Canadian

March 14, 1932 – December 4, 2007

Aboriginal Canadian artist, Norval Morriseau, depicted 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.

An Anishinaabe, born on the Sand Point Ojibway reserve near Beardmore, Ontario, his full name is Jean-Baptiste Norman Henry Morrisseau, but he signs his work using Cree syllabics writing.

Following Anishnaabe tradition, Morriseau 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.

Morrisseau, a self-taught artist, developed his own techniques and artistic vocabulary which captured ancient legends and images. He was originally criticized by the native community because his images disclosed traditional spiritual knowledge.

An early advocate of Morrisseau was the anthropologist Selwyn Dewdney, who became very interested in Morrisseau's knowledge of native culture and myth. Dewdney was the first to take his art to a wider public.

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.

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.

Morriseau's style changed. He began painting on canvas in colours that 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. He attended a local church where he was struck by the beauty of the images on stained-glass windows. This style resonates in some of his paintings, that represent characters from the Bible with native features.

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 1979, he created the Thunderbird School of Shamanistic Arts, Morrisseau's way of responding to the Woodland School phenomena, which he claimed was merely a "Media" creation. The Thunderbird school which he envisioned and created was comprised of Morrisseau, and his three apprentice Shaman artists: Ritchie "Stardreamer" Sinclair, Carl "Sunshine" Henderson and Brian "Little Hummingbird" Marion.

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.

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.