Norval Morrisseau art
Who is Norval Morrisseau?
Norval Morrisseau (1931-2007) is considered to be the grandfather of contemporary indigenous art in Canada. The unique art style of Norval Morrisseau has pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling. As the creator of the Woodland School of Art and a prominent member of the Indian Group of Seven, Morrisseau is best known for wearing bright colors and portraying traditional stories in his work.
EARLY YEARS
Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau was born in 1931 at a time when the indigenous peoples of Canada were held on reservations, forced to attend boarding schools and excluded from traditional ceremonial activities.
He was the oldest of five children born to Grace Theresa Nanakonagos and Abel Morrisseau. He was sent to live with his maternal grandparents on the Sand Point Reservation3 on the shores of Lake Nipigon, Ontario. Morrisseau learned the histories and cultural traditions of his people from his grandfather, Moses Potan Nanakonagos. He learned about Catholicism from his grandmother Veronique Nanakonagos.
AN aspiring artist, the grandfather of contemporary indigenous art in Canada
The unique art style of Norval Morrisseau has pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling. As the creator of the Woodland School of Art, Morrisseau is best known for wearing bright colors and portraying traditional stories. Like many young artists, Norval Morrisseau did not earn enough to live on. In 1958 he found a job in a gold mine and moved with Harriet to Cochenour, near Red Lake, Ontario. There he met Dr. Joseph Weinstein, a physician trained as an artist in Paris, where he had established connections with the European modern art scene. Joseph’s wife, fellow artist Esther Weinstein, recalled a visit to McDougal, the local general store, where to my surprise, these two very unusual paintings [including Untitled (Thunderbird Transformation), c. 1958–60] standing on the ground. Esther Weinstein asked the merchant Fergus McDougal to invite the artist for a home visit.
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When Morrisseau knocked on the Weinsteins’ door with paintings a few days later, the couple greeted him quickly and spent many hours reading his art books and discussing art with them. Art historian Ruth B. Phillips notes that Dr. Weinstein supplied Morrisseau with high-quality art supplies, such as paper and gouache paint, and encouraged him to consider himself a professional artist in the Western sense and not a manufacturer of tourist souvenirs.
Morrisseau’s novel works
He was considered the grandfather of contemporary indigenous art in Canada. The unique art style of Norval Morrisseau has pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling. As the creator of the Woodland School of Art, Morrisseau is best known for wearing bright colors and portraying traditional stories. Morrisseau’s early works were also championed by Selwyn Dewdney, an anthropologist and artist who drew pictograms in the area. In 1960, local police officer Bob Sheppard, stationed on McKenzie Island near Cochenour, wrote to his friend Dewdney suggesting that he meet Morrisseau. The two were introduced in 1960. Like the Weinsteins, Dewdney shared with Morrisseau his interest in modern art. The works of artists like Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Henri Matisse (1869-1954). However, unlike the Weinsteins, Dewdney Morrisseau initially encouraged work in traditional media such as birch bark and leather, but also supported the artist’s early experiments with oil.
He probably also urged Morrisseau to sign his work in Cree syllables, an alphabet Morrisseau learned from his wife. Their correspondence provides information on Morrisseau’s goal of educating Canadians about indigenous art and culture. Later, Dewdney urged Morrisseau to include a series of stories explaining the images of his art, resulting in a book published by Dewdney called Legends of My People: The Great Ojibway.
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Morrisseau’s friendship with Susan Ross
Around 1958, Morrisseau also met Susan Ross (1915-2006), a Thunder Bay graphic artist and painter who drew in the Cochenour area and specialized in painting portraits of local indigenous people in the Post-Impressionist style. They became friends, and Morrisseau trusted Ross for art supplies and answers to her questions about her art.13
Morrisseau, the grandfather of contemporary indigenous art in Canada, sent her paintings to Ross on the Red Lake to Thunder Bay train, and trusted that she would sell. Ross used the proceeds from these sales to purchase Morrisseau art supplies and also a tape recorder so that he could better record Anishinaabe’s stories as told by her elders. Their correspondence shows Morrisseau’s growing confidence in his role as an artist and his growing awareness of the concepts of European art. The unique art style of Norval Morrisseau has pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling. As the creator of the Woodland School of Art, Morrisseau is best known for wearing bright colors and portraying traditional stories.
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