MORRISSEAU, Norval 1932-

PERSONAL: Native American name, Copper Thunderbird; born March 14, 1932, in Sand Point Reserve, Ontario, Canada; grandson of Moses and Vernique Nanakonagas; married Harriet Kakegamic, 1957 (marriage ended); children: six. Education: Attended Indian boarding school in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada. Religion: Christian; Eckankar.

ADDRESSES: Home—British Columbia, Canada. Agent—c/o Kinsman Robinson Gallery, 108 Cumberland St., Toronto, Ontario M5R 1A6, Canada.

CAREER: Writer; painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Exhibitions: Work exhibited in many solo and group shows, beginning 1962, including exhibitions at Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Native American Center for the Living Arts, Niagara Falls, NY, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, CA, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; collections include work at Winnipeg Art Gallery, Royal Ontario Museum, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Canadian Museum of Civilization, and Canada Council ArtBank.

MEMBER: Royal Canadian Academy of Art.

AWARDS, HONORS: Member, Order of Canada, 1978; LL.D., McMaster University, 1980; honored by Assembly of First Nations, 1995.

WRITINGS:

(And illustrator) Legends of My People: The Great Ojibway, edited by Selwyn Dewdney, Ryerson Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1965, McGraw-Hill Ryerson (New York, NY), 1977.

(Illustrator) Herbert T. Schwarz, Windigo and Other Tales of the Ojibways, McClelland & Stewart (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1969.

(With Donald Robinson) Norval Morrisseau: Travels to the House of Invention, Key Porter Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

McLuhan, Elizabeth, and Tom Hill, Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers, Methuen (New York, NY), 1984.

Morrisseau, Norval, Legends of My People: The Great Ojibway, edited by Selwyn Dewdney, Ryerson Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1965.

Notable Native Americans, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

St. James Guide to Native North-American Artists, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998, pp. 396-398.

Sinclair, Lister, and Jack Pollock, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, foreword by Norval Morrisseau, Methuen (New York, NY), 1979.

periodicals

Art, summer, 1974, Tom Hill, "Canadian Indian Artist's Death and Rebirth" and interview by James Stephens; summer, 1976, Nancy-Lou Patterson, "Shaking Tents and Medicine Snakes: Traditional Elements in Contemporary Woodland Art."

Artwest, May, 1983, Jamake Highwater, "North American Indian Art: A Special Way of Seeing."

Canadian Art, January-February, 1963, Selwyn Dewdney, "Norval Morrisseau."

Canadian Forum, December, 1989, Jack Pollock, "Meeting Morrisseau," p. 784.

London Free Press, September 29, 1962, Lenore Crawford, "Self-taught Ojibway Artist Finds Fame Overnight."

Maclean's, March 5, 1984, Gillian MacKay, "Salute to a Vibrant Revolutionary," p. 62.

New York Times, March 16, 2001, Holland Cotter, "Draw and Tell: The Transformative Lines of Norval Morrisseau/Copper Thunderbird," p. B35.

Time, September 28, 1962, "Myths and Symbols"; August 25, 1975, "Fierce Clarity and Sophistication."

Toronto Daily Star, June 12, 1962, Bill Brown, "Cooper Thunderbird: An Ojibway Paints His People's Past."

other

The Colours of Pride (documentary film), National Film Board of Canada, 1974.

The Originals: Norval Morrisseau (documentary film), City Television (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1990.

The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau (documentary film), National Film Board of Canada, 1974.

"Spirits Speaking Through: Canadian Woodland Artists" (documentary program), Spectrum (television series), Canadian Broadcasting Corp., 1982.*