Norval Morrisseau

Norval Morrisseau
photographic portrait by Louie Palu
Nationality	Canadian
Education	Self taught
Known for	Painting
Movement	Woodlands Style

Norval Morrisseau, CM (March 14, 1932 – December 4, 2007), also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Aboriginal Canadian artist. Known as the "Picasso of the North", Morrisseau created works depicting the legends of his people, the cultural and political tensions between native Canadian and European traditions, his existential struggles, and his deep spirituality and mysticism. His style is characterized by thick black outlines and bright colors. He founded the Woodlands School of Canadian art and was a prominent member of the “Indian Group of Seven”.

Biography

An Anishinaabe, he was born March 14, 1932 on the Sand Point Ojibway reserve near Beardmore, Ontario. Some sources quote him as saying that he was born in Fort William, now part of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the same date in 1931. His full name is Jean-Baptiste Norman Henry Morrisseau, but he signs his work using the Cree syllabics writing ᐅᓵᐚᐱᐦᑯᐱᓀᐦᓯ (Ozaawaabiko-binesi, unpointed: ᐅᓴᐘᐱᑯᐱᓀᓯ, "Copper/Brass [Thunder]Bird"), as his pen-name for his Anishnaabe name ᒥᐢᒁᐱᐦᐠ ᐊᓂᒥᐦᑮ (Miskwaabik Animikii, unpointed: ᒥᐢᑿᐱᐠ ᐊᓂᒥᑭ, "Copper Thunderbird").

In accordance with Anishnaabe tradition, he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, Moses Potan Nanakonagos, a shaman, taught him the traditions and legends of his people. His grandmother, Grace Theresa Potan Nanakonagos, was a devout Catholic and from her he learned the tenets of Christianity. The contrast between these two religious traditions became an important factor in his intellectual and artistic development.

At the age of six, he was sent to a Catholic residential school, where students were educated in the European tradition, native culture was repressed, and the use of native language was forbidden. After two years he returned home and started attending a local community school.

At the age of 19, he became very sick. He was taken to a doctor but his health kept deteriorating. Fearing for his life, his mother called a medicine-woman who performed a renaming ceremony: She gave him the new name Copper Thunderbird. According to Anishnaabe tradition, giving a powerful name to a dying person can give them new energy and save their lives. Morrisseau recovered after the ceremony and from then on always signed his works with his new name.

After being invited to meet the artist by Robert Sheppard, an early advocate of Morrisseau was the anthropologist Selwyn Dewdney, who became very interested in Morrisseau's deep knowledge of native culture and myth. Dewdney was the first to take his art to a wider public.

Jack Pollock, a Toronto art dealer, helped expose Morrisseau's art to a wider audience in the 1960s. The two met in 1962 while Pollock was teaching a painting workshop in Beardmore. Struck by the discovery of Morrisseau's art, he immediately organized an exhibition of his work at his Toronto gallery.

One of Morrisseau's early commissions was for a large mural in the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, a revolutionary exhibit voicing the dissatisfaction of the First Nations People of Canada with their social and political situation.

In 1972, he was caught in a hotel fire in Vancouver and suffered serious burns on three-quarters of his body. In that occasion he had a vision of Jesus encouraging him to be a role model through his art. He converted to the apostolic faith and started introducing Christian themes in his art. A year later he was arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour and was incarcerated for his own protection. He was assigned an extra cell as studio and was allowed to attend a nearby church.

In 1978, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

In 2005 and 2006, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa organized a retrospective of his work. This was the first time that the Gallery dedicated a solo exposition to a native artist.

The artist's principal dealer, Kinsman Robinson Galleries, has represented Norval Morrisseau and his artwork for the last nineteen years.

In his final months of his life, the artist was confined to a wheelchair in a residence in Nanaimo, British Columbia. He was unable to paint due to his poor health. He died of cardiac arrest—complications arising from Parkinson's disease on December 4, 2007 in Toronto General Hospital. He was buried after a private ceremony in Northern Ontario next to the grave of his former wife, Harriet, on Anishinaabe land.

The National Arts Centre, urban ink co-production, Copper Thunderbird, will receive its television premiere on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) Monday, Feb 4 at 9PM ET/PT, with encore airings later that night at 12 midnight ET/PT Feb 5 and 4 PM ET/PT Feb 5/08.

Norval Morrisseau was honoured with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award during the NAAF Awards held at the Sony Centre in Toronto to be broadcast by Global Television on March 22 at 8 PM ET/PT and Saturday, April 5 on APTN.

Kinsman Robinson Galleries' 2008 Morrisseau exhibition, "Norval Morrisseau: A Retrospective," ended Nov 29. This retrospective exhibition—KRG's first in over a decade—presented the finest selection of Morrisseau paintings available. A 24-page color catalogue is also available.

Style

Morrisseau was a self-taught artist. He developed his own techniques and artistic vocabulary which captured ancient legends and images that came to him in visions or dreams. He was originally criticized by the native community because his images disclosed traditional spiritual knowledge. Initially he painted on any material that he could find, especially birchbark, and also moose hide. Dewdney encouraged him to use earth-tone colors and traditional material, which he thought were appropriate to Morrisseau's native style.

The subjects of his art in the early period were myths and traditions of the Anishnaabe people. He is acknowledged to have initiated the Woodland School of native art, where images similar to the petroglyphs of the Great Lakes region were now captured in paintings and prints.

His later style changed: he used more standard material and the colors became progressively brighter, eventually obtaining a neon-like brilliance. The themes also moved from traditional myth to depicting his own personal struggles. He also produced art depicting Christian subjects: during his incarceration, he attended a local church where he was struck by the beauty of the images on stained-glass windows. Some of his paintings, like Indian Jesus Christ, imitate that style and represent characters from the Bible with native features.

After he joined the new age religion Eckankar in 1976, he started representing on canvas its mystical beliefs.

The cover art for the Bruce Cockburn album, Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, is a painting by Norval Morrisseau.

File:Morrisseau Astral World.jpeg

Observation of the Astral World (1990)

Fakes and Forgeries

The prevalence of fakes and forgeries was of deep concern to Morrisseau, particularly during his later years, and he actively sought to remove these from the marketplace.

In 2005 Morrisseau established the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society (NMHS). The Society is currently compiling a database of Norval Morrisseau paintings to discredit many prevalent Morrisseau forgeries. This committee, not affiliated with any commercial gallery or art dealer, comprises highly respected members of the academic, legal and Aboriginal communities working on a volunteer basis. It is charged with creating a complete catalogue raisonné of Norval Morrisseau artwork. The NMHS is currently researching Morrisseau art, provenance and materials and techniques in order to complete the task assigned to them by the artist. The NMHS continue their work and were recently in Red Lake, Ontario to research additional information and art by the artist.

File:NMHS letter.jpg

Letter from the solicitor of the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society confirming the existence and purpose of the Society established by Norval Morrisseau.

The Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC) issued the following directive in the Winter 2007 newsletter to their membership: "The Art Dealers Association of Canada is enacting a rule and regulation that no certificates of authenticity will be issued by any members of ADAC with respect to any works or purported works by Norval Morrisseau and that the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society is the sole authority for the authentication of works by Norval Morrisseau." ADAC also revoked the membership of a dealer who failed to comply with this directive.

Morrisseau also engaged in more direct intervention, identifying fake and forged works available for sale, particularly those purported to be painted by him in the so-called "70s style". He wrote to galleries and made sworn declarations identifying items being sold as "fakes and imitations". More than ten sworn declarations were directed to at least seven dealers and galleries during 1993-2007, requesting that fake and forged works be removed or destroyed. These dealers include the Artworld of Sherway, Gallery Sunami, Maslak McLeod Gallery and Randy Potter Estate Auctions, among others. Sample declarations are reproduced below.

The debate concerning the authenticity of the "70s paintings", commonly found in the marketplace, continues.

Open dialogue about the authenticity of purported Morrisseau works has been suppressed by threats of lawsuit, and so experts are reluctant to come forward. Consumers have few sources of independently verifiable information to make informed purchases. Until the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society finalizes the catalogue raisonné of Norval Morrisseau artwork, potential buyers should exercise caution.

File:Morrisseau Declarations 1.jpg

Sworn declarations during 2003-2004 by Norval Morrisseau identifying 64 items as "fakes and imitations" in the inventories of the following galleries: Artworld of Sherway, Gallery Sunami, Maslak McLeod Gallery.

On the left, 2004 email from Norval Morrisseau requesting the removal of nine items identified as fakes from sale, directed at an unknown dealer. On the right, a 2007 press release from Norval Morrisseau disavowing any link with the "Morrisseau Family Foundation", and identifying the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society as the sole authority to create a catalogue raisonné of his work.

Exhibits

• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario: February 03, 2006–April 30, 2006
• Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario: June 06, 2006–September 04, 2006
• McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario: September 30, 2006–January 14, 2007
• Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico: June 15, 2007–September 03, 2007
• The George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, New York City, New York: October 20, 2007–January 20, 2008

See also

• Notable Aboriginal people of Canada

Further reading

• Greg Hill, Norval Morrisseau: Shaman Artist, Douglas & McIntyre, Canada, 2006, ISBN 1-55365-176-6.
• Norval Morrisseau, Donald C. Robinson, Return to the House of Invention, Key Porter Books Ltd, Canada, 2005, ISBN 1-55263-726-3.
• Basil H. Johnston, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, The Writings of Basil H. Johnston, The Glenbow Museum, Calgary, 1999.
• Norval Morrisseau, Donald C. Robinson, Travels to the House of Invention, Key Porter Books Ltd, Canada, 1997, ISBN 1-55013-880-4.
• Norval Morrisseau, Legends of my people, the great Ojibway, Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1965.

External links

• Morrisseau's principal dealer: Kinsman Robinson Galleries
• Morrisseau's authorized biography
• Norval Morrisseau: Shaman Artist at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• Globe & Mail: Norval Morrisseau, 76
• Boston Globe: Norval Morrisseau, was native artist of Canada
• Norval Morrisseau biography, originals and reproductions
• Morrisseau video shot at Kinsman Robinson Galleries
• Norval Morrisseau and the Nobel Peace Prize
• "Woodland Art: The Influence of Norval Morrisseau" in Thunder Bay Experience Guide 2009 (2:32).
• Norval Morrisseau Blog