Woodland Art

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Woodland Art

• Norval Morrisseau - Copper Thunderbird

Artist and Shaman between Two Worlds
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Norval Morrisseau

• "I go to the inner places. I go to the source. I
  even dare to say, I go to the house of invention
  where all the inventors of mankind have been."

• Born March 14th, 1931, Port Arthur - now Thunder
  Bay, ON
• Raised by grandparents with six siblings in
  North Western Ontario
• Leaves school after the fourth grade
• Developed his art from 1959 while working in
  mining
• Became a full time artist in the early 1960s

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Norval Morrisseau

• Morrisseau learned stories, myths, spiritual
• concepts from his grandfather who was a
• shaking tent seer, a powerful and well
• respected spiritual leader.
• He was given the name Copper Thunderbird,
• Miskwaabik Animiiki.
• While at sanatorium in Thunder Bay, Norval
• Morrisseau at the age of 19 had a series of
• dreams and visions that he said were calling
• him to be a shaman-artist.

Untitled (Shaman). C.1971
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Norval Morrisseau

• A doctor at the sanatorium in Port Arthur
  encouraged him to paint.
• At this hospital he met and married Harriet
  Kakegamic with whom he had six children.
• In his early years as an artist living
• on a northern reserve, he traded his drawings and
  paintings for food and supplies.
• After meeting an art dealer, Jack Pollock, in
  the summer of 1962, Morrisseau had an exhibition
  in
• Toronto which was a huge success.

Artist 's Wife and Daughter, c.1975
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Norval Morrisseau

• Morrisseau enlarged the scale
• of his works and developed his pictographic style
  in 1963-66.
• He represented inner realities with strong
  flowing lines
• combined with rich colours that often indicated
  spiritual forces.
• These images presented an
• x-ray anatomy with spirit power lines radiating
  from the creatures
• he portrayed.

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Norval Morrisseau
Observations of the Astral World    (1989 -
1999 )
"My paintings are icons - that is to say, they
are images which help focus on spiritual powers,
generated by traditional beliefs and wisdom."
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Norval Morrisseau

• Norval Morrisseau was the celebrated founder
  of the Woodland Indian School of Art (today
  called the Anishnaabe art), becoming very popular
  in the 1960s and onwards. Some of the first
  nations artists that he has inspired over the
  past years include Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, Blake
  Debassige, Saul Williams, Roy Thomas and others.

Teaching
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Norval Morrisseau

• The legends of the Ojibwa, the Thunderbird, the
  Windigo and the secrets of the Midiwewin seen
  through the art of Norval Morrisseau have found
  their place alongside the mainstream art and
  culture of the Canadian society.
• He was often called the Picasso of the North.
• His art is seen in national, provincial and
  private galleries throughout Canada and
  international collections abroad.

Thunderbird with Inner Spirit c.1978
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Norval Morrisseau
Self-Portrait, c.1975
Norval Morrisseau died on December 4th, 2007.
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Interesting facts about Norval Morrisseaus life

• Norval was born in 1931 and grew up near
  Beardmore, Ontario.
• He lived with his grandparents. His grandmother
  was Catholic and his grandfather was a
  sixth-generation Shaman.
• At the age of 19, Norval became serious ill. The
  medicine woman who treated him gave him the
  Indian name, Copper Thunderbird. This is the
  name he signs on his paintings.
• Norval struggled with his inner conflicts about
  revealing Ojibwa culture to the white man, and
  he drank heavily.
• Norval had many opportunities to exhibit his
  work. He did commissioned work for the Expo 67
  in Montreal, and in 1969, Dr. Herbert Schwarz
  arranged a one man exhibition for Norval on the
  French Riviera. Over 12, 000 people attended the
  exhibition including Picasso and Chagall, said
  Schwarz. At the time, Morrisseau was referred to
  as the Picasso of the Woods.
• The artist became a believer in Eckankar, a
  religion that focuses on the connection to God
  through Divine Spirit, which can be heard as
  sound and seen as light.
• In 1986, the Thunder Bay region appointed him
  Grand Shaman of the Ojibwa.
• I am a Shaman- artist. My paintings are also
  icons that is to say, they are images which help
  focus on spiritual powers generated by
  traditional belief and wisdom.

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Why is Norval Morrisseau so important?

• Morrisseau was the first person in Canada and
  the US to paint the images and legends of the
  Eastern Woodlands people. As an Ojibwa,
  Morrisseau is part of an ethnological group known
  as the Eastern Woodlands people. Geographically,
  this covers the Northeastern US and Canada. It
  includes the Iroquois of New York State as well
  as the Cree, Ojibwa and Odawa people. The taboo
  Norval had broken existed among all these
  peoples. There was no known record that anyone
  before him had broken it.
• By breaking the taboo and creating a new visual
  vocabulary, Norval had inspired artists
  throughout North America. His symbolism became
  the trademark. Known as the Woodland School of
  Art, it is only the unique and widespread Native
  art movement that arose in the Northeast.
• Norval explains the purpose of his art, saying,
  My art speaks and will continue to speak,
  transcending barriers of nationality, of language
  and other forces that may be divisive, fortifying
  the greatness of the spirit that has always been
  the foundation of the Ojibwa people.
• (source Norval Morrisseau, Return to the House
  of Invention, 2005)

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Norval Morrisseau
Website Sources for Images and
Information   National Gallery of
Canada http//cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/sea
rch/artwork_e.jsp?mkey102446   McMichael
Canadian Art Collection http//www.mcmichael.com/
exhibitions/morrisseau/images.cfm   Native Art in
Canada, An Ojibwa Elders Art and
Stories http//www.native-art-in-canada.com/norva
lmorrisseau.html   Norval Morrisseau
Biography http//www.kstrom.net/isk/art/morriss/mo
rr_bio.html http//www.copperthunderbird.com/about
.htm
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Community Development, Norval Morrisseau
The Canadian Woodland Group of Seven Norval
Morriseau, Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex
Janvier, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, Joe Sanchez
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The Story of the Canadian Woodland Group of Seven
In the contemporary Canadian art world, Canadian
native art wasnt taken seriously until Norval
Morrisseau first appeared on the scene in the
1960s. In 1969 the French Press called Morrisseau
the Picasso of the North. Morrisseaus work
showed that native artists and native art could
stand shoulder to shoulder with other
contemporary Canadian artists. However, native
art was still on the fringe of the Canadian art
world. Then in 1973 the Winnipeg Art Gallery
held a groundbreaking exhibition called Treaty
Numbers 23, 287, 1171. This exhibition, in
addition to Norval Morrisseau, featured art by
native artists Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness,
Alex Janvier, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray and Joe
Sanchez. This exhibition is reputed to be the
birth of the Woodland Group of Seven, also known
as the Professional National Indian Artists Inc.
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the story continued
The Woodland Group of Sevens art features a
predominant black form line, an undifferentiated
background, pure colours, and imagery from native
legends and healing. In addition to moving
native art into the mainstream of the Canadian
art world, the Woodland Group of Seven has played
an important role in influencing younger native
artists. Just as the original Group of Seven
paved the way for Canadian artists to paint
Canadian scenes and images, the Woodland Group of
Seven opened the doors for a new generation of
native artists. The Woodland School is now an
established and recognized form of Canadian
native art.
A triptych made up of "Thunder Dancer,"
"Metamorphosis" and "Thunderbird. Jackson
Beardy
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Some of Norvals Artwork
Copper Thunderbird Merman Ruler of the Water,
1969. This painting shows Norvals use of earth
tones. Stain Glass Effect, 1989. This painting
is a vibrant display of bright colours and shows
the influence of stained glass windows as well
as Eckankar.
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Jackson Beardy

• Jackson Beardy was born July 24, 1944, Island
  Lake, Manitoba and he died December 8, 1984.
• He joined the Woodlands Group of Seven in 1972.
• His artwork was inspired by his deep knowledge
  of aboriginal traditions, including Cree myths
  and legends.
• His artwork often expresses fundamental
  cosmological and spiritual concepts such as the
  balances in nature, regeneration and growth and
  the interdependence of all things.
• Beardys distinctive style is characterized by
  precisely defined flat areas of warm colours and
  flowing ribbons of paint.

Life Cycles The artist shows communication on a
spiritual plane with the Bear. The hunter always
shows respect for the Bear. It is a sacred
circle.
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Eddy Cobiness

• Eddy Cobiness was born in 1933 in Warroad,
  Minnesota. He died in 1996.
• Cobiness moved to Canada and lived on Buffalo
  Point Reserve near Lake of the Woods in Northern
  Ontario.
• Like many of the Woodland School artists,
  Cobiness was self taught.
• His work is recognized for its stylized images
  of animals.
• Cobiness claimed to be influenced by Picassos
  spare use of line and colour.
• In his later works, Cobiness often signed his
  paintings with his treaty number, 47.

Grouse Nesting (1995) This is one of Cobiness
last paintings.
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Alex Janvier

• Alex Janvier was born in Alberta in 1935.
• Like many of the Woodland School of Art members,
  Janvier was uprooted from his family and sent to
  a residential school.
• At the residential school he was exposed to
  artistic tools to create his first paintings. He
  later received formal training in Calgary, AB.

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Daphne Odjig

• Daphne Odjig was born in 1919 in Wikwemikong,
  Manitoulin Island.
• She was a member of the Order of Canada and she
  has received many national and international
  awards recognizing her as an influential Native
  artist.
• Odjig was the receipient of the Aboriginal
  Achievement Award.

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Carl Ray
Skunk Spirit (1977) This painting was created
using only three colours.

• Carl Ray was born on the Sandy Lake Reserve in
  Ontario in 1943 into a family of traditional
  healers.
• A self-taught painter and printmaker, Ray began
  his artistic career by illustrating Cree legends
  and spiritual rituals.
• Ray was introduced to what would be soon be
  recognized as the Woodland Style of native
  artwork when he helped Norval Morrisseau create
  the mural commissioned for the Indians of Canada
  Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal.
• He died tragically in 1978.

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Joseph Sanchez

• Joe Sanchez, an American draft dodger, was an
  accidental blip on the Canadian native art scene
  but was nevertheless a founding member of the
  Indian Group of Seven.
• He had left his country and was trying to make a
  living in Winnipeg about the time Daphne Odjig
  and her husband, Chester Beavon, were opening up
  the Warehouse Gallery in the early 1970's.
• They more or less took him under their wing so
  he became a member of the Professional Indian
  Native Artist's Inc association by default.

Raven Portrait (date unknown)
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Website Sources for Images and Information on
Canadian Woodland Group of Seven Artists
Jackson Beardy http//www.native-art-in-canada.co
m/jacksonbeardy.html Eddy Cobiness http//www.na
tive-art-in-canada.com/eddycobiness.html Alex
Janvier http//www.native-art-in-canada.com/alexj
anvier.html Daphne Odjig http//www.native-art-i
n-canada.com/daphneodjig.html Carl Ray
http//www.native-art-in-canada.com/carlray.html
Joseph Sanchez http//www.native-art-in-canada.c
om/joesanchez.html
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Red Willow, 2005 ,George Littlechild
Contemporary First Nations Artists
George Littlechild, Carl Beam, Michael Robinson,
Jane Ash Poitras, Ahmoo Angeconeb
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George Littlechild

• George Littlechild was born August 16, 1958 in
  Edmonton, Alberta from parents
• of Plains Cree and Scottish/Micmac descent
• He studied art and design at Red Deer College,
  Alberta, 1984
• He earned a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of
  Art and Design, Halifax, 1988
• He is a painter, illustrator, writer and
  educator
• His work is seen in many public and private
  collections throughout Canada and
• exhibitions abroad

"My art speaks from the heart... it is charged
with energy and colour it is vibrant and
magical, thus enabling the soul to travel.  I
envision.  I rely on the intuitive, the
spiritual, the emotional."
Teach Them The Way, 2008
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Carl Beam

• Carl Beam, an Ojibwa, was born in MChigeeng
  (West Bay) on Manitoulin Island, Ontario in 1943
• He studied at the University of Victoria, BFA,
  1974
• with post-graduate studies at the University of
  Alberta
• In 1986, The North American Iceberg, an art
  work
• by Carl Beam was purchased by the National
  Gallery of Canada for the first time as a piece
  of contemporary art rather than ethnographic art
• He was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy
  
• of Arts in 2000 and was a recipient of a 2005
  Govenor Generals Award in Visual and Media Arts
• He died in 2005

Sitting Bull and Whale, 1990
Over his career, Beam has worked in a range of
media, including large format drawings,
watercolours, etchings, installations and
ceramics. His post-modern paintings, prints and
constructions often juxtaposed autobiographical,
historical and commercial images to speak to
conflicts between Western and Native cultures.
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Michael Robinson

• Michael Robinson was born in Ontario, Canada,
  1948
• He is an artist, glassblower, printmaker and
  writer
• He studied at Sheridan College, School of
  Design, Glass Major, 1969 -1971
• He lives in Keene, Ontario and Manitoulin
  Island, Ontario

Their Society, long ago complete,They no longer
use their dreams to sleep but shake apart the
rational dreamof Whirlwinds, silenceand snakes
that speak
Men Without Nations
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Jane Ash Poitras

• Jane Ash Poitras was born (1951) in Fort
  Chipewyan, Alberta and makes her home in Edmonton
  Alberta
• She received a Bachelor of Science degree and a
  Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University
  of Alberta in Edmonton and a Master of Fine Arts
  degree from Columbia University in New York City
• As a mixed-media artist, philosopher, writer
  and lecturer, her work is exhibited nationally
  and internationally
• Her work reflects an insight of contemporary
  trends with strong associations to past and
  present native history and culture

Rebirth of the Four Coyote Spirits
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Ahmoo Angeconeb

• Ahmoo Angeconeb is Ojibway, born April 19, 1955
  in Sioux Lookout, Ontario
• He is a painter, papermaker and printmaker
• His work reflects the ideology of the Woodland
  School of Legend Painting
• He currently lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario

Anishnawbe Woman, Keeper of the Culture, 2005
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Website Sources for Images and Information on
Contemporary First Nations Artists
George Littlechild http//www.georgelittlechild.c
om/main.htm http//www.willockandsaxgallery.com/li
ttlec1.htm Carl Beam http//www.cbc.ca/arts/stor
y/2005/08/09/beamobit050809.html http//www.ago.ne
t/carl-beam Michael Robinson http//www.michaelr
obinson.ca/ Jane Ash Poitras http//www.artsask.
ca/en/collections/themes/identity/jane-ash-poitras
1 Ahmoo Angeconeb http//www.innuitgallery.com/p
ages/artists/ahmoo_angeconeb.html http//www.ainc-
inac.gc.ca/ach/ac/nac/iaap/iac-eng.asp