Frances Morris CBE | |
|---|---|
 Morris in 2018 | |
| Born | January 1959 (age 65) London, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Title | Director Emerita, Tate Modern |
| Predecessor | Chris Dercon |
| Successor | Karin Hindsbo |
| Spouse | Martin Caiger-Smith |
| Children | 3 |
Frances Mary Morris CBE (born January 1959[1]) was the director of the Tate Modern from January 2016 to February 2023. She had succeeded Chris Dercon, and is succeeded by Karin Hindsbo. She remains the director emerita.[2]
Frances Morris was born in London.[3] She attended a state school, Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, at the time a direct grant grammar, in New Cross, London. At University, she studied history of art, receiving a bachelor's degree from King's College, Cambridge, in 1978. She later went on to gain a master's degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art.[4] Her master's thesis deals with French painter Jean Hélion.[5]
After working at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, Morris joined the Tate Gallery as a curator in the Modern Collection in 1987, became Head of Displays at Tate Modern when it opened in 2000, and Director of Collections (International Art) in 2006.[6][7] In January 2016, she was appointed director of the Tate Modern.[4] As Director, Morris oversees one of the world's most popular art museums, with an attendance of over 5.8 million visitors annually; she is also credited with elevating Tate Modern's profile globally.[8][9][10] She is the gallery's first British and first woman director.[11]
Morris, along with her colleague Iwona Blazwick, was responsible with the initial presentation in 2000 of the Tate Modern's opening collection displays, organised thematically and in a non-chronological manner with mixing of contemporary artworks with those of Monet, Matisse, and Picasso. While the non-chronological style was controversial with art critics, it is now regularly used world-wide by museums and galleries; Tate Modern continues to display its collection in this way.[12][13]
In her career, Morris has particularly focused on the work of women artists, and worked to extend the canon of art history to include work from outside Europe; since 2006 she has spearheaded Tate's global acquisitions strategy.[7][14] She has curated several large-scale international collaborative exhibitions including, most recently, major retrospectives for Louise Bourgeois in 2007,[15][16] Yayoi Kusama in 2012,[17] Agnes Martin in 2015, and Alberto Giacometti in 2017.[18][7]
In 2018, Morris was part of the selection committee that nominated Ruangrupa as artistic director of Documenta fifteen.[19]
Morris was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the arts.[22] She also holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Essex, Edinburgh and York, from the Royal College of Art London and UAL.
Morris is married to Martin Caiger-Smith,[23] Head of the MA Curating the Art Museum programme at the Courtauld Institute of Art.[24] They have three children.[11]
