Ojibway painters

"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".