Robert Morris (American, b.1931), born in Kansas City, MO, originally studied engineering before transitioning to art and art criticism. In 1966, he earned an MA from Hunter College in New York City, NY, having written a thesis on Constantin Brancusi. While living in San Francisco, CA in the 1950s, Morris developed an interest in dance, partially due to the influence of his wife, Simone Forti, a dancer and choreographer. In 1959, Morris moved to New York, where he continued to choreograph experimental dance pieces for the Judson Dance Theater. During the 1960s and 1970s, Morris contributed significantly to the emergence of several art movements, including Minimalism , Process Art, and Earthworks. Morris'''' first Minimalist forms were constructed as props to accompany dance performances, and through their simple structure, they expressed the Judson group''''s accentuation of the relationship between form and function. In the late 1960s, Morris began using more industrial materials, such as aluminum and steel, for sculptural works, and became one of the primary proponents of Process Art through his use of formable materials such as felt, string, mirrors, and dirt to create ephemeral works of art. In the 1970s and 1980s, Morris resumed drawing and painting, and experimented with drawing while blindfolded, among other artistic projects. His works have been exhibited at numerous venues, including the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Morris currently lives and works in New York.