Jacqueline Morreau

Jacqueline Morreau (18 October 1929 – 13 July 2016) was an American artist.

Life She was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Eugene Segall, a furniture dealer, and his wife, Jennie (née Horowitz), a milliner. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1943, and at the age of 14 Morreau attended Chouinard Art Institute; in 1946 she won a scholarship to Jepson Art Institute. At that time, the school was dominated by returning servicemen taking advantage of the GI Bill; it was overwhelmingly male. "I was considered a great prodigy. That was very nice, very ego-gratifying. I worked very hard."

In 1949, she spent a year in France and some time in New York City, returning to Los Angeles where she married; her first child was born in 1951. Four years later, she left her husband and, with her son, moved to San Francisco, where she studied medical illustration. She qualified in 1958. These two streams in her education – artistic and anatomical – enabled her to ground in observed reality her more abstract themes: identity, desire, memory, power and resistance.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C466/135) with Jacqueline Morreau in 2002 for its Artists' Lives collection held by the British Library.

Career Timeline 1943–1947 attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School and Chouinard Art Institute Los Angeles; 1946 began studies with Rico Lebrun at Jepson's Art Institute; 1947–1949 Los Angeles City College and Jepson's Art Institute; 1949 travelled to Paris and New York; with photographer Elliott Erwitt 1950–1951 Los Angeles City College and continued studies at Jepson's; worked with ex-Lebrun students at communal workshops; 1953 moved to Berkeley, California; 1953–1960 worked as research assistant at University of California for various groups, notably with Dr. Ellsworth, C. Doughery, and Dr. Timothy Leary; 1955–1958 University of California Medical School, San Francisco, received a diploma in medical illustration; 1959–1967 post-graduate studies in etching with Kathan Brown at Berkeley, and Gordon Cook at San Francisco Art Institute; 1967 moved to Massachusetts; 1969 lithography studies with Herb Fox, Boston; 1972 moved to London; 1989 Theatre Design, Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London; 1989–1995 visiting lecturer in drawing, Oxford Brookes University and Professor of Art, Regent's College, London; since 1995 visiting lecturer in drawing, Royal College of Art, London.

Feminist art movement Known primarily for her figurative paintings, Jacqueline Morreau's work is often discussed in relation to the feminist art movement. Together with Joyce Agee, Sarah Kent and Pat Whiteread, Morreau organised the touring exhibition 'Women's Images of Men' which opened at the ICA in 1980 and went on to tour across Britain at a number of Galleries including the Arnolfini. Morreau and Kent went on to edit and write the accompanying book.

Permanent collections British Museum Victoria and Albert Museum Tate Collections and Archives Arts Council Ferens Art Gallery, Hull New Hall Art Gallery, Cambridge Touchstones Gallery, Rochdale, Greater Manchester Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, mima Manchester City Art Gallery Pallaint House Gallery and Museum

Quotes "We have only a small space of time in which to make our marks on paper and canvas, to effect permanent changes in society before the barbarians once more close in … We must work harder than ever to make what gains we can in the consciousness of civilised people."