Morrisseau exhibition featured at National Gallery

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For the first time in the 126- year-old history of the National Gallery of Canada the work of a First Nations artist is being featured in a solo exhibition.

Norval Morrisseau-Shaman Artist had its official opening at the gallery on Feb. 3 and will run until April 30.

Morrisseau was born in 1932 on the Sand Point reserve near Lake Nipigon in northern Ontario. His artwork first gained him attention in the 1960s and the images he created, featuring bright colors and stylized representations of living creatures, soon spawned a new school of art-the Woodland School-and inspired many other First Nations artists to follow in his footsteps.

Part of the reason Morrisseau's work hadn't been featured at the gallery until now is because in the past, art created by Aboriginal people wasn't thought of as art, explained Greg Hill, assistant curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Canada and curator of Shaman Artist.

"I think it's important to note that yes, this exhibit has been a long time coming and the gallery is in its 126th year but that we don't want that kind of thing to over shadow the fact that it is finally happening now," said Hill. "This is Norval's time to be honored and so it's important for us to keep that in mind. It's about his work. His work is fantastic, and this is really a great thing for him."

Shaman Artist includes 59 of Morrisseau's works covering the period of 1958 to 2002, some of which have never before been on exhibit. The paintings come from the gallery's collection, as well as from public and private collections in Canada, the United States and Israel.

The exhibition features some of Morrisseau's early works painted on birchbark and cardboard right through to large-scale canvases with images representing animals and plants and spiritual creatures and more recent works.

"I think his more recent work becomes influenced in part by the animation. His work becomes almost cartoon and I think he's thinking more about children later on in life and his own heritage. So, I think his own concern is shifting more towards children and his early works seem to appeal more to adults in that they operate more on an intellectual level. Not to say that adults in older generations don't also pick up on what's happening with the really colorful work," said Hill.

"I think he's someone who is obviously very concerned for his culture and for promoting his culture.

Certainly, that was his objective in the early parts of his career because I think he looked around and saw the conditions that his people were living in and the loss of culture that was happening in the 60s. Yet, he knew just how much strength there could be gained from culture and language and he became pretty much a student of his own culture. He spoke with his Elders and grandfather and learned as much as he could and documented things and shared that with an anthropologist, which then led to a book he had published called Legends of My People: The Great Ojibwe."

After the showing in Ottawa, Norval Morrisseau-Shaman Artist will travel to the Thunder Bay Art gallery and stay there from June 3 to Sept. 4. It will then move on to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg where it can be viewed from Sept. 30 to Jan.14. The last stop will be at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City from Oct. 6, 2007 to Jan. 6, 2008.