Norval Morrisseau just died.I didn't even know (I am not reading the news these days, I go in phases) a friend of mine emailed me.
He died on December 4th. He was 75 years old.
I really like his work (he is a Canadian painter) and I wanted one of his paintings for a long long time. since he is Canadian I never knew about him until I moved here. But I remember admiring his work twenty years ago in art galleries in Toronto. I remember nearly buying some of his work several times in the last eight years One of those I mentioned in this blog). And I did buy some last time I was home. It wasn't a long planned thing. I was in Edmonton to pick up Dave so we could go on a road trip to Jasper. I went to the Bearclaw Gallery, because I always do if I can since they often have Morrisseau paintings for sale. I looked at one and decided to think about it over the road trip. In Jasper, where unbeknown to me previously, Morrisseau had spent many summers painting under the "protection" of Galal H. I met up with Galal and we spent a great afternoon talking about Morrisseau, art and life in general. Galal, as Morrisseau main "protector", owns over 600 of his paintings. And I was lucky to see a few of them. But Galal would not sale one to me. I drove back home, and then back to Edmonton where I spent a day in the gallery. Jackie, the owner, realizing that I was genuinely interested opened up her collection of Morrisseau to me, some were for sale, some weren't. Morrisseau's work is like this. When you own one, you may not want to part with it.
Anyway, I took some paintings home, and on this trip home I have to go back to Edmonton to pick up the one that needed to be framed.
Here is an extract of what showed up in the news at the announcement of his death.
From The National Post: "Ojibwa painter Norval Morrisseau, one of Canada's most celebrated artists, has died at the age of 75.Called "the Picasso of the North" by Marc Chagall, Morrisseau rose to prominence in the 1960s, the first aboriginal artist to achieve success in the mainstream art world. Last year he became the first aboriginal artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.Morrisseau, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was an ailing old man in a wheelchair when he attended the 2006 gallery opening in Ottawa. But he was a young man in Beardmore, a northern Ontario mining town, when he was "discovered" by Jack Pollock, a Toronto art dealer, in 1962......."
From the Globe and Mail: "Mr. Morrisseau could properly lay claim to being the creator and spiritual leader of the Woodland Indian art movement, not only in Canada but in the northeast United States. He developed his style independent of the influence of any other artist and was the first to depict Ojibwa legends and history for the non-native world.
He broke the taboos of his people by revealing sacred stories, but believed it was his mission to put his heritage before the modern world so it could be kept alive. He was “a living bridge to the past,” said Donald Robinson of Toronto's Kinsman Robinson Galleries, his major dealer for more than 15 years.
Three generations of native artists have followed in his footsteps, producing variations of the Morrisseau style using heavy black outlines to enclose colourful, flat shapes. Many of these artists have become wealthy in the process but such success was denied Mr. Morrisseau, who never quite escaped the poverty into which he was born.
Born near Thunder Bay to a family living on the Ojibwa Sand Point Reserve on Lake Nipigon, he was baptized Jean-Baptiste Norman Henry Morrisseau. The oldest of five sons, he went to school for six years, but only finished Grade 2.
Over the years, legends have developed around Mr. Morrisseau. According to one story, he became perilously ill at 19. A visit to the doctor did nothing and a medicine woman was summoned. A renaming ceremony was performed (Anishnaabe tradition holds that a giving powerful name to someone near death can rally strength and save a life). He was renamed Copper Thunderbird, and recovered. Later, he would use it to sign his paintings......"
