Norval Morrisseau at Gallery de Boer

Born March 13, 1931 on Sandy Lake Reserve in northwestern Ontario, Norval Morrisseau almost died of illness as a small boy. His mother took him to a Medicine Woman who gave him the powerful Ojibway name “Copper Thunderbird” to give him the strength to recover. At the time, many elders in the tribe were outraged that such a young man was given such a powerful name.

However, not only did young Morrisseau beat the fever, he grew into his powerful name by becoming a world class painter. His work is signed using his native name Copper Thunderbird using Cree syllabics taught to him by his Cree wife.

Norval Morrisseau was launched onto the Canadian art scene in 1962 when he was introduced to Toronto art gallery owner Jack Pollock. Pollock took him to Toronto where Morrisseau’s first one man show sold out on the first day.
Morrisseau continued painting and was dubbed the “Picasso of the North” of First Nations Art by the French Press in 1969 and is considered, by many experts, one of the most innovative artists of the Century. Unlike Picasso however, Norval Morrisseau developed a unique style of art, back in the bush, with no connection to European style and influence. Instead, Morrisseau used healing images or spiritual images from many of the secret legends known only within the Ojibway and Cree Tribes as well as images that came to him in dreams.
With his apprentice and friend, fellow artist Carl Ray (a Cree artist from Sandy Lake) they were the pioneers of this fresh style of art. Both were commissioned by the Canadian government to paint the large mural for The Natives of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal.
In 1972, a hotel fire in Vancouver almost took Morrisseau’s life, but he recovered from the burns and healed enough to paint again. Around the same time, he adopted Christianity and a number of Morrisseau’s paintings in the ‘70s reflected these new beliefs. In time Christianity and Native Shamanism shared the same place and power.
In 1973 Morrisseau joined with six other native artists and gave birth to the Woodlands Group of Seven. The group was never meant to be a take on the non-Indian name “Group of Seven”. It came about because its membership also consisted of seven people – Norval Morrisseau, Jackson Beardy, Eddy Cobiness, Alex Janvier, Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, and Joe Sanchez.
Use of traditional images and impressions by the Woodlands Group of Seven established Native Art as a recognized and respected art form in the Canadian art scene. Eventually this style was named The Woodlands School of Art; also called “Legend Art” or “Medicine Art”. The Woodlands School of Art inspired a new generation of First Nation artists.
In 1978 Norval Morrisseau was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada Medal by the Governor General of Canada for his contribution to Canadian Art.
Norval was the only Canadian artist invited by France to contribute and show his work at their Bicentennial Celebration in 1989. While in Europe he toured the galleries to see the works of Master artists only to think their work was too dark and somber. He returned to paint in even more vibrant colours and abstract shapes.
The National Gallery of Canada, in recognition of his pioneering work, organized a retrospective of Morrisseau’s work in 2005 and 2006. This was the first time that the Gallery had dedicated a solo exposition to a native artist.
Norval died on December 4, 2007, in Toronto of complications from Parkinson’s disease. While his death is a loss to the Canadian art world, his work lives on and continues to capture the imagination of collectors and young painters.