Type: Painting

Date: 1988

Medium: Acrylic

Support: Canvas

Description:

The Artist With Old Friends is an iconic work that is a fine example of Norval Morrisseau’s bold, simplified painting style. Morrisseau frequently referenced his Aboriginal heritage, and the bright colours in this piece are characteristic of his later period.

Biographical Information:

Norval Morrisseau (1932-2007) was an Aboriginal Canadian artist. Known as the “Picasso of the North”, Morrisseau founded the Woodlands School of Canadian art and was a prominent member of the “Indigenous Group of Seven”. Norval Morrisseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Aboriginal Canadian artist. Known as the “Picasso of the North”, Morrisseau created works depicting 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 and was a prominent member of the “Indigenous Group of Seven”. An Anishinaabe, he was born March 14, 1932 on the Sand Point Ojibway reserve near Beardmore, Ontario. Some sources quote him as saying that he was born in Fort William, now part of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the same date in 1931. In accordance with Anishnaabe tradition, he 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. At the age of six, he was sent to a Catholic residential school, where students were educated in the European tradition, native culture was repressed, and the use of native language was forbidden. After two years he returned home and started attending a local community school.

This project is generously funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) through the Grow Grant and Border Crossings.

and the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Mississauga’s Cultural Division

This project is generously funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) through the Grow Grant.

and the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Mississauga’s Cultural Division

The Art Gallery of Mississauga is a guest upon the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. This ancient land is part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the traditional homelands of the Anishinaabe, Wendat, and Haudenosaunee nations.