RUNNING from Friday, September 16th-23rd at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Visual Arts (DIVA), is an exhibition of 60 new works that Desmond Morris, father of HRI’s Jason, has painted since moving to Ireland in 2019.

Entitled Creatures of the Mind, the paintings display a series of invented species that live only inside the artist’s brain. They are all illustrated in a book that accompanies the exhibition.

The exhibition is being held at the new art institute in south Dublin, a passion project of Desmond’s granddaughter Tilly. Along with co-director and fellow fine art graduate Annie Laing, Tilly has been running an art school in DIVA since it opened its doors in June 2022.

Showing no sign of slowing down in his 90s, Desmond this year published a new book, The British Surrealists, and a new edition of his memoirs, Watching, will also be launched at his DIVA exhibition.

Born in 1928, Morris lived a double life as a zoologist and a surrealist artist. With a doctorate from Oxford University, he moved to London Zoo where he became curator of mammals. Later he was director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Morris held his first solo exhibition in 1948 and two years later shared a London show with Joan Miró. He has painted more than 3,000 works, written 100 books and presented some 700 television programmes. One of his books, The Naked Ape, is listed in the top 100 bestsellers of all time, and one of his paintings, The Arena, is in the Tate in London.