginal Australian churinga stones. Morrison understood these as a form of totem, an important motif through his sculptural work.

• Sold: $4,000

Untitled, Gouache

Abstract composition in gouache on paper, with textured radiating stripes in red and orange on a pale yellow background. Signed and dated 1959 along the lower left.

• Sold: $2,000