The traditional format of a painting is a flat rectangle. There have been various efforts in modern art to employ non-rectangular shapes. Geometric forms and assembled multipiece units are known, specifically through the works of Stella, Kelly and others. But there is, especially in the wake of contemporary architecture, a cumulative justification to carry the shaped canvas idea to a radical position.

That is, to relieve it of all linearity and order and to abandon all geometrically oriented elements. The result is a canvas of free flowing contours, that may be called an organically shaped canvas. This may however be a misleading term, since any reference to nature is non-compulsory and may even be totally indisposed in some cases. Consequently the term Morphism has been introduced. It is free of any organic or biomorph prefixes and as such eligible to be used in context with non-objective paintings.

The morphistic canvas is not meant to be a biomorphic form, abstracted from nature. It is rather designed by the requirements and needs the artist sees in the combined work. The shape in its intrinsic quality may or may not suggest some spiritual content, feeling or simply harmony. Morphism is a new approach of combining form and colour.