The first time George Anthony Morton saw a painting by Rembrandt, he was only 16 years old. Now, he’s teaching the next generation the importance of classical art.
But Morton’s journey to opening his own studio in Atlanta was not an easy one. Morton was born when his mother was 15, and throughout his younger years, she used and sold drugs. Eventually, Morton began dealing as well. When he was 19, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, where he spent his time studying the art of the old masters like Rembrandt.
Upon his release, he continued a journey of studying classical art that would take him to Atlanta, across Europe, and then back to Atlanta to share what he had learned. These moments of the artist’s life are touched on in the 2022 documentary “Master of Light,” which presents art as a sort of catharsis for Morton as he paints different members of his family, including his mother, and dives into their complex relationships.
Before the opportunity for the documentary came about, Morton returned to Atlanta as part of his reentry program after being released from prison. His move to Atlanta mainly stemmed from the fact that he had a relative who lived in the city – it certainly wasn’t because of the city’s classical art reputation.
“I had already researched what little of an art community Atlanta had through all the art magazines that I would literally drool over in mail call in prison – I got every one of them,” Morton said. “They would also talk about the different cities and the different workshops and art programs that were offered, and Atlanta just had nothing.”
But a chance appeared after Morton painted a picture of the owner of a local gym in Buckhead. One of the patrons saw the picture and was floored. The patron happened to be involved with the Florence Academy of Art, a school in Italy that teaches the traditional style of the old masters, and encouraged Morton to apply.
“I applied, and because I was still on parole – you would think that they would be encouraging towards any efforts and rehabilitation, and allow me to go abroad to study,” Morton said. “But I was denied.”
Then, another opportunity arose. Morton received a letter from the Florence Academy saying they were opening a branch stateside, and wanted Morton to be one of several inaugural students to help launch the new location. He received permission to study there, and within a year or two finally was granted permission to travel to not only Florence, but France, Spain, and the home of Rembrant himself, Amsterdam.
“That right there is pretty much an example of what has been happening all my life – you know, when the student is ready, the teacher appears, kind of a thing,” Morton said. “A series of constant synchronicities and serendipities.”
Morton became the first African American to graduate from the Florence Academy of Art. A few years after first opening his art studio Atelier South and then hitting pause while he worked on the documentary, Morton is just about ready to reopen the studio doors. Rough Draft Atlanta spoke to Morton about the making of the documentary, his personal journey with classical art, and more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I wanted to start with the documentary, “Master of Light.” How did that opportunity come about? Did the director, Rosa Ruth Boesten, reach out to you, or did you decide first you wanted to tell your story through a movie?
George Morton: From the time I had gotten released from federal prison, I had always shared my story with people. People would always say, wow, man – you should write a book, you should make a movie.
The idea was planted pretty early on, and while I had the opportunity to reach out to different production companies for directors stateside, I felt like I wanted a little more control. I was traveling abroad, and I was able to meet filmmakers with a different aesthetic, and another co-collaborator who was still in film school like I was in art school. [I] had the privilege of making that my apprenticeship in filmmaking, while she wanted an apprenticeship as a painter. She – being Dutch, living right around the corner from Rembrandt’s house, which is now a museum … all of that was within a short bike ride – it was a perfect fit. Everything was like magic from there.
Even before her, I had started filming, but I would end up not using that footage because it wasn’t good enough. Once we met, which was pretty early on in my journey, I just knew – we both knew – and it was just like the stars were aligned.
That’s interesting, you both being able to teach each other about your art form through that partnership. Speaking of Rembrandt, I read an interview with you where I think you said the first time you saw a Rembrandt painting was while you were incarcerated. What was it about him specifically that drew you in, and also more broadly what about classic art draws you in?
Morton: Actually, the first time I saw a Rembrandt was before I was incarcerated, but it was through being incarcerated in a juvenile facility. What I will say, before I go into that, to wrap that other thought – I was also aware of cinema as the synthesis of all art forms. So while we both apprenticed for one another and were able to feed off of each other’s practice, I saw it as a continuum of a tradition of making imagery. I have a firm belief that if Rembrandt were alive today, he would be a filmmaker, for different reasons.
I would see my first Rembrandt while I was 16 years old. I had just gotten released from a juvenile facility where I met a math teacher who really helped me work to get my GED. She told me that when I got out, she would find me and take me to my state museum. The museum in my city actually had a Rembrandt there. I was a 16 year old, and I wasn’t necessarily expecting to hear from her until she reached out. Her late husband was French, so she was trying to get me to look at impressionist art. She loved Renoir, but I didn’t really care for all that misty, kind of non-descriptive form. So when I saw this particular painting of a young boy in a black hat by Rembrandt, I was just frozen on site. From there, my journey began with Rembrandt – not only Rembrandt, but other 17th century old masters. But Rembrandt would definitely be a favorite. I would shuffle between, depending on which week you catch me, between him and Diego Velázquez of 17th century Spain.
I would see him in books otherwise, when I was in federal prison, and continue my journey of being self taught and studying on my own. That would be a little later, when I would end up in federal prison. Not much later, actually – three or four years later. I was 19 years old when I was detained.
You said if Rembrandt were alive today, you think he would be a filmmaker. Can you elaborate on that? Why do you think that is?
Morton: For several reasons. He was definitely interested in movement. He tried to get movement into his art. He tried to get motion. If you look at a painting called Belshazzar’s Feast, there’s the illusion of a knife dropping. You know how if you just wave your hand in front of you, you see the motion of your hand going from one position to another in a blur? He would try to paint that illusion into his art, and he would try to give theatricality in his art, and a lot of motion in general.
That makes sense. When you said that, I waved my hand in front of my face.
Morton: I mean, I could say that about [Leonardo] da Vinci in its own way, who predates Rembrandt and the Renaissance by a few 100 years, in that he was just an all around polymath. These guys, so many of them, were just taking advantage of all the technology of their day. When you talk about Rembrandt, you’re talking about a time that pre-existed even the camera. They made do with what they had, and yet somehow it’s all still unsurpassable today.
Something that struck me about the movie in particular is how you have these portions of you in therapy that are juxtaposed against these sections where you’re sketching or painting members of your family, like your mother or your nephew, or whoever it might be. I felt that those portions were this space to have tough conversations about family and what you went through growing up, and those were up against the conversations you were having with your actual therapist. I was wondering if you find art to be a form of catharsis?
Morton: Absolutely. I really believe in the idea of healing through creative practice, so that it is a healing modality for me. And very much shadow work, which again, aligns with certain philosophical ideas that I believe even Rembrandt had, to some extent. For me, it’s definitely this idea of going into my shadowy side and somehow putting it on a canvas to look at it, and to process it, and work through these different aspects of my own psyche. So people in the film that you see me painting portraits of are really portraits of myself and parts of myself. My nephew is the younger me. My mother is … in a lot of ways, symbolically, the world’s great mother, dark mother. Me acknowledging that was in a lot of ways to urge the world to look at how they view the mother archetype, and its deeper meaning, and to maybe reconsider how we treat mother – Mother Earth, Mother Africa, everybody’s great mother.
You mentioned this idea of going into your shadowy side, which I believe you discuss a bit in the documentary as well. Can you conceptualize what that means to you?
Morton: I believe that we all have an unconscious aspect of ourselves that if we don’t acknowledge, it will come to the surface in different ways, in the forms of triggers and complexes.
It’s like the tip of the iceberg is the conscious, but underneath it’s a whole iceberg in the ocean. People that don’t acknowledge those parts of themselves don’t feel like whole people. Those of us who do, I believe that it makes us more complete. So for me, it was definitely about that journey of really looking at the source of the chaos in my life, but also the source of fertility. It just had so much meaning to me to look at the women in my life, and my mother in particular, in that way, because me and her have had such a volatile journey.
This documentary came out last year. Has your relationship with your mother changed since she saw it? What was her reaction when it came out?
Morton: She really appreciated the honesty and the choice that I made to actually dignify her and see her in such a positive light. There’s a scene where she’s teaching me how to fish in the dark. I think she really did find an appreciation for the good and the bad. She thanked me, she really acknowledged the truth in how it was depicted, and also how I wasn’t so heavy handed about it. I chose to really paint her in a positive light, which I see in her.
I’ve since moved her to Atlanta, got her in a treatment program and she’s progressing well. I think it had a great impact on how she began to see herself and how others began to receive her based on how I chose to depict her.
I know you’re in the process of reopening your studio. When did you first open it and what were the circumstances that led to their having to be a reopening?
Morton: I opened Atelier South, my teaching studio, immediately upon graduating from the Florence Academy of Art. Being the first African American to graduate, I wanted to continue this tradition that I’m in dialogue with, where we actually share what we learned, and also continue my own studies. Because when one person teaches, two people learn.
The program was a three year program, but the old masters would have to study for eight to ten years to become as good as they were. You can’t condense that into a three year program, and so what we typically do is teach to continue our studies. So I opened it immediately in 2019 upon my return home to Atlanta.
In my initial Kickstarter that got me funded to go off and study – which is what I launched to get to actually pay for school before leaving Atlanta – I promised that I would return to Atlanta and give it all back to the community that hoisted me up. That’s what really prompted that decision as well, just the keeping of a promise. Because the city just doesn’t have a huge classical art presence that I believe kind of goes back to this Orly plane crash … where all the High Museum of Art, and art movers and shakers were all on one plane a couple of generations ago, and they all died.
Wow. I’ve never heard of that.
Morton: Yearh, I had to go into some of the causative factors around … why such a city just didn’t have a presence in terms of classical art. We got all this outsider art, interior design stuff, but you know, lesser cities have schools and galleries that more so speak to this tradition. And yet, Atlanta doesn’t.
I ended up closing the studio doors because the film became that demanding, and also it was right around the time of the pandemic. So it was just perfect timing. I was funded to make my film and just wanted to pause it so I could focus on doing a good job there.
When are you planning to reopen? Are these classes that anybody can take, or is a background in classical art required?
Morton: So mid-September is the start date. Sept. 7, to be exact, but that’s a revolving door.
Not only is it not for only people who have a background in classical art – because I’m going into the principles of design in general, this is for anybody who wants to understand design for their craft, from photographers, to cinematographers, to painters like myself, beginners and advanced. And also, the contemplative aspect of it – you know, young people and most people today, they got the attention of goldfish, based on social media, and so many images we see everyday, we don’t take the time to slow down and consume images much anymore. There’s this issue with attentional stability, and things like that.
I feel like a little bit of everybody can benefit from the meditative and therapeutic qualities of drawing from life, figure drawing. Architects – so many people could use drawing from the human figure, which is the most sophisticated piece of architecture and machinery. So I have students of all kinds.