"When you are in Toronto, go and see
pictures of the Woodland School Painters", someone said to me.
"They are all Indians, mostly Ojibway. The best is Norwal
Morriseau. When you are in Toronto, go and see their exhibition".
Easy to say: "go and see". Where
shall I find them?
If this is a gorup of painters from Ontario,
then perhaps I should go to the Art Gallery of Ontario. I did go
there and asked at the information by the entry where to look for
them. Woodland School? Who is it? Ah, Norval Morriseau? The man in
the information showed me on a map where his pictures hang. I went
there and indeed I found six pictures by Norval Morriseau. They were
titled "A Man Changing into a Thunderbird". All had the
same title because although there were six canvasses, it was actually
one work of art. On the first canvass there was a man, on the last a
Thunderbird, the other four were stages in between. So in the Art
Gallery of Ontario I found only one work by Norval Morriseau. That
was all.
All?
Yes, all. I made an effort and went around the
whole gallery, which is quite big. There is a first-rate collection
of second-rate European art, there is a good representation of the
Group of Seven, there are several rooms full of strange objects as in
any gallery of modern art in the world (where modern artists try to
attract attention producing strange objects), but there are no
painters of the Woodland School. One would think that this group of
painters could be a showpiece of Ontario's art, but it is not.
Why not?
Is it because all of the painters are actually
Ojibway Indians?
In Toronto there is also a private museum, the
McMichael Canadian Art Collection. It is far from the centre, in a
village called Kleinburg, in a mansion beautifully set between trees,
where once the collectors lived. It has a good collection of the
Group of Seven and I hoped they would have also something of the
Woodland School. They did indeed have something, just about. They
exhibited a few paintings of these painters, all of them in a medium
size room. There were a few pictures of Norval Morriseau and between
single pictures of other artists: Daphne Odjig, Carl Ray, Saul
Williams, Goyce Kakegamic. Not much but at least more than nothing.
In Toronto there is still another possibility:
to find a gallery selling works of modern artists, after all Woodland
School artists are still alive. Not all, Norval Morriseau died a few
years ago, but still, this is modern art. How to find such a gallery?
Perhaps by going to a bookshop and looking in a detailed city guide.
This way I learned that Kinsman Robinson Gallery deals with paintings
of Norval Morriseau. I went there and from afar I saw a banner:
Norval Morriseau Retrospective. I asked a man at the entry if I can
find works by Woodland School artists. He says that Norval Morriseau
yes, others no. Just now they have a retrospective of Norval, the
opening is in a few days but all the pictures are already in place
and I can view them. The exhibition was impressive, two big rooms
full of pulsating colours. One could observe the development of the
artist: First pictures in two colours, scratched on birch bark, later
ones, from the sixties, painted in acrylic in shades of brown, still
later ones, from the eighties, in bright neon-like colours. The
curator says that he has seen several of Norval's pictures showing a
moose and could see the evolution from the realistic representation
to the characteristic Norval style. Norval created the style of the
Woodland School. He was an Ojibway medicine man and claimed that from
the spirit world he received a message ordering him to be a painter.
It was a controversial decision, he drew his inspiration from the
secret myths of the Ojibway. Other medicine men claim that these
secrets should never be made public. Other Ojibway painters later
continued his style but Norval was the first one.
Others, that is who?
I was looking for a book in which I could find
any solid information on the subject. I found a few books about
Norval Morriseau and one catalogue of an exhibition by Daphne Odjig.
Who is Daphne Odjig? The aforementioned catalogue suggests that she
is the number two in this group of painters. Daphne was born on
Manitoulin Island on the so-called unceded reservation of the
Ojibway. Unceded - because its residents never signed any treaty
ceding this land to the government of Canada, or anybody else. One of
Daphne's ancestors was a Potowatomi chief famous for his fight
against the U.S., who later found refuge on Manitoulin. However, in
the mid-tewntieth century, when Daphne Odjig grew up, pride in the
old battles was half forgotten. Daphne looked for work in Toronto, an
Indian name was seen as something that may cause problems finding it,
so she changed it to Fisher. In Toronto she worked in an office but
she also had a talent for painting, so she painted. In her pictures
one can see influence of cubism but also of her Indian grandfather,
who taught her to draw on birch bark. Then came 1960s, for the
Indians the time of revival of pride in being Indian. In 1962 on
Manitoulin there was the first pow wow in Ontario in modern times.
Daphne was there, she was drawn into the circle of dancers and
suddenly she felt Indian again. From that time on she started
painting Ojibway legends and her style became quite similar to that
of Norval Morriseau. In time she moved back to Moanitoulin Island.
That is two persons. What about others? Where
could they be found?
Maybe simply in the woodlands of northern
Ontario, where the Ojibway live?
On the northen shore of Lake Huron, on the
grounds of Serpent River Indian Reserve, there is a gallery of Indian
Art. The art itself is very much Ojibway but the natural clientèle
are not Indians. The Trans-Canadian highway passes through the
reserve and for the city people on their way to holidays this is the
place where they encounter things Indian. Naturally in such a place
there is a certain amount of the souvenir kitchy stuff but there are
also some interesting works. All have something in common with Norval
Morriseau style, but I never heard the names of the authors and know
nothing about them. I found, however, a series of post cards with
interesting prints and at the back of each postcard some information
about the author. This is where my knowledge about them comes from. I
mention here two most interesting.
Cecil Younfox created prints with mythical
scenes in a very characteristic style, as if stretched on a spider
web. He was born in Blind River, a small town on the northern shore
of Lake Huron (and quite close to Serpent River), lived and worked in
New York, Vancouver and Toronto, but his style and subjests reflected
his Indian origin. He died in 1987.
Isaac Bignell wasn't Ojibway but Cree, born on
a reserve 400 miles north from Winnipeg. He developed his own
technique of painting with a sponge in which he created simple
compositions reflecting Indian perception of nature. He lived in
Winnipeg, Minneapolis and Vancouver. He died in 1995 aged 37. His
technique and style was continued by Russell Nogaosh, an Ojibway from
Ontario, who is recently gaining popularity but does not hide who he
learned his style from.
The gallery has also works by other artists,
mostly still alive. Because the Woodland School is not a closed
chapter. It is an event that is still happening. Although one
observation has to be mentioned here.
The Woodland School is Indian in style, its
subject matter is drawn from Ojibway tradition, but it is not
produced for Indians themselves. When the Ojibway lived in wigwams,
they didn't hang pictures on their walls. Hanging pictures on the
walls of houses is not an Indian tradition. Nowadays the Ojibway live
in houses just like their white neighbours, but do they have on their
walls pictures of Norval Morriseau? Even if there are some who can
afford to buy his pictures, which may cost a tens of thousands
dollars (I could see the prices in Kinsman Robinson Gallery) they
would be people completely immersed in white man's culture. This is
because only people of this culture want to earn this kind of money.
You will find this article, and many others, in my book "ART ETHNO".
