Born Morris Louis Bernstein, in Baltimore, USA. In 1939 dropped use of surname. Studied at the Baltimore Institute of Fine and Applied Arts 1929-33. His work forms a bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Post-Painterly Abstraction. In 1936 moved to New York, and in 1947 to Washington, DC where he taught at a workshop and meet Kenneth Nolaud. On a visit to New York with Kenneth Noland in 1953 was taken to Helen Frankenthaler's studio and was influenced by her poured stain technique. First one-person exhibition at the Workshop Art Center Gallery, Washington D.C., in 1953: Kootz Gallery, New York (with Kenneth Noland). In 1960: ICA, London; Galleria del'Ariete, Milan. In 1958 he began his first major series of large veil pictures. Extensive output from then on, using colours with increasing purity and directness; his last pictures have regular parallel stripes of colour. Died in Washington.
