Honouring Norval Morrisseau (1932-2007)
15 FEBRUARY - 8 JUNE 2008
In recognition of Norval Morrisseau’s great contributions to art in Canada, a selection of works from the National Gallery of Canada’s collection recently returned from the tour of his solo exhibition will be installed alongside new acquisitions and an important loan from the Indian and Inuit Art Centre, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Morrisseau, founder of the “Woodland School” more recently known as the “Anishnaabe School” of painting, has received numerous awards in his Native Canada and abroad. He was appointed to the Royal Academy of Art in the 1973 and was also appointed Member of the Order of Canada in 1978. In 1980 he received an honorary doctrine from McMaster University. In 1989 Morrisseau was the only painter from Canada invited to participate in the exhibition titled Magiciens de la Terre / Magicians of the Earth at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Morrisseau has also been honored by the Native people when he was acknowledged as Grand Shaman of the Ojibwe and in 1995 the Assemble of First Nations gave him their highest award. His major retrospective organized by the National Gallery of Canada traveled to the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, NM and to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, NYC.

Morrisseau had his first major American museum exposure in the 2000 exhibition Listening with the Heart: Frank Big Bear, George Morrison, Norval Morrisseau at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum Art, Minneapolis, MN curated by Todd Bockley.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 9:59 pm and is filed under artist, news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.