I am a British artist and writer. I am the author of several books and catalogue essays on modern and contemporary art, and my art reviews and essays have been published in numerous magazines and journals. My paintings have been exhibited internationally. I live in South Korea where I was until recently Associate Professor of Fine Art at Dankook University. The rest of the time I live in a small village in central France. My most recent book is 'Modern Painting. A Concise History' (2023). Published by Thames & Hudson in their famous World of Art series, it's the first World of Art history of modern painting since Herbert Read's wonderful book, published in 1958! In 2021, I published my first book for a general readership: "By Any Other Names. A Cultural History of the Rose (Oneworld). So far, it's been translated into Italian and Korean. German is on the way. There is also an audiobook. in 2020, I published The Simple Truth. The Monochrome in Modern Art' with Reaktion Books. So far, it's been translated into Chinese (by a Taiwan based publisher) and Korean. In 2019, I published 'Seven Keys to Modern Art' with Thames and Hudson. So far, it has been translated into Russian, Korean, two rival Chinese versions (by a mainland publisher and a Taiwan publisher). A Turkish translation is on it's way.... My principal interests include modern and contemporary painting, the theory of the sublime, word and image, East-West cultural dialogue, and, perhaps somewhat anachronistically....... roses. I have a BA from Oxford University in Modern History, an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmith’s College, University of London, and a PhD from University of Southampton in the field of art history and cross- cultural studies. My author's website and blog is www.simonmorley-blog.com My artist website is www.simonmorley.com. My academic website is https://dankook.academia.edu/simonmorley.
