Master of Light: how one man went from poverty to prison to painting

The Guardian, November 16, 2022: Master of Light: how one man went from poverty to prison to painting

“The first images in the HBO documentary Master of Light show George Anthony Morton chopping up white powder. That crafty opening knowingly plays on our assumptions that Morton is cooking dope. A few beats later and it’s revealed that he’s actually just making paint.

“Morton acknowledges the fake-out on a Zoom call. ‘I was preparing drugs in a similar fashion,’ the ex-convict turned celebrated painter says with an ear-to-ear grin. He also praises the way the Dutch film-maker Rosa Ruth Boesten encapsulates the Kansas City native’s harrowing and inspiring journey with a few suggestive strokes.

“Morton spent his entire 20s in federal penitentiaries, serving an 11-year sentence for drug charges. While locked up, he found comfort and therapy in art, honing his craft and painting striking portraits that are regularly compared to those by Rembrandt. The Dutch painter’s chiaroscuro style, playing with light and shade, becomes a visual motif in both Morton’s life and work.

“In Master of Light, Morton walks through the European art space like a disruptive presence, a Black man in his camo jacket gliding through museums where no one like him adorns the walls. These are moments that pair nicely with Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s Apeshit video, in which they make the Louvre a space to celebrate their Black art.

“Taking a break from those spaces, Morton brings us into intimate moments at home in Atlanta and Kansas City, as he reconnects with his family members, his five-year-old daughter in tow, painting their portraits as a way to bond while trying to heal from his hostile upbringing.”

Additional reading:

George Anthony Morton Fine Art

The New York Times, May 21, 2017: Off to Italy to Study Painting: A Former Inmate’s Journey