An Australian Loveletter (via Ancient Egypt) to Marlow Moss
- Setken Of Melbourne
- Oct 3
- 2 min read
Marlow Moss (1889 - 1958) was a British artist and sculptor that art historians classify as a Constructivist.
Born Marjorie Jewel Moss in Kilburn, London, in 1919 she changed her name to Marlow and adopted a masculine appearance. Around this time she moved to Cornwall and was a contemporary of the St. Ives Group.
There are great photos of her unique style of dress taken by Man Ray’s apprentice Steven Storm. Storm was the son of writer Antoinette (Netty) Hendrika Nijhoff-Wind, who was Moss’s lifelong partner.
Moss moved to Paris in 1927 and studied under Fernand Leger, where she also became a friend and contemporary of Piet Mondrian, who referred to her affectionately as “Miss Moss”. In fact I discovered her through reading Mondrian’s biographies, and became enchanted by her work and her life.
Her paintings and sculpture mesmerise me both, and I have recently taken to adding balsa wood elements into my paintings as she did.
Earlier this year I created a series of paintings inspired by her, and two of them are now in private collections after a showing at my Garden Party exhibition in April.
Art historian and curator Lucy Horwath has made inroads to reintroducing her to the modern art world, and Florette Dijkstra has just published a new biography on her, "The Leap Into the Light". It is currently published in Dutch, but in writing to the author she has assured me that an English version is forthcoming.
It has just been announced that NGV Melbourne have purchased one of her paintings, which will be the first Moss painting to be displayed publicly in Australia. ‘Composition yellow, blue, black, red and white’ (1956-1957) can be viewed at NGV on level 2 for free.
My painting Setken Meets Marlow Moss is based on and inspired by her 1935 work, Composition in white, red and grey.
Love the paintings and stories
Well Done Mikhael 👏