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| Part of the deaf art culture, Morris Broderson was born in Los Angeles in 1928 where he still resides. He has exhibited his pastels, mixed-medias, watercolors and oil paintings in Museums and Art Galleries for the past 50 years. A world-reknowned deaf artist, his paintings are part of the permanent collections in the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum, in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington D.C., Rochester Institute of Technology, Gallaudet College, Yale University, Stanford University Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Krannert Museum in Champaign, Illinois, to name a few. | |
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To my friend of 50 years, I am speaking from my deepest faith in your artistic passion and imagination-- not merely as a favor to you. I simply believe in you. Your work embraces a startling originality in concept and the highest possible artistic standards. It is much to your credit that your work incorporated the academic tradition of painting you studied at the University of Southern California , and that you were emboldened enough to go out on your own and paint from your heart and imagination. You were 25 years old then. I can still remember the day when you won your first blue ribbon in the Los Angeles Art Exhibition. The year was 1960. We, all of us, had experienced such a powerful impact when we first saw your painting Bus Stop. It shows a boy holding a huge fish while waiting for a bus. Your genius lies in your feeling for simplicity and warm humanity. I think you can still remember seeing my awestruck face when I first saw a number of large paintings in your apartment. That was where we met for the first time, thanks to our sweet friend, Maxine, who introduced us. Your work has won the hearts of the entire country. I believe you are the first bona fide deaf artist who carried his art into Mainstream America and singularly made a name for himself. Many of your works are in the permanent collections of the distinguished museums around the country, the most prestigious of which is the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. In sum, your work offers excellent inspiration and aesthetic value to the general public. Your work offers tremendous cultural enrichment for everyone, especially our young deaf artists all over the country. On the behalf of the International Center on Deafness and the Arts, I am proud and honored to present this award to you in recognition of your great talent, courage and passion. Thank you, my dear friend. --Bernard Bragg |
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