Desmond Morris, zoologist and painter known for his 1967 book The Naked Ape and TV programme Zoo Time (1956–67), has died aged 98.
Born in Wiltshire in 1928, Morris was trained in zoology at the University of Birmingham and Oxford University, where he received a PhD. In between the years Morris also delved into visual art and became active as a surrealist painter. In 1950 he organised an exhibition with Joan Miro and produced two surrealist films, Time Flower and The Butterfly and the Pin.
In 1956 Morris joined Granada Television where he produced and hosted the well-known Zoo Time. In 1959 he left to become the curator of mammals at Zoological Society. He joined the BBC in the mid-1960s and went on to script and present more than 100 episodes of Life in the Animal World as well as many documentaries such as Manwatching (1977), TV and Natural History (1986) and The Human Animal (1994).
Morris’s career as a writer is equally prolific, which sees an output of more than 90 titles in the subject of animal studies and zoology, including the international bestseller The Naked Ape.
Throughout his life Morris remained active in the art world, and studied the image-making capabilities of apes alongside his own practice. In 1957 Morris organised an exhibition at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) which showcased works created by chimpanzees. The following year he co-curated The Lost Image at the Royal Festival Hall in London, featuring works created by infants, human adults and apes side by side. In 1967, Morris was appointed the director of the ICA as the institution relocated to its current building at the Mall. Morris served the role for a year, before resigning to write a sequel to The Naked Ape.
Morris’s own practice as an artist was featured in a BBC programme The Secret Surrealist in 2017. His works can be found in the the collection of the Tate, the Southampton City Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, as well as others.
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