The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Acrylic resin painting of layered elongated blobs of red, blue, orange, green, and yellow streaking out from the center of the paper. Black bleeds across the lower left corner, muting the colors there.

Number 99

1959–1960

Morris Louis

(American, 1912–1962)
America
acrylic resin (Magna) on canvas
Unframed: 251.3 x 360.5 cm (98 15/16 x 141 15/16 in.)
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1968.110
© Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Rights Administered by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York, All Rights Reserved.
Location: 001C ArtLens Exhibition

Did You Know?

Astonishingly, Louis painted his large canvases in his modest 12 x 14-foot dining room.

Description

Louis is associated with the Washington Color School, a group of painters based in Washington, DC, during the 1960s and '70s. These artists tended to create large colorful compositions with repeated shapes, often using diluted paint.
  • (Park International, Inc., New York)
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 204 archive.org
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned: p. 5 archive.org
    Henning, Edward B. “Morris Louis, Number 99.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 56, no. 2 (February 1969): 81–87. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 81-87, fig. 10 www.jstor.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 256 archive.org
  • Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited. High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (organizer) (October 28, 2006-January 21, 2007); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (February 10-May 6, 2007); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (September 19, 2007-January 6, 2008).
    High Museum of Art (10/28/2006 - 1/21/2007), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2/10/2007 - 5/6/2007), and the Hirshorrn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (9/19/2007 - 1/6/2008): "Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited"
    Morris Lewis: The Veil Cycle. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (organizer) (February 6-March 27, 1977); Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (April 15-May 29, 1977); Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX (June 19-July 31, 1977); Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY (September 11-October 23, 1977); The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (November 29, 1977-January 22, 1978).
    Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (March 7-April 11, 1976); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (May 2-June 13, 1976); The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (July 4-August 15, 1976); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 8-October 10, 1976).
    Year in Review for 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).
  • {{cite web|title=Number 99|url=false|author=Morris Louis|year=1959–1960|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.110