Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison 9780806143927

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Modern Spirit The Art of George Morrison

W. Jackson Rushing III Kristin Makholm Foreword by Kay WalkingStick

Modern Spirit

The Art of George Morrison

Modern Spirit

The Art of George Morrison W. Jackson Rushing III and Kristin Makholm

Foreword by Kay WalkingStick

University of Oklahoma Press : Norman

In cooperation with the Minnesota Museum of American Art

Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison is organized by the Minnesota Museum of American Art and Arts Midwest, with the Plains Art Museum. The exhibition and its national tour are supported by corporate sponsor Ameriprise Financial and foundation sponsor Henry Luce Foundation. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the generous contributions of individuals across the Midwest. Unless otherwise noted, all reproductions of artwork are by George Morrison, copyright © Briand Morrison.

Organized by:

Major support from:

Tour venues and dates: Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota June 16, 2013– September 1, 2013

National Museum of the American Indian, New York, New York September 28, 2013 – February 23, 2014

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana March 29, 2014– September 14, 2014

Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona October 25, 2014 – January 12, 2015

Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data is located at the end of the catalogue.

Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Minnesota

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc. ∞

February 14, 2015– April 26, 2015

The following works by George Morrison appear in this catalogue uncaptioned on the pages noted: Pp. ii–iii: detail of Faraway Parade. Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (see plate 77, pp. 142–143) P. v: detail of New England Landscape II (see plate 38, p. 101) P. 10: detail of Untitled (Lake Superior Landscape) (see plate 63, p. 126) P. 63: detail of Untitled (see plate 47, p. 110)

Copyright © 2013 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act—without the prior written permission of the University of Oklahoma Press. To request permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, University of Oklahoma Press, 2800 Venture Drive, Norman OK 73069, or email [email protected]. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Contents Foreword A Special Visit with George Morrison Kay WalkingStick   vii Acknowledgments W. Jackson Rushing III and Kristin Makholm   xi Introduction The Journey Toward George Morrison, Minnesota Artist Kristin Makholm   3 Modern Spirit The Art of George Morrison W. Jackson Rushing III

  11

Plates

  63

George Morrison Chronology 1919–2011 Netha Anita Cloeter   149 Checklist of the Exhibition

  167

Notes

  171

Selected Bibliography

  179

Contributors

  181

Untitled, 1977, lithograph, 39¼ × 277⁄8 in. (image). Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Vermillion Archival Collection. Gift of funds from The Northern Star Foundation and The Hersey Foundation, P.83.59.50.

vi

Foreword A Special Visit with George Morrison Kay WalkingStick

Looking at the print by George Morrison that

The thing about artists is this: you cannot

hangs over my couch, I wonder what it tells me

necessarily read who they are in their work.

about the man. It is so precise, perhaps even

They often choose not to reveal themselves to

compulsive—was he precise and compulsive? I

us at all.

do not know. It is a large print—the image alone is about

I went to see George sometime in the early 1990s, but after 1991. The only reason I can

39 inches high and nearly 28 inches wide.

date it that well is that I had first shown with

Hundreds of similar but irregular lines fill the

George in 1991, and our visit was soon after

space. They seem to be alive, moving naturally,

that. We exchanged prints after that meeting,

the way grains in wood do or like the surface

and the print I sent to him, The Onrush of Time,

of water with little fishes spawning below. It’s

was done in early summer 1989. That initial

an active, suggestive image. The lines are black,

exhibit where our artworks were hung was

but because they are fine, they appear gray and

Shared Visions: Native American Painters and

close in value to one another, expressing a calm,

Sculptors in the Twentieth Century, held at the

quiet surface at first glance. There is a central

Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. That

force of upward lines, which remind one of a

exhibit was an important survey, which traveled

tree, and a horizontal line, occasionally broken,

the country for two years and had an impressive

that rests about three-quarters up the design,

catalogue by Margaret Archuleta and Rennard

like two large planks glued together. Eventually,

Strickland. George and I exhibited together in

one wonders how many days the artist spent on

another show called Our Land/Ourselves:

these lines, and whether he covered the work

American Indian Contemporary Artists, at the

as he went to avoid being muddled by the mass

University Gallery at SUNY, in Albany, New York,

of lines. It is a very focused and concentrated

which was curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

work. To my knowledge, no one has done a

and organized by Nancy Liddle, the director of

print quite like this. It is unique. It is beautiful in

the gallery. The catalogue for that show had

part because it is so concentrated that you can

one of George’s paintings on its cover—

feel the artist creating it. This is a very complex

Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock Variation:

work of art, and perhaps that is what it tells me

Lake Superior Landscape (1990; plate 75),

about George—seemingly so quiet and calm,

featuring a bright magenta earth with an

but complex, thoughtful, and perhaps agitated.

orange and green sky. I loved it and was glad

vii

Kay WalkingStick, Is That

You II? 1989, charcoal on paper, 30 × 60 in. Courtesy of the artist.

viii Foreword

that they had chosen that work for the cover.

about how he survived and flourished. I was

It was so beautiful and contemporary. At that

not interested in talking about exhibiting or

point, I realized that I needed to talk to George,

selling or any of the markers of success. I was

so I flew to Minneapolis to see him. Did I have

interested in how he felt about himself and his

a gig in Minneapolis? Perhaps, but I do not

art, and in how he handled these issues in his

recall, because that was secondary to my goal

head.

of talking to George. Maybe he could answer

My husband, Dirk Bach, had known

some of my questions about being an Indian

George around 1970, when they had both

in a white art world while not playing the

been professors at the Rhode Island School

“Indian Card.”

of Design in Providence. Their first meeting

George never made art with feathers

was not at RISD but at the University of New

and beads: he did not paint ponies and war

Hampshire, where Dirk had been teaching art

bonnets; he did not paint about “identity

at the time. Dirk was also the gallery director,

politics.” George was an abstract expressionist.

and in that capacity he had arranged an exhibit

He was thoroughly schooled in the art of

for the sculptor Tom Morin, who was a friend

his era, as I am, and he chose to make art

of George’s at RISD. Tom introduced George

about his artistic era and his surroundings,

to Dirk at the opening as his Indian colleague,

as I do. He lived a good portion of his life on

George Morrison. George didn’t play the

the East Coast—New York City, Providence,

“Indian Card,” but other people were certainly

Provincetown—as I have. He had not been

interested in his heritage. At the time George

schooled in the cultural traditions of his

wore his black hair in a small ponytail, and with

Chippewa heritage, as I had not been taught

his dark complexion there was no mistaking

my Cherokee traditions. We seemed to have

his origins. He was about fifty at the time.

a lot in common, and I wanted to talk to him

This was long before the notion that college

faculties should be ethnically (or gender) mixed.

always “kitschy,” and therefore I should not

George was at RISD solely because he was an

show with other Indians if I wanted to be taken

accomplished, and by then, a recognized artist.

seriously. When I went to see George, I wanted

When I visited George, he was in his early seventies. We went to see his work at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design

to know if he, too, had heard this type of remark. He did not say. George Morrison was a man of few

and talked a bit about those huge, grand

words—gentle and thoughtful—who exuded

found-wood collages, which are so much like

calm. He told me that when he was in New

paintings. Dirk talks about gathering wood

York, people often thought he was Persian

at the Provincetown beaches for George, and

and had no idea that he was a Chippewa from

when the collages were finished and hung,

Minnesota. He was an artist who happened to

identifying the bits and pieces that he and his

be an Indian. He made art all of the time and

colleagues had found. Those works do have the

followed his personal vision. He was a painter

feel of contributions, although not from friends

who made moving and glorious sculpture; he

but from the land itself. It was wonderful

was an abstractionist who enjoyed ambiguity

to see them “in the flesh.” They have such

in art and painted wonderful landscapes

sophistication and power and yet are so simple

describing the flow of land and sky.

and earthy. I had long felt that people expected a

George never promulgated the idea that he was an Indian artist, yet his work seems

certain kind of art from me. Had they from

to exude a love of the land and a richness of

George? Once, not too long ago, an otherwise

our shared vision that we like to think of as an

well-educated man said to me that he had

Indian state of mind. He was simply, quietly

never seen a piece of art by a Native American

himself. That is what I understood when we

that did not have a sun in it. “Where are the

met. Nothing was verbally expressed, yet I felt

suns in your art?” he asked. In fact, I had been

my questions were answered. He had silently

told by art professionals that Indian art was

told me to go home and be myself.

ix Foreword

Hazel Belvo, Briand Morrison, and George Morrison, 1976. Photo by Victor Bloomfield, retouched by Rik Sferra. Courtesy Hazel Belvo.

x

Acknowledgments

T

his exhibition and catalogue benefited

the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Sanford Hirsch

greatly from the enthusiastic support and

at the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation;

warm hospitality of Hazel Belvo and her son,

Jeffrey Kastner at Cabinet Magazine; Mario

Briand Morrison, who generously sat for

Nick Klimiades at the Heard Museum; Pamela

interviews; shared ideas, memories, and

Koob at the Art Students League in New York

documents; and lent works of art. It is my

City; and Peter Spooner, formerly of the Tweed

pleasure to thank them kindly for their

Museum of Art.

commitment. I am also pleased to thank my

We are grateful also for the finesse of our

graduate student assistants Caroline Jean

copyeditor, Melanie Mallon. At the University of

Fernald and Samantha Still as well as Netha

Oklahoma Press we are indebted to Charles E.

Anita Cloeter, who researched and wrote the

Rankin and Alice Stanton for editorial support,

chronology. An interview with Evan M. Maurer,

to Tony Roberts for his beautiful cover design,

former director of the Minneapolis Institute

and to Julie Rushing for her elegant book design.

of Arts, was very helpful concerning George

—W. Jackson Rushing III

Morrison’s return to Minnesota in 1970. I enjoyed productive conversations about Morrison’s art with Bill Anthes at Pitzer College, Kate L. Morris at Santa Clara University, Claudia Mesch at Arizona State University, Ruth Phillips at Carleton University in Ottawa, and especially

S

hortly after taking the helm at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in

2009—at a time when the museum lacked

Rob Silberman at the University of Minnesota.

most essential things, like a staff, financial

Mark Andrew White, Miranda Callender, Traci

resources, and even a building to call home—

Bidwell, and Jenny Warner Vigil provided

it became apparent to me that the museum

support at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

needed to focus on and feature its substantial

at the University of Oklahoma.

holdings in American art for inspiration

Thanks also to the following individuals for

and renewal. With a collection of over four

their professional courtesy: Todd Bockley; Amy

thousand works of art from the nineteenth

Chan at Arizona State University; Elizabeth

century to the present, the MMAA is a rich

Bahls at the University of Michigan Museum of

resource, with extraordinary pockets of depth,

Art; Joe Horse Capture and Stephanie Kays at

inspiration, and beauty. Surveying this under-

xi

recognized collection, I saw clearly a body of art

and Western Art; Diana Pardue at the Heard

that demanded special attention—the extensive

Museum; and Daniel Spark and D. Stephen

work of Minnesota artist George Morrison.

Elliot at the Minnesota HIstory Center and

Here was a phenomenally rich collection of

Minnesota Historical Society.

works in many media, from early to late, by an artist beloved by the local community.

Art’s collection of eighty-five works could

Local audiences had been privileged to see

make a strong traveling exhibition in and of

and appreciate this work, but Morrison’s rich

itself, Jackson and I wanted to make this the

and varied oeuvre had never been shared with

best exhibition imaginable and thus include

the rest of the country in a national traveling

key loans from around the country. We would

exhibition. Its time had come.

like to thank the following public and private

This show would not have been possible

lenders to Modern Spirit: The Art of George

without the early and wholehearted participation

Morrison—Thomas J. Arneson; Hazel Belvo;

of two people: curator and scholar W. Jackson

Todd Bockley of Bockley Gallery; Mary Sue

Rushing and Arts Midwest director David Fraher.

Comfort; Carole Ann Jones; Kevin and Kathy

An old friend and colleague, Rushing was the

Kirvida; Robert and Frances Leff; Briand

perfect scholar to take on this project, and he

Morrison; Dorit and Gerald Paul; Philip Rickey

enthusiastically accepted the curatorial role

and Mary Sullivan Rickey; Barbara Surprenant;

from day one. David Fraher understood the

Kaywin Feldman, Joe Horse Capture, Patrick

potential of this traveling exhibition to enrich

Noon, and Thomas Rassieur of the Minneapolis

countless new audiences with Morrison’s

Institute of Arts; Olga Viso and Darsie Alexander

inspirational work and story, and he harnessed

at the Walker Art Center; Diana Pardue at the

his considerable influence in the funding sector

Heard Museum; Lyndel King and Diane Mullin

to help make the exhibition a reality. David was

at the Weisman Art Museum; Ken Bloom at the

assisted at Arts Midwest by valued colleagues,

Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota

director of development Colleen McLaughlin and

Duluth; Brian Szott at the Minnesota Historical

manager of external relations Anne Romens. To

Society; Barbara Brotherton at the Seattle Art

them all I owe a debt of gratitude.

Museum; Andrea Inselmann at the Herbert F.

The rush of enthusiastic participants soon

xii Acknowledgments

While the Minnesota Museum of American

Johnson Museum of Art, at Cornell University;

began, and others became involved in this

Sue Hennessy and Beth Schwarz at Cook

important project. The director and CEO

County School District 166; Colleen Sheehy at

of the Plains Art Museum, Colleen Sheehy,

the Plains Art Museum; Rebecca Lawton at the

signed on early as the museum’s partner and

Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Aprile

first venue, and the museum’s collections

Gallant and Jessica Nicoll at the Smith College

manager, Mark Ryan, offered his considerable

Museum of Art; Don McNeil at General Mills

registrarial expertise to the tour. I would also

Corporation; and an anonymous lender.

like to thank the other institutional partners in

We would like to thank the many

this traveling exhibition: Peter Brill and Lindsay

funders that contributed to this exhibition

Shapiro at the Smithsonian Institution’s National

and catalogue, including the Henry Luce

Museum of the American Indian, in New York;

Foundation, the National Endowment for the

Jennifer Complo McNutt and James Nottage

Arts, and individual donors, including (to date)

at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians

Thomas J. Arneson, Dick and Debbie Bancroft,

Sandra and Peter Butler, Mary Sue Comfort, Fuller Cowles and Connee Mayeron, Page

Medora Woods. Finally, I would like to thank those stalwart

and Jay Cowles, Russell Cowles and Josine

people who helped in the trenches at the

Peters, Chip and Vicki Emery, Nancy and Rolf

MMAA, specifically Ann Benrud, Rosa Corral,

Engh, Angela Erdrich and Sandeep Patel, Heid

Diana Johnson, Gayle Jorgens, Ardie Medina,

Erdrich and John Burke, Mary Louise Fellows

Lisa Ranallo, Rik Sferra, and Jessari Sutton.

and Bev Balos, Teddy and James Gesell, Nor

Board member Ann Pifer gave Jack and me

Hall and Roger Hale, Dan Hathaway, Ruth and

a welcome place to stay on our research trip

John Huss, Miriam Kelen, Kevin and Kathy

to the North Shore. My warmest thanks go

Kirvida, Robert and Frances Leff, Susan and

to Todd Bockley for his intrepid help and

Jim Lenfestey, Kathy and Allen Lenzmeier,

determination, and especially mother and

Georgia Lindeke, Peggy and Dave Lucas, Tom

son Hazel Belvo and Briand Morrison for their

and Martha Meyer, Stuart and Kate Nielsen,

perpetual support and generosity. Ultimately,

Jim Rustad and Kay Thomas, Patricia Saunders,

we have Hazel and George to thank for the

Al Sedgwick, Mariana and Craig Shulstad,

richness and depth of the MMAA Morrison

Tony and Pat Stoneburner, Mike and Jody

holdings that so motivated this inspiring and

Wahlig, Bonnie Wallace and Ron Hagland, and

timely exhibition of a great American artist. —Kristin Makholm

xiii Acknowledgments

George Morrison working on wood collage, 1979. Photo by Dick Bancroft.

xiv

Modern Spirit

The Art of George Morrison

Introduction The Journey Toward George Morrison, Minnesota Artist Kristin Makholm

Understanding and appreciating the work

astute observations of the physical world

of George Morrison must entail a journey.

with the mysteries of mark making through

This journey is through a richness of artwork

automatism, variance, and repetition. I found

in various media—wood, paint, ink, metal,

drawings such as Orange, Red, Blue, and Gray

paper, and canvas—which forms the basis

Forms, from 1955, which probes the building

of his legacy, across a landscape of earth,

blocks of stratified rock and wood that become

water, and air, through a concourse of visual

solid form in his later wood collages, and others

languages and references embodied in scores

(Sky with Constellations, 1983; plate 57) that

of drawings as yet unknown and uncharted.

weave together word and image in a constant

I embarked on a voyage toward George

search for universal method and meaning.

Morrison the day I walked into the storage

A drawing later found in the archives at the

facility of the Minnesota Museum of American

Minnesota Historical Society embodies the

Art (MMAA) in 2009 and saw the brilliance that is Cumulated Landscape (1976; plate 43), the large wood collage that offers the experience of nature in all its subtle magnetism. I knew the artist’s phenomenal wood relief Collage IX: Landscape, prominently on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, but here was an entirely new experience, a landscape solid, measured, and grounded compared to Collage IX’s turbulence and passion. Pulling out metal racks housing Morrison’s paintings and opening up boxes full of his drawings, I traveled back with the artist as he investigated paint as a surrogate for earth and

Orange, Red, Blue, and Gray Forms, 1955,

richly explored shape, form, and color. As a former curator of prints and drawings at the

gouache on paper, 11 × 8¼ in.

Milwaukee Art Museum, I was particularly

Collection Minnesota Museum

impressed with the drawings, which combined

of American Art. Gift of George Morrison, 96.10.18.

3

this exhibition was easy; W. Jackson Rushing III is one of the foremost scholars on twentiethcentury Native American art in this country, and he was eager to engage more intimately with Morrison and his inspiring work. Astute writings on Morrison were readily available, such as Margot Fortunato Galt’s intimate interviews with Morrison in Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998) and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s catalogue Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser, published on the occasion of the opening of that museum in Washington, D.C., in 2004. The journey to understand and appreciate Morrison’s work becomes more complicated, however, when trying to reconcile his profoundly modern art with his Native American identity. As an artist who eschewed traditional Indian subject matter and media for the lure of European and New York abstraction, Morrison seems to go against the grain of Indian artists eager to embrace the language and traditions of Native arts. As Morrison often said, “I never played the role of being an Indian artist. I always just stated the fact that I was idea that a simple line and sinuous form can

a painter, and I happened to be Indian.”1 This

confirm “carnel [sic] spirit and unhappy flesh,”

tactic of distancing himself from his identity

Minnesota Historical Society

as quoted by Morrison from the poet and writer

as a Native American painter in favor of the

Archives.

Paul Verlaine.

more universal notion of the “artist” strikes

Page from a sketchbook, 1975, ink on paper. Courtesy

The idea of sharing with a national audience

and ethnic identity and the role of the artist in

brilliant work started the journey toward

twentieth-century American art.

what is now the exhibition Modern Spirit: The

4 Introduction

at a fundamental friction between cultural

this experience of discovering Morrison’s

W. Jackson Rushing tackles this issue

Art of George Morrison, a retrospective that

in his essay in this catalogue. He makes a

celebrates the life of this inimitable artist and

comprehensive and powerful argument for

his extraordinary vision. The work itself was

considering Morrison as a product of a time

close at hand. Many of the best pieces were

when definitions of “Indianness” were evolving

right there in the MMAA’s collection, and many

in significant ways. In the art world, this could

others could be found in nearby public and

be seen as first distancing Morrison’s work as

private collections. Locating the curator for

being “not authentic enough,” then embracing

it in ways that read too much “Indian” into the

living in New York and Providence, Rhode

equation. The noted Native American scholar

Island, studying abroad in France, summering

Gerald Vizenor offers up the concept of “post-

on Provincetown beaches, and teaching and

Indian” to move beyond the Indian label and

exhibiting across the country.

foreground the role that individual subjective

And yet he always maintained a strong

consciousness and experience play in forming

connection to his family and the art world in

identity. Both arguments help us understand

Minnesota. Frequent visits to his family on the

Morrison, whose work and life embody the

North Shore coincided with opportunities to

collision of cultural identities that occurred in

submit paintings to local exhibitions in Duluth

the twentieth century.

and Minneapolis, including the Minnesota

2

There is a site, however, where the

State Fair and biennials at Minneapolis’s Walker

contradictions between identity, cultural

Art Center, which purchased his woodcut

affinities, and place in Morrison’s work level

Landscape (plate 15) in 1950 and mounted

out and become a solid platform that fuels

the exhibition Paintings by George Morrison in

our understanding and appreciation of this

1955. Upon his return from Europe in 1953,

multifaceted artist. Morrison was embedded

Morrison lived in Duluth for one year with his

in his homeland, within the web of people

first wife, Ada Reed, and later, in 1959, taught

and place of his home state of Minnesota,

at his alma mater, the Minneapolis School of

and we can feel the blood and fiber that

Art. Articles in the Duluth News-Tribune and

course through the artist’s work. Many have

the St. Paul Pioneer Press welcomed him with

distanced themselves from defining Morrison

open arms, and in 1958, the Cook County

as a “Minnesota artist,” considering it too

Historical Society awarded him the title “Master

provincial or constricting a label, yet a review

of Contemporary Art.”4

3

of Morrison’s life and work suggests that

Morrison’s life came full circle when he

“Artists Create Home in Former Church,” clipping

recognizing this fundamental connection with

returned to Minnesota for good in 1970 to

place may be one of the most indelible ways in

take the position of visiting professor in studio

which we can honor the work of this beloved

arts and in the newly established American

Derickson. Courtesy Minnesota

native son.

Indian Studies Department at the University of

Historical Society Archives.

from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 5, 1972. Photo by Roy

Take, for instance, the evidence of Morrison’s life. Born and raised on Minnesota’s North Shore, on the banks of Lake Superior, he received a scholarship to attend the Minneapolis School of Art, where he studied from 1938 to 1943. As early as 1942, his painting Mt. Maude (c. 1942; plate 2) was purchased by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, one of the leading museums in the country. Leaving Minnesota in 1943 to study at the Art Students League and revel in the bohemian artist’s life in New York City, Morrison spent most of the next twenty-seven years developing his life and career away from his home state—

5 Introduction

Minnesota. With his wife, the artist Hazel Belvo,

constantly changing, that’s never the same. I

and nine-year-old son, Briand, Morrison moved

like to look at it. . . . I’ve heard other people

into a deconsecrated church in St. Paul, which

say that they don’t see the lake all the time, but

they converted into a unique home with open,

they’re aware of it, and when they go away on

light-filled interiors and studios for both artists.

a vacation, they miss the lake.” Referring to the

Many reasons have been given for Morrison’s

creation of countless small Horizon paintings

return to Minnesota, most significantly his deep

Morrison produced from 1980 onward, Rushing

family ties, but one could equally argue that

remarks: “Because he made so many of them

Minnesota itself lured Morrison back.

over two decades, collectively they function like

Clearly, Morrison’s homeland continued to pulse through his veins, despite all the seminal

again, I am home again.” Rushing suggests the

years he lived and worked elsewhere. Growing

term “emplacement” to discuss the power that

up directly on the shores of Lake Superior, he

place, one’s home ground, holds in the mind,

would always feel the lake as integral to his

body, and spirit of any person, but especially in

daily existence, as were the trees, rocks, water,

Morrison.7

air, and land. Following his move to New York

This connection can hardly be separated

in the mid-1940s, he was constantly drawn to

from Morrison’s embracing of his Chippewa

the beaches and shoreline of Cape Cod and

heritage upon returning to Minnesota in

Provincetown, places that—aside from the salty

1970. Teaching American Indian studies at

ocean air—are closely reminiscent to the views

the University of Minnesota meant having to

on Lake Superior. In his essay, Rushing recalls

immerse himself in the history, politics, art,

Morrison’s comment that even though the

and literature of Native American culture,

artist was living on the East Coast, his wood

something Morrison had never done before.

collages of the mid-1960s “may have been

Native American studies and identity politics

inspired subconsciously by the rock formations

were just beginning to explode in the early

on the North Shore.” Beachcombing for found

1970s, and Morrison was in the thick of it.

wood and other detritus was a constant source

He and Hazel Belvo joined AIM, the American

of inspiration and materials for Morrison (see

Indian Movement, and spent more and more

Whalebone, 1948; plate 9), closely paralleling

time on the Grand Portage Reservation, where

his beach scavenging as a youth.

they visited the Spirit Little Cedar Tree, the ages

5

By the mid-1960s, his signature mark, the

old cedar tree on Lake Superior, and early set

horizon line, became an obsession, “a focal

their sights on Red Rock. Morrison knew that

point to identify the landscape.”6 Morrison

this land was essential to his identity, and he

had moved to Red Rock in 1986, to a newly

wanted and needed to nourish it in his art.

built home on the Grand Portage Reservation,

6 Introduction

a visual mantra: I am home again, I am home

But there’s more to the story and to the

thirty-odd feet from the shores of Lake Superior.

role that Minnesota played in Morrison’s life

In an article that same year, Morrison remarked:

and legacy. Minnesota’s colleges and museums

“The horizon of Lake Superior ‘is like the edge

helped define and shape Morrison’s career,

of the world.’ Artistically, it’s the dividing line

especially after his return to the state in 1970.

between water and sky, color and texture. It has

From the Minneapolis School of Art (now the

an extensity that relates it to the broader range

Minneapolis College of Art and Design) to his

of the universe. I like the range of color that’s

professorship at the University of Minnesota

from 1970 to 1983, and to adjunct teaching

the Red River Art Center, across the river in

positions at the College of St. Catherine,

Moorhead, Minnesota), and the University

Bethel College, and others, Morrison was a

Gallery at the University of Minnesota. Directors

teacher and mentor to scores of Minnesota

Evan Maurer of the MIA and Lyndel King

students, both Indian and non-Indian alike. In

at the University Gallery (now the Weisman

1974, he helped establish the Ojibwe Art Expo

Art Museum) were important advocates for

at Bemidji State University, along with Carl

Morrison’s work, as were curator Ron Libertus

Gawboy, Kent Smith, and Duane and Bambi

and gallery owners Dolly Fiterman and Todd

Goodwin. Traveling to colleges and other

Bockley.

organizations in the Twin Cities metro area, this

Corporations and private individuals were

expo emphasized how oft-competing tenets

equally interested in embracing Morrison’s

of modernism and Native American expression

work, offering many opportunities for public

could be integrated and celebrated in the work

and site-specific projects that brought his art

of Ojibwe artists. Indeed, Morrison’s influence

into the mainstream. Banks and corporations

on the development of a strong contemporary

commissioned six-foot-wide wood collages

Native American art community in Minnesota

and stories-high totems for their lobbies and

cannot be underestimated.8

atria, while private collectors requested smaller

Such museums as the Walker Art Center

versions for their offices and homes. The

and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA)

Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in

were early champions of Morrison’s work. They

Cloquet, Minnesota, commissioned a five-

were later joined by the Tweed Museum of Art

foot-high bronze sculpture for their campus,

at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Plains

one that Morrison based on the Australian

Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota (formerly

Aboriginal form of a churinga. Visitors to the

George at the dedication ceremony of his Tableau: A Native American Mosaic on Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, 1992. Photo copyright 1997, Star-Tribune/ Minneapolis–St. Paul.

7 Introduction

Morrison: Horizon: Small Painting Series, 1980– 1987, which had featured sixty-one of Morrison’s intimate horizon paintings, Standing in the Northern Lights was a celebration of Morrison’s life work, acknowledging the position he had achieved. Seen only in Minnesota (including at the Plains Art Museum in Moorhead), the exhibition featured sixty-seven works, spanning paintings from the 1940s through the soulful Horizons of the late 1980s as well as four large wood collages and many sculptures created since the 1980s. Through these two seminal exhibitions, the Minnesota Museum of Art had become yet another significant Minnesota institution to George Morrison. By 1996, and in declining health, Morrison was anxious to secure his personal collection in public institutions and donated close to two hundred drawings to four Minnesota museums—the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the Tweed Museum of Art, the Weisman Art Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The MMAA was offered the first opportunity to choose works from his collection,10 adding forty-five drawings—from early student works to eighties sketchbook ruminations—as well as fully realized paintings on paper. Since that time, thanks largely to the ongoing support of Hazel Belvo, the MMAA Twin Cities can still see Morrison’s work on

collection has grown to eighty-five works in all

the façade of the American Indian Center on

media and periods of Morrison’s career—one of

Original,” advertisement for

Franklin Avenue, or admire his mosaic outside

the best collections of his work in the country.

the exhibition Standing in

the Minneapolis Central Library on Nicollet Mall.

the Northern Lights: George

Integrated in the urban environment, Morrison’s

the current retrospective, Modern Spirit: The

work continues to be part of Minnesota life.

Art of George Morrison is much more than

One of the high points of institutional

a picture of a single collection or institution.

“How an Original American has become an American

Morrison, A Retrospective, at the Minnesota Museum of Art, 1990. Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

9

While this collection stands at the heart of

Clipping courtesy Minnesota

recognition during Morrison’s lifetime was the

It includes important pieces from around

Historical Society Archives.

1990 retrospective Standing in the Northern

the country—from both public and private

Lights, organized by the MMAA (then the

collections—in an expansive and inclusive vision

Minnesota Museum of Art) in St. Paul and the

of the work of this significant Minnesota artist.

Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth. Mounted

More important, though, it is the first exhibition

three years after the MMA’s exhibition George

to introduce the brilliance of Morrison’s life

8 Introduction

work to audiences beyond Minnesota and our

Morrison. The exhibition celebrates the power

nation’s capital, where the Native Modernism

of place—the people, the landscape, the

show was staged in 2006. Up until now,

sense of being and belonging—to the force

no exhibition of this magnitude has given

of spirit and human creativity. This longing

audiences around the country the opportunity

for “emplacement,” as Rushing refers to it,

to know and experience the work of this great

gives expansive meaning to the life and work

twentieth-century artist.

of George Morrison and completes the circle

We ultimately share with the nation a

that began and ended along the shores of Lake

picture of a Minnesota artist—born and raised

Superior. It makes the journey of discovery

on the North Shore, weathered by lake breezes,

toward this quintessentially Minnesota artist

supported by its artists and institutions, stoked

even more satisfying to those who value

by its Native traditions, and honored by its

the pull of the land and its people as the

people—in Modern Spirit: The Art of George

embodiment of a seminal American artist.

9 Introduction

Modern Spirit The Art of George Morrison W. Jackson Rushing III

The exhibition Modern Spirit: The Art of

modernity—he called it being “liberal”—had

George Morrison documents, celebrates,

both costs and benefits. A culturally informed

and investigates the artistic achievement

discourse on Morrison’s art, therefore, must

of a distinguished Chippewa modernist

consider certain historical assumptions about

(1919–2000), whose work is held in numerous

the authenticity or degradation of aboriginality.2

important public and private collections.1

Morrison possessed substantial manual skills

Morrison’s journey from impoverished rural

and natural intelligence that, when combined

origins to regional, national, and international

with a soft-spoken insistence on personal

acclaim was a remarkable one, made by a

integrity, helped him create what the Anishinabe

shy, intelligent, and confident man, whose

writer Gerald Vizenor has termed a strategy

art and self-awareness were complex in equal

for Native “survivance” in the modern era.3

measure. His is a (Native) American story

Equally important, the process by which

about regionalism, expatriation, urbanity, and

Morrison became a Native artist over time is

homecoming, in which the significance of place

inexorably linked to his evolving relationship

is frequently reified in drawings, paintings,

to his Chippewa heritage. Understanding that

collages, prints, and sculptures, both talismanic

process and the resulting transformation is

and monumental. The consistently high quality

a primary goal of this essay, which relies on

of Morrison’s art—provocative, sometimes

biography, connoisseurship, close reading of

quirky, often radiantly beautiful, and always

works of art, and a comprehensive analysis of

inspiring—is such that it deserves both a wide

the historiography on Morrison’s art, conducted

audience and a critical place in the history of

here for the first time.

twentieth-century art. Despite his early acclaim as an exhibiting artist, he refused to be influenced by the clichés

Emergence

and stereotypes of a market-driven Native style.

Born and raised in Chippewa City, a now-

Because of that, he risked and experienced

vanished Indian fishing village on the North

marginalization at the hands of the non-Native

Shore of Lake Superior, near the Grand Portage

arbiters of “Indian art” for many years, even as

Reservation, Morrison spoke his Native language

he achieved (in an ironic reversal of the norm)

until he began grade school at age six.4 During

“mainstream” success. Thus his embrace of

a yearlong recovery from hip surgery while

11

attending an Indian boarding school in his youth,

thinking about New York. So I must have felt a

he took up reading, drawing, and carving and

little apart from the others in the family, a little

was supported subsequently by appreciative

more educated or advanced.”7 Even though

teachers.5 After graduating from high school,

he understood Mt. Maude as an example of

he attended the Minneapolis School of Art (now

regionalism, comparable in some respects to the

the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) on

work of such American scene painters as Grant

a scholarship from 1938 to 1943. His Dirt Track

Wood, John Steuart Curry, and Thomas Hart

Specialist (c. 1940; plate 1), a realistic portrait

Benton, it is by no means a jingoistic agrarian

of a sulky driver from the Minnesota State Fair,

fantasy. Not overly determined by a political

dates from this period. In creating this profile

vision, it sings a rustic pastorale based on direct

image, Morrison spread the pigment roughly yet

observation.

exactingly with a palette knife, and the thickly impasted surface is an early manifestation of his penchant for texture and tangibility. The

New York City

painting was a reaction, he explained, to the slick

From 1943 to 1946 Morrison studied at the

academicism practiced by some of his teachers.

Art Students League (ASL) in New York City,

Indeed, the following year Morrison was

12 Modern Spirit

where his “conversion” to a modernism

impressed with a Pablo Picasso retrospective at

that synthesized cubism, expressionism,

the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, later recalling

and surrealism was swift and complete. He

that he “had a tendency to like more modern

was also aware of the influence of non-

concepts.”6 But, like numerous American

Western traditions on modernist primitivism,

artists of his generation, including Allan Houser

recalling with specificity the impact of African,

(Chiricahua Apache) and Jackson Pollock,

Polynesian, Eskimo, and American Indian art on

Morrison began as a regionalist, as witnessed

“modern painters, particularly the cubists.”8 His

by two more-than-promising student works:

fellow students at the ASL included Peter Busa

a painting titled Mt. Maude (c. 1942; plate 2)

and Helen DeMott, who formed part of New

and Duluth Corner (1942; plate 3), a small but

York’s so-called Indian Space Painters, a group

detailed pen and ink drawing. The latter is a

of white artists who were quite clear about their

precisely rendered urban scene that showcases

debts to Native American forms, images, and

Morrison’s sharp and controlled draftsmanship.

plastic principles.9 Yet we see precious little overt

Mt. Maude, which is a “portrait” of a place near

primitivism of the tribal kind in Morrison’s own

Grand Portage, was painted plein air during a

work in this period. With a couple of notable

period when, after his first year of art school,

exceptions, he did not use overtly totemic forms

he was back home in Chippewa City recovering

for decades. Apparently images and figures did

from a second surgery. In his memoir, Turning

not need a direct tribal correspondence for him

the Feather Around: My Life in Art (1998),

to conceive of them as being totemic. In 1960,

Morrison recalled this as a time of increasing

looking back on the 1940s, he stated that the

artistic self-awareness. “It was always good to

“content, stemming from my initial stimulus,”

come home and see my family. At the same

included “totemic images of animate objects.”10

time, I was anxious to get back to school and

Part of the power, then, of the ecstatic,

resume the art thing. I was developing my

distorted, exuberantly expressive female figure

own ideas about what I wanted to be, even

seen in an untitled pen and ink drawing done

c. 1945–50 (plate 4) is its almost anomalous

aquatic ribbons and filaments, a pictographic

quality in his oeuvre. Especially noteworthy

figure with upraised arms in the top center and

are the frenzied linear rhythms that seem to

a wine cup, perhaps, at top left. Characterized

entangle the figure, as if she had tried to walk

by intuitive freedom and aesthetic resolution,

through Marcel Duchamp’s Mile of String in

it represents a sophisticated engagement with

the First Papers of Surrealism exhibition at the

abstract surrealism. Similarly, Dream of Calamity

Whitelaw Reid Mansion in midtown Manhattan

(1945; plate 6), Morrison’s response to the

(1942). Indeed, linear entanglements are a visual

bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was

trope often seen in Morrison’s work. Alternately,

shown in the Walker Art Center’s First Biennial

the whiplashes that articulate the space behind

Exhibition in 1947, was au courant in terms of

her imply a powerful energy radiating from her

international style. Indeed, during the war years

thickly muscled form. Her natural vitality and

Morrison haunted the 57th Street galleries,

vigorous physicality can scarcely be contained

where he encountered the surrealism and

by the picture space, the boundaries of which

expressionism of émigré artists he admired.12

are pressured by her élan vital. The rarity of this

Furthermore, from age eleven he had been an

primitivist image in his work and the spontaneity

avid reader. In a documentary photograph from

of the drawing underscore the fact that

his personal archives, we see him at the ASL,

Morrison was not interested in either veristic or

perhaps, reading Herbert Read’s The Grass Roots

ethnographic surrealism. He identified instead

of Art, published by George Wittenborn in 1947

with the productive radicality of surrealism’s

as part of the series Problems in Contemporary

creative principles, especially the idea of creating

Art. Although we do not know yet what, if

out of the subconscious via psychic automatism

anything, Morrison admired in The Grass Roots

and frottage.

of Art, given his own conviction that “so-called

The expressionist figuration and linear

primitive art” is based on the environment and

George Morrison reading Herbert Read’s The Grass

energy are equally intriguing in Three Figures

“can be very sophisticated,”13 perhaps he noted

Roots of Art (New York:

(1945; plate 5), one of several psychologically

Read’s assertion that humans are born with a

George Wittenborn, 1947),

charged pictures about a wartime love triangle

“primitive and innocent clarity” and that “Art is

in which he was involved. Morrison remembered

a natural discipline.”14

with unidentified man in New York, 1946–47. Photo courtesy Briand Morrison.

that the work emerged out of the process of drawing and painting, and that “it was all very subconscious” and that a “dreamlike Surrealism [was] creeping in.”11 To the best of my knowledge, Morrison was the first Native American artist to respond to surrealism and an untitled ink on paper drawing from 1945 (plate 7) reveals just how thoroughly he understood the strain of surrealism issuing from André Masson, Joan Miró, and Arshile Gorky. Transparent washes of ink generate an atmospheric chiaroscuro, which is layered over with intensely crosshatched circular forms implying weight and density. We also see

13 The Art of George Morrison

In 1946, his last year at the ASL, Morrison was included in exhibitions at the Whitney

pot of America.” He was further described as

Museum of American Art and the Pennsylvania

a “full-blooded American Indian,” but one

Academy of Fine Arts and was selected by Ben

who grew up in Minneapolis (he did not) and

Wolf, a critic for Art Digest, for inclusion in the

not on the “wide prairies.” Even so, the critic

annual Critics Show at the Grand Central Art

recognized a propensity to “dramatize castaway

Galleries, where his Still Life (1944) received a

symbols of civilization.” After initially eschewing

purchase prize. According to Wolf, “Through

ethnicity-as-context, the critic wrote of the

his semi-abstract idiom, this young and talented

“typical heritage of his ancestors,” identifiable

artist sings tellingly of . . . ‘the rock whence he

in his colors and spatial arrangements, which

was hewn,’” indicating what he perceived as

were praised for signifying the “ideography old

the autochthonous origins of Morrison’s art. Like

redskin heritage.”19

15

his friend Willem de Kooning, the Dutch-born

Whalebone (1948; plate 9), one of the

American abstract expressionist, Morrison had his

works in that first exhibition, is a compelling

first solo show in Manhattan in 1948. A flattering

and intriguing still life that is related, in style

review in Art Digest described him as “one of

and subject, to Starfish (1945) and Driftwood

the young moderns now associated with the

(1947).20 As an adolescent artist exploring the

Grand Central Galleries,” a promising “painter of

interstitial zone between woodland and water,

mysteries and tensions.” Describing the works as

Morrison had harvested found objects along

having both “sensuous and intellectual appeal,”

the shoreline, including driftwood, bones, and

the unnamed critic (J.K.R.) noted that Morrison’s

other organic materials, so he accepted easily

“forms are broken up in analytical patterns, but

the surrealist practice of cognitively dissonant

without ever losing direct reference to reality.” His

juxtapositions. Thus Whalebone, whose intense

Spirit of the Ocean, readers were told, features a

color remains as fresh and vivid as the day it

“strong and curiously evocative landscape,” while

was made, is perhaps, with the exception of his

Shell and Starfish is characterized by “boldness

Starfish, the only School of Paris–style still life in

and clarity.” Helen Carlson wrote in the New

captivity to feature whalebone. The wine bottle,

York Sun, “Unconsciously or otherwise, these

the driftwood, and the whalebone, which

figures and forms derive from the ideography

reads as a sculptural objet d’art, are situated

of Morrison’s forebears.” She added that

ambiguously in a cubist space generated by oil-

“even the crude compelling harmonies of [his]

rich planar patches of color in the background.

earth tones . . . might have been fired to the

Mystery and tension indeed.

16

canvases centuries ago in the primitive kilns of

From the mid-1940s onward, Morrison

his ancestors.” Recalling this review nearly half

made numerous works on paper that feature

a century later, Morrison commented, “Critics

surrealist landscapes, including an untitled

will refer to my Indian background to try and

(green and brown whorls) picture from 1949

make sense of the work. I wasn’t pushing it, but

(plate 11) with a clearly demarcated horizon

they found it anyway.” For example, the show

line. Its enigmatic, dreamlike shapes, intense

caught the eye of a Swiss critic, who reviewed

cross-hatching, and curious spatial ambiguities

it for the Basler National Zeitung, describing

may have some kinship with the textures and

him as a “young Indian” who should be

imagery in Gorky’s poetic series Nighttime,

evaluated “as one of the many artists who seek

Enigma, and Nostalgia (1931–1934).21 Or,

17

18

14 Modern Spirit

an expression of their own within the melting

more contemporaneously, we might consider one of Adolph Gottlieb’s “pictographs,” titled Apparition, an etching and aquatint (1945), and note simultaneously Morrison’s recollection that he felt “charged” being in New York in this transitional moment, when cubism and surrealism were shifting into abstract expressionism (as in Gottlieb’s work).22 A related watercolor, Abstract Composition (plate 14) is dated 1950, but in terms of form and content it clearly belongs to what Robert Rosenblum called the surrealist phase of abstract expressionism, or even better, what Lawrence Alloway called the “biomorphic ’40s.”23 According to Alloway, one of the primary sources for the importance of biomorphism in New York painting in the mid-forties (when Morrison was enrolled in the ASL) was the surrealism of such artists as Masson and Miró. Biomorphic art “emerged in New York,” Alloway wrote, “as the result of a cluster of ideas about nature, automatism, . . . and the unconscious.”24 The primacy for Morrison of these subjects, sources, and processes (that is, nature, the unconscious, and automatism) is demonstrated by his near constant reference to them over six decades in interviews, artist

Vital, irregular, and elemental, Abstract

statements, and in Turning the Feather Around.

Composition, with its pleasing interplay of

Apparition, 1945, etching

The jam-packed (or manic) cluster of organic

colors, including lemon yellow, pale plum,

and aquatint and lift-ground

shapes in Abstract Composition (plate 14) is

and rusty brown, reminds us that modernist

generated freely and then structured loosely

primitivism can be biological as well as tribal.

by a linear web, evoking the vertical face of

In these same years, the mid to late 1940s

a rocky shoreline or the earth’s strata. Again,

and early 1950s, Morrison was also creating

Alloway has observed, “Crowded and manic

alluring works on paper, in which the organic

biomorphism is directly linked to automatism,

elements were fitted more closely into linear

which was cultivated by the Surrealists as a

patterns, such that spontaneity is somewhat

means of direct access to the Unconscious

subordinate to structure. A trio of works in

mind. The ideal of direct action was most clearly

the exhibition testifies to this aspect of his

recognized in drawing” And Morrison himself

development. Quarry Face (1949; plate 12)

noted, of this period in his work, “Surreal

has a descriptive title and a rectilinear cubist

25

elements, images from the subconscious, began

grid that creates compartments of color. On

to appear in my drawings and paintings.”

closer inspection, however, we see that the

26

Adolph Gottlieb,

on cream laid paper, 20 × 15 in. Art © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

15 The Art of George Morrison

nature: Landscape with Bone Forms; Sky, Earth, and Roots; Amoebic Undulations; Cellular Organization; and Dawn and Sea (c. 1948; plate 10) among others.28 Sun and River is “classic” Morrison, in which forms abstracted from nature are intuitively yet carefully orchestrated.29 Similarly, biomorphic shapes balance geometric angularity and planarity. The composition is organized in four horizontal registers, and it is unclear whether the river is given by the rich blue of the bottom register or by the horizontal liquid ribbons of color that flow from left to right in the second register, establishing an iconography similar to that seen in Quarry Face. Simultaneously bright and earthy, Sun and River relies on the compositional and symbolic Rocks on shoreline at Red

“regular” grid appears superimposed (rational

importance of a high horizon line, which is a

Rock, Grand Portage Indian

order) over more lyrical shapes, suggesting

leitmotif of Morrison’s art.

Reservation, Minnesota. Photo by W. Jackson Rushing.

slopes, mounds, and serpentine bodies of water that flow from left to right across the picture

Japanese rice paper from 1950 (plate 15), has

support (impulsive nature). Astute observers

remarkable continuity with Quarry Face and

will identify at least nine of Miró’s “spiders”

Sun and River in color, overall design, and

situated at random across the surface. Some of

cubist surface structure. It, too, has a (dark,

the color appears to have been rubbed on and

sloping) horizon line, outlined in blue-green

may, in fact, be the result of frottage. I expect

and flecked with red, that forms what can

Morrison had work like this in mind when he

now clearly be seen as an iconography: flat,

recalled, in the late 1980s, “In those early years

flowing, horizontal bands or ribbons of color,

I was interested in the Cubist technique of

similar in shape, that evoke bodies of water.

breaking down landscape elements—a portion

Additionally, in Landscape, one such shape, just

of land, water, or sky—into sections, and I

above the horizon line, appears to be a whale,

still work that way.” Indeed, the dialogue in

amplifying the aqueous elements of the palette.

Quarry Face between geometric and organic

Hand printed by Morrison himself in five colors

form and between order and intuition, that is,

in an edition of thirteen, the image implies a

between cubism and surrealism, foreshadows

rusticated surface. Given the fragility of the rice

the award-wining collages that he began in

paper, the bold interplay of color and archaizing

the mid-1960s. Quarry Face was shown in

pattern in Landscape is all the more impressive.

a solo exhibition at Grand Central Moderns

In a handwritten note from 1979, he described

(the new, more progressive wing of Grand

the woodcut as “one of the beginnings of my

Central Art Galleries) on 42nd Street, which

own semi-abstract art works and [it] is also good

included Sun and River (1949; plate 13) and

evidence of the persistance [sic] of the landscape

other works whose titles emphasize Morrison’s

theme in my work—with ‘mosaic sections,’ and

interest in water, landscape, and primordial

‘horizon’ suggestions.”30

27

16 Modern Spirit

Landscape, a woodcut (relief) print on

The French Sojourn

for object or image making) is pointless because “these overlapping meanings inherent in the

Morrison’s awareness of European modernism

African sculpture exist simultaneously and

deepened when a Fulbright Fellowship in

thereby give the sculpture its total significance.”

1952–53 enabled him to study, work, and

Goldwater was convinced that Brancusi

exhibit in Paris (at Galerie Jeanne Bucher)

appreciated this “collecting of meanings [in

and in the south of France, where he made

an object], some of which can be determined

numerous small works on paper that often

because . . . they are the reason for its creation,

started with automatic drawing, such as

whereas other meanings cannot be traced

Paris (1952; plate 19). But, he observed, the

because they come into being with the fact of

work became “more formal in the end. Not

its creation.” Thus although we can relate Black

haphazard; it’s all organized . . . making little

and White Patterned Forms indirectly, at least,

cubistic sections.”31 Black and White Patterned

to examples of African, Oceanic, and modern

Forms (1952; plate 16), a synthetic cubist pen

art, its overriding originality—the filtering

and ink drawing made in Paris, has a sharp,

of collected meanings through Morrison’s

flat clarity that suggests a cognizance of

consciousness—allows us to accept our inability

Henri Matisse’s cut-outs (originally published

to “pin down any precise formal derivation”

in 1947) or the surrealists’ fascination with

even as we recognize the production of new

the “decorative” patterns they admired in

meaning in its totality. To borrow then from

Oceanic relief sculpture. Overall, the images

Goldwater, we understand Black and White

are abstract, playing with positive and negative

Patterned Forms as a “symbolic object that is at

space in a provocative way, even as their flatness

once allusive and self-sufficient.” 33 Similarly, the

is akin to that of a decal. Stacked vertically, the

curious menagerie of pictographs and pictorial

configurations, especially the central one, hint

fragments seen in a related work, Geometric

at totemic art and may reflect the inspiration

Vertical Forms (1952; plate 17), drawn at

modernist primitivism found in African

Cap d’Antibes, recalls Morrison’s explanation

sculpture. In this, Black and White Patterned

that in imaginative studio art “you let your

Forms has a curated or collected quality and

subconscious suggest.”34

32

explains why we cannot identify any particular

The various way stations of Morrison’s

model, either ethnographic or modern, that it

French sojourn in 1952–53 are exemplified

emulates specifically. Robert Goldwater, who

in a comparison of two paintings, one on

authored the first scholarly study of modernist

wood and the other on paper. Painting #12,

primitivism in 1938, discussed this phenomenon

Pacific (1952; plate 18), an oil on board, has

in terms of African art and the primitivist

scumbled layers of pigment resulting in a

sculptures of Constantin Brancusi, and his

palimpsest and a surface organized with both

conclusions are instructive in the context of

vertical and horizontal shapes. Marked by

Morrison’s mysterious drawing.

a dialogue between rectilinear and organic

According to Goldwater, an African

forms, its subtle range of grays and delicate

sculpture might gather together in visual form

shifts in value add to the enigmatic quality

the idea, notion, or memory of a human or

of the whole, which is autonomous and yet

divine ancestor or a god of some sort. Searching

symbolic of landscape. Exhibited in Paris at

for a single discursive referent (narrative prompt

Galerie Craven, it was the occasion for a leftist

17 The Art of George Morrison

critique of American colonial culture in relation

been awarded a purchase prize the previous

to the history of indigenous peoples, in which

month at the Walker Art Center’s fourth biennial

Morrison’s work stood out “as a quest for the

exhibition.39 That same month, the Minneapolis

traditional esthetics of his race.” Despite a

Star described Morrison as “one tribesman of

“toned-down despair,” his art heralded “the

whom the community is proud.”40 In March

resurrection of an entire race . . . almost wholly

1954, his third solo show, consisting mostly

exterminated.” Morrison felt that such reviews

of caseins, gouaches, and pastels created in

“sound intelligent, but they were trying to be

France, New York, and Minnesota (1952–1954),

politically correct, making a big deal out of

opened at Grand Central Moderns, which had

my Indian background.” Despite the French

moved to prime territory on 57th Street. In

context, Painting #12, Pacific feels very New

the press release, Colette Roberts, the gallery’s

York School, not dissimilar to Gottlieb’s Frozen

French-born director, noted that Painting #12,

Sounds series (1951–1952). By comparison,

Pacific was traveling the United States as part

an untitled (Cap d’Antibes) oil on paper (1953

of a Paris–New York exchange exhibition.

plate 20), with its pastel ground and sunny

“Morrison’s semi-abstractions,” she wrote, “are

terra cotta colors, bespeaks the Mediterranean.

free from any direct influence but not devoid

Various Greco-Roman artifacts, including a wine

of a certain emotion related somewhat to the

jug and a gray, stylized avian sculpture, are

great primitive art of the Andes.”41 A critic for

artfully displayed for our visual delectation, as if

Art Digest described the work in similar terms:

they were recently unearthed. Brushy textures

“Archaic, earthy background forms . . .

and abstracted implements that hover on the

[having an] antidiluvian [sic] quality invoking

edge of readability balance indexicality (marks

his American ancestry.”42 Curiously, given these

that refer to the gesture that made them) with

descriptions, New York (1954; plate 22), one

iconicity (marks that refer to things seen in the

of the most overtly primitivistic works in all

world).37

of Morrison’s oeuvre, was not included in the

35

36

show, suggesting, perhaps, that it was made

The Other Village

personnages in this pen and ink drawing are

After Morrison finished his fellowship in France,

atypical for Morrison, and they may suggest an

another one, from the John Hay Whitney

interest not only in the sharp, jagged, violent

Foundation, enabled him to work in Duluth.

forms of certain surrealists in the late 1940s

He later wrote, “By this time [fall 1953–winter

(e.g., the Chilean Matta and the Cuban Wifredo

1954] I was working almost entirely as a studio

Lam), but also in Louise Bourgeois’s totemic

artist, working from imagination so I didn’t need

sculptures, such as The Winged Figure (1948).43

the real atmosphere around me. I was back in

Bourgeois was married to Goldwater, New

my own country, near my people, particularly my

York’s leading authority at mid-century on tribal

mother in Duluth. I worked primarily at night in

art and modernist primitivism. Morrison might

imaginative ways.” The Duluth News-Tribune

have seen The Winged Figure installed at the

duly noted his return and achievement with

Peridot Gallery in Manhattan in 1950, or given

an article (February 1954) that featured several

that he was living in Duluth and exhibiting in

pictures, including one of Construction (1953;

Minneapolis, perhaps he saw her personnages

plate 21), a gouache on paper painting that had

in the Walker Art Center’s 1954 exhibition

38

18 Modern Spirit

sometime after March of that year. The totemic

Reality and Fantasy, 1900–1954.44 In an artist statement published by the Walker in Design Quarterly (1954), Bourgeois described works such as The Winged Figure in terms applicable to Morrison’s New York: “The look of my figures is abstract, and to the spectator they may not appear to be figures at all. They are the expression, in abstract terms, of emotions and states of awareness.” Given the mix of sex and violence—or at least the potential for both—in his New York, perhaps Morrison understood and appreciated what Bourgeois meant when she wrote, “my sculptures might be called ‘confrontation pieces.’”45 The one-off quality of New York and the time and place of its creation affirm the likelihood that it is an homage to Bourgeois, even as its dense hatching, crosshatching, and linear entanglements link it to his earlier surrealist explorations. Some of the work from Morrison’s March 1954 exhibition at Grand Central Moderns, including Neolithic (c. 1952–54), was featured in a solo show in November that year at the Tweed Gallery (now the Tweed Museum of Art) at the University of Minnesota Duluth, thus beginning that institution’s long commitment to his art. The Tweed’s interim curator, the Italian-born American sculptor and teacher Orazio Fumagalli, found the work truly exciting: “Mr. Morrison . . . has shown an ability to go beyond the obvious,

that suggest a primitive identification of spirit

and his insight and perception are strong

and world. That Morrison is a Chippewa

as he relates what he thinks and sees upon

Indian may have something to do with his

canvas.” The paintings, he explained, required

view of the visible world, if one remembers

Courtesy Hauser & Wirth and

the audience’s thoughtful contemplation.46

that through travel, education, and influence

Cheim & Read, Photo: Christopher

Reviewing the show favorably for the Duluth

the artist is among today’s most sophisticated

Burke, Art © Louise Bourgeois Trust/

News-Tribune, Earl Fineberg called the work

abstract composers.”47 Reflecting the impress of

Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

“magical modernism.” Marrying his perception

Sigmund Freud, Fineberg wrote, “Phrases like

of the work’s elemental magic with his

totem and taboo, mana and magic leap to the

knowledge of Morrison’s origins, Fineberg

mind as one sees construction after construction

constructed the artist as either a sophisticated

that share a primitive formalism with nature,

primitive or a primitive sophisticate: The “formal

but are anything but illustration.”48 The fact of

abstract elements fall into landscape patterns

Morrison’s Native ancestry seems to have limited

Louise Bourgeois, The Winged Figure, 1948, bronze, paint, and stainless steel, 70½ × 37½ × 12 in.

19 The Art of George Morrison

the possibility of recognizing in the work a

Quirky, but suggesting a built environment—

modern identification of spirit and world.

whether ancient or modern, I cannot say—it

By 1955 Morrison was divorced from his

is at once both cubist and surrealist. Painting

first wife, the artist Ada Reed, and was happily

#10, Abstract (plate 25), an oil on canvas

back in New York, exhibiting in loft shows with

mounted on paperboard, is mysterious and

such artists as the sculptor Lee Bontecou, and

more controlled, like synthetic cubism, with

the painters Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston,

clearly delineated planes of scumbled color that

Hans Hofmann, and Franz Kline. He exhibited

fit together seamlessly, like parts of a puzzle.

that year in the venerable Annual Exhibition of

Landscapelike, it too hints at monumental

the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors

forms, both horizontal and vertical, and its

with Milton Avery, Will Barnet (whom Morrison

reserved character amplifies its surreal, silent,

knew from his days at the ASL), fellow Minnesota

but oracular quality, as if we were witnessing

modernist Cameron Booth, Louise Bourgeois, his

the factured surface of a concentrated force

former ASL teacher and mentor Morris Kantor,

residing deep within the earth.

and Louise Nevelson, among others. Morrison 49

always recalled fondly his bohemian life in Greenwich Village, especially the bebop jazz he

Abstract Expressionism

learned to love there. Not surprisingly his Jive

Morrison came of age artistically in the

Samba, an ink on paper drawing (1955, plate

emergent abstract expressionist milieu in New

23), is the visual epitome of Beat cool, with its

York in the mid-1940s. By the mid-1950s his

staccato syncopation and abstracted hepcats.

paintings often consisted of spontaneously

Both structural and improvisational, the black

generated, thickly impasted, scintillating

“subject-evoking” forms suggest simultaneously

surfaces that synthesize action/gestural and

performers and the performed—that is, grooving

color field painting. In terms of style, subject

musicians and the abstract equivalents of their

matter (the existential act of painting), and

music filling the room.

aesthetic results, his work was a constituent

50

Two works from 1955 demonstrate

20 Modern Spirit

element of the diverse yet unified community

Morrison’s absorption and synthesis of two of

known as the New York School. If intentionality,

the major modernist modes of image making

process, and quality are the criteria, Morrison’s

available to painters at mid-century. An untitled

painting should never be excluded from serious,

watercolor on paper (see plate 24) surely began

substantive discourse on abstract expressionism.

as an automatic drawing that was subsequently

Only three and four years younger, respectively,

formalized, resulting in what Morrison referred

than first-generation abstract expressionists

to as “little Cubistic sections.” The black linear

Richard Pousette-Dart and Robert Motherwell,

network creates flat, irregular compartments

Morrison was six years older than Joan Mitchell,

or zones of low-value earthy colors: gray-blue,

whose first solo exhibition in 1950 at what is

taupe, green, and orange. In this way four

now the MMAA came two years after his (and

vertical sculptural forms are generated. The

de Kooning’s) in 1948. Although the first- and

unpainted compartments in between can be

second-generation nomenclature is somewhat

read as air, space, or gridded fields of light that

artificial, it has had staying power, and I rehearse

model the colored forms, accentuating their

this fragment of lineage to underscore, as

architectonic, perhaps even totemic quality.

Ann Gibson has done, that canon formation is

shaped, intentionally or otherwise, by ethnicity

We are fortunate that in his autobiography

(“race”), gender, and sexual orientation.

Morrison spoke cogently and in detail about his

In short, quality alone cannot account for

process and aesthetic philosophy in this period

Morrison’s exclusion from major exhibitions

in particular. For example, the dazzling light and

and books that survey abstract expressionism,

richly textured surface of an untitled oil painting

especially since contemporaneous critical

(1958; plate 27), now in the collection of the

reviews of his art were typically laudatory.

artist’s son, Briand Morrison, is illuminated by his

51

Like many of the other New York School

comments. “I went through a period using thick

artists with whom he socialized and occasionally

paint, starting from the late ’50s all through the

exhibited, Franz Kline in particular, in Morrison’s

’60s. This gave more immediacy to the painting.

hands surrealist automatic drawing evolved into

Putting the paint on without thinning it with

the freely improvised gestures of so-called action

oil, or using acrylic paint without any water

painting. Even modestly scaled works on paper

added. Putting it thick on the brush and then

could embody the exuberance, exhilaration,

on the canvas with broad strokes, showing the

and openness of this method of working.

thickness and movement of the pigment.”55 In

Indeed, it was his contention “that even a small

part, Morrison is describing indexicality—making

drawing can be an important work of art.”52

marks on the surface that refer primarily, if not

A brushy tempera painting on paper (1957;

exclusively, to the gesture that created them—

plate 26), which may have been included in

as opposed to iconicity—making marks that

the James Gallery Invitational in 1957 (that also

suggest an image of something identifiable

featured the de Koonings, Grace Hartigan, Joan

in the visible world. Just so, even if it is not a

Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko),

picture, this untitled abstraction, with its high

suggests an awareness of Philip Guston’s ripe

key colors and layers of pigments that record

pink, as well as Hans Hofmann’s “push and

a processual history, may well conjure up

pull,” in which color and value are used to

nonpainterly content for its audience, including

generate abstract spatial effects. Lyrical and

symphonic music or the vibrant excitement of a

subjective, it balances quasi-structural “blocks”

harbor at sunset. Perhaps this painting was seen

of color—black and cobalt blue—with thinner,

at a special exhibition in 1958 when Morrison

creamier passages of pink, strawberry, and pale

was feted in Grand Marais (home of an artist’s

rose. Oneiric and erotic, the painting embodies

colony on the North Shore of Lake Superior

the evocative power of both/and: both the

since 1947), where he received a Distinguished

subconscious and the tangible; texture and

Citizen’s Award from the Cook County Historical

image; emotion and intellect. In 1957 Morrison

Society, which named him “A Master of

had another solo exhibition at Grand Central

Contemporary Art,” as part of the Minnesota

Moderns, from which the Whitney Museum

Centennial.56

53

of American Art acquired The Antagonist

In the winter of 1959 Morrison taught for

(1957). This work was included in a two-person

three months at the Minneapolis School of Art

show with the Chiricahua Apache modernist

and had a solo show at the Kilbride-Bradley Art

Allan Houser, which helped inaugurate the

Gallery, which probably featured Plant Variations

Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of

(1959; plate 28), an exquisitely beautiful oil

the American Indian on the National Mall in

painting that—inch for inch—has the kind of

Washington, D.C. (2004).

concentrated aesthetic force associated with

54

21 The Art of George Morrison

what Morrison called the “big boys” of abstract

did not make reference to his Indian background

expressionism. The forms scrawl and inscribe

in positing the significance of the exhibition.59

57

themselves on and up the surface, evoking the primeval forces of nature in a manner

the existential and autonomous quality of each

comparable to the sensuous severity seen in

studio encounter with process and materials,

Clyfford Still’s paintings in this same period. The

which partly explains the variety of moods and

intense juxtaposition of fiery red, midnight blue,

effects Morrison was able to generate with

and shades of ochre yellow is simultaneously

his jazzlike improvisations. This could result in

startling and satisfying. The Kilbride-Bradley

intimate works on paper, such as Gray, Black

Art Gallery (1951–1980) was an important

and White Lines (gouache, 1959; plate 29),

exhibition space in Minneapolis for advanced

created in Provincetown on the Atlantic shore,

art, and John K. Sherman’s review in the

where he often spent the summer. Brushy,

Minneapolis Star was positive, astute, and worth

open, and linear, the work hints at Chinese

considering in detail.

calligraphy and the bold, black-white-gray

Describing Morrison as a “Minnesotan-

dramas he admired in the work of his friend

turned-New Yorker,” Sherman, who wrote

Franz Kline. Simultaneously airy and dense in

drama, music, and arts criticism for more than

certain passages, the image orchestrates values

forty years, noted the artist’s national reputation

for intriguing spatial effects and may be the

and the acquisition of his work by “the most

painterly abstraction of ocean and pier. On other

important collections in this country and

occasions, the result was medium- to large-scale

abroad.” Morrison, he wrote, had “edged away

abstractions, such as the heroic Red Painting

from figurative painting” in favor of “pattern

(c. 1960; plate 32), sometimes subtitled the

and texture in a rich repertoire of colors”

Franz Kline Painting, as it once hung in Kline’s

that “project as visual music.” For Sherman,

home (as part of an artists’ trade that was never

the origin of the eighteen oil and tempera

consummated due to Kline’s sudden death).60 A

paintings in the exhibition was “in a deep

deep, rich, passionately red color field stretches

composure rather than an external excitement.”

horizontally but is marked vertically by long,

Because the works struck an “inner chord,”

darker strokes of pigment. Scratched, flecked,

they required “no more explanation than

and inscribed with black and gold, the whole of

does a sequence of tones making music.”

it bespeaks an ever-expanding vitality that calls

Morrison’s paintings, he observed, revealed “an

up blood and fire. Thus Red Painting, according

experienced skill in setting up the counterpoint

to Morrison, typifies what some New York

and tensions which induce you to gaze for a

painters called endless space: “Where you go

long time, seeking out the secrets imbedded

out beyond the canvas; the painting seems as if

there.” Curiously, the word “abstract” never

it could go on and on in all directions.”61

appears in the review, even as Sherman

22 Modern Spirit

Part of the abstract expressionist ethos was

In winter 1960 Morrison was a visiting

repeatedly ascribes musical value to Morrison’s

artist–teacher at the Dayton Art Institute, where

art, which touches the viewer deep inside,

he met his second wife, the painter Hazel

inviting them to consider carefully the secrets

Belvo, who recalled that the work she saw in

58

beneath the surface. Wanting the work to

his studio, similar in style to Untitled Painting

stand on its own terms without any special

No. 60 (1960; plate 31), an acrylic on canvas,

pleading, Morrison was pleased that the review

was both “raw and refined at the same time,

a meeting of intellect and spirit.”62 Notable for

sensitive understanding of the color’s message.

its sharp and sumptuous colors, expressionist

She identified a landscape theme in these

facture, and, in abstract expressionist parlance,

recent oil paintings, all made in the previous

all-over composition, the painting is the residue

eleven months, explaining, “Morrison is of

of the creative process. Like psychic fingerprints,

Indian ancestry and has often found vigor and

the record of Morrison’s hand on the surface

inspiration in a cultural background more related

is best understood as a series of unrehearsed,

actually to pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles than

autobiographical gestures that say, in effect,

to North American Indian workmanship.”65

this is what it felt like to be me at that moment.

Certainly it is true that until after his permanent

He called such works “one-shot” paintings,

return to Minnesota in 1970, one searches in

meaning they were produced in a single session

vain for recognizable American Indian themes or

that might last all through the night. His 1960

motifs in his art.

abstractions, he remembered, were “not

In fact, in most of Morrison’s abstractions

determined by a condition of light or time of

in the 1960s, there is no discernible subject

day, rather by the length of time I spent painting

matter. Consider, for example, such oil paintings

. . . maybe six hours at night.” Working

as Reunion (1962; plate 33), probably done

without preparatory drawings and squeezing

the semester he taught at Cornell in 1962,

pigment straight from the tube, like his hero,

and a large-scale untitled work (1962; plate

the jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, he balanced

34) in Hazel Belvo’s collection, both of which

intuition with an aesthetic resolution based on

are made of thick patches of color put down

years of training and imaginative studio practice.

over other thick layers of color. In Reunion,

“Here I was trying to capture an inner thing.

in particular, Morrison worked wet-on-wet,

That was part of the Action Painting school,

inscribing and secreting colors into other

where you begin with the act of painting itself,

colored shapes, making violent but exciting

then images began to emerge. Almost like

juxtapositions, such as lavender and orange.

subconscious painting.”

For all their beauty, which is considerable, both

63

64

A cluster of these painterly performances,

paintings have a raw, ragged character that

with the provocative title Red Feathers,

makes intense emotions manifest, such that

produced in Dayton in 1960 was exhibited in a

the surface of Reunion in particular, which is

solo show that year at Grand Central Moderns,

juicy, decorative, and hedonistic, seems the

Recent Oils by George Morrison. A press

result of an ecstatic struggle between painter

release, probably written by Colette Roberts,

and canvas. And Morrison understood well

proclaimed Morrison “well versed in the

the surrealist underpinnings of his abstract

esthetics of his time.” Having synthesized and

expressionist approach. Indeed, he might have

personalized European modernist tendencies,

been describing the Belvo painting when he

he was now focused on “the intricacy of pure

referred to “formalizing images that came out

abstraction,” relying on the brilliance of subtle

of scribbles or masses of paint. That became

harmonies with a “truly lyrical content.” Not

a way of working for me—daubing areas

surprisingly, given what we see in such works

of color, or making marks with scribbles . . .

as the Red Painting or Untitled No. 60, Roberts

[but] no recognizable subject matter.”66 Even

noted Morrison’s heavy textures and pure

so, the expansive horizontality and organic

violent colors, which were ameliorated by his

shapes in the Belvo painting and in the majestic

23 The Art of George Morrison

synaesthesia the triptych reveals its kinship with Vasily Kandinsky and Arshile Gorky, as well as to some of Will Barnet’s abstract landscapes of the late 1950s, such as Green and Gold Space (1958). Ultimately, however, Pennsylvania Triptych (which made reference to his time teaching at Penn State one semester in 1962) was about the autonomy of painting. “This was my version of gestural painting, which the other Abstract Expressionists like Pollock and de Kooning were doing. This was typical of things going on in painting at that time—gestural immediacy. Movement of the paint became an integral part of the idea of painting. There might be a suggestion of subject matter . . . [but] the phenomenon of paint was what the painting was really about. Rather than getting sentimentally involved with a subject, the artist was more conscious of the paint itself, and that became the painting.”67 Pennsylvania Triptych was created just before Morrison accepted a faculty appointment in 1963 at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Provincetown, where he served until 1970 and where, he recalled, “liberal persons like myself” were teaching abstraction as well as academic painting.68 However, it is extremely important to note Belvo’s recollection that Morrison had been disappointed in 1962 when he was unable to secure a teaching position at the University of Minnesota.69 Indeed, his Will Barnet, Green and

Pennsylvania Triptych (1962; plate 35), an acrylic

oil painting, Ex-Patriot (1964), which features

Gold Space, 1958, oil

on board, imply landscape rhythms, and in this

quasi-abstract figuration (Morrison, Belvo,

on canvas, 51 × 33 in. Private

they foreshadow the dramatic wood collages

and their son, Briand), is surely a complicated

collection. Art © Will Barnet/

he began the following year. Besides its telluric

visualization of expatriation and the desire to

Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

freedom and an insistent tactility bordering

go home.70 In his youth Morrison had dreamed

on objectness—another hint at things yet to

of the bohemian life in Manhattan, which he

come—Pennsylvania Triptych is thoughtfully

had ultimately lived, and with gusto at that;

knit together across the three panels by the

he also relished his time in France and wished

repetition of painterly patches of luscious color:

he had stayed longer. From 1943 to 1963

pastoral green, fragrant lavender, sunny orange,

he had led an itinerant life, mostly based in

and a brilliant, erotic red. In its expressionist

New York, but punctuated with fellowships

Courtesy of Alexandre Gallery.

24 Modern Spirit

and visiting teaching appointments in France,

Group (1964; plate 36) have surfaces a half-

Ex-Patriot, 1964, oil on

Minnesota, and elsewhere in the Midwest

inch thick or more. According to Belvo, “white

canvas, 54 × 69 in. Museum

and on the East Coast. He was simultaneously

was the unifying factor, combining qualities

purchase, 1995.19, © 2013

a willful expatriate, whose work was keenly

of his drawings and paintings, more structural

Philbrook Museum of Art, Inc.,

responsive to place, and a Chippewa native

than many of his other works of the period.”72

son of Minnesota, longing to be in his own

Morrison explained to a private collector in 1986

country, near his people. Stylistically, Ex-Patriot

that he titled the painting Group because it

is related to the post-1945 work of Jean

reminded him of a family group (cf. Ex-Patriot)

Dubuffet and the CoBrA painters (primitivistic,

and that the largest shape at left represented

abstract expressionist figuration in Europe).

himself. The various shapes, he noted, were not

It also belongs to his series of White Paintings,

necessarily small figures but an arrangement

begun in the mid-1960s, which are notable

(think Gorky and de Kooning) of parts of the

for their remarkable tactility. Built up in thick

body, including shoulders, breasts, and elbows.

layers of scumbled impastos, works such as

Acknowledging the totemic quality of the

71

Tulsa, Oklahoma.

25 The Art of George Morrison

Landscape: Wood Collage (The River),

forms, Morrison took the occasion to touch the

Nevelson, who exhibited at Grand Central

painting, revisiting and admiring its tactility. In

Moderns and who made assemblages from

1983, wood, 48 × 240 in.

his White Painting (1965; plate 37), the colors

materials scavenged on the streets of New York

University of Minnesota Law School,

are more deeply submerged beneath the white

City. Her “marvelous” Untitled (Abstraction)

the Dean E. Smith family and the

topcoat, and the linear incisions that structure

(c. 1954–56), now in the MMAA collection,

Julius E. Davis family. Photo by

the surface imply the rationale of a latent cubist

was collected by Morrison himself in a trade

Rik Sferra.

grid (save for one truly elemental pictograph

in 1958.74 Indeed, the prototype for his large

just right of center). And here again, its linear

collages, which might have been titled Eighth

clarity establishes it kinship with the large wood

Avenue Landscape, was made by playing

collages he began in the summer of that year on

around, joining two pieces of wood found on

the Atlantic shore at Provincetown.

the street in Manhattan. “Where the two pieces

in memory of Julius E. Davis from

73

of wood met,” he recalled, “was the horizon.”75

The Wood Collages and Their Progeny

26 Modern Spirit

Two small wood collages in this exhibition are fine examples of this reductive and playful approach: Art as Illusion (1967; plate 39) and

New England Landscape II (1967; plate 38),

Provincetown, Sky—Skyscape (1970; plate

Cumulated Landscape (1976, plate 43), and

40). The title of the former may refer to Ernst

Landscape: Wood Collage (The River) (1983)

Gombrich’s popular and influential book Art

belong to a series of large, impressive sculptures

and Illusion (1960) and is contextualized further

that have found a wide and welcoming

by Morrison’s query—made in reference to his

audience. While summering on the Atlantic

collage process—“What is art if not the creation

shore at Provincetown in 1965, Morrison began

of illusions?”76 Like Gottlieb’s Pictograph

making monumental collages with driftwood

series (inspired in part by Native American art),

(found objects), which were unique yet

Morrison’s large collages are gridded and rely

reflected his friendship with the sculptor Louise

on a surrealist creative process that allowed

for the element of chance: “I create them out

rebuffed in his efforts to show his work in juried

of my head, make them from scratch.” In

exhibitions of American Indian art because

the beginning, at least, he was dependent on

it was not Indian in style, so before the early

the serendipity of what he (and his family and

1960s he was seldom included in such shows.

friends) could harvest. “My collages are made

Among the exceptions was his inclusion in a

up of wood from the beaches of the Atlantic

group show, Contemporary American Indian

Coast and [later] the shore of Lake Superior. I’ve

Painting, organized by the Department of the

77

always been attracted to the shore. I walk the beach searching for fragments of wood that have interesting shape and texture, some with old oxidized nail holes showing. I let the wood age in my studio until it has a grayish look, like a crusty old rock weathered by the elements over a long period of time. I’m creating the illusion of something old.”78 The critical reception of these compelling assemblages was both immediate and positive.

Louise Nevelson,

New England Landscape II, which is four feet

Untitled (Abstraction),

high and almost ten feet wide, took the Grand

ca. 1956, painted wood,

Award in 1968 at the Fourth Invitational

31 × 223⁄8 × 97⁄8 in. Collection

Exhibition of Indian Arts and Crafts, sponsored

Minnesota Museum of American

by the Center for Arts of Indian America at

Art, purchased with funds from

the Department of the Interior in Washington,

Jacques and Luane Bakke, Mr. and

D.C. Morrison’s success in that invitational is

Mrs. Patrick Butler, Mr. Bruce D. Goodman, and Mr. and Mrs.

noteworthy, since early in his career he was

Albert H. Heller, Jr., 99.04.01.

27 The Art of George Morrison

Interior and the Indian Defense Association of

weathered wood is puzzled together in a

Northern California from November 25, 1954,

quasi-cubist fashion; geometry and an insistent

to January 2, 1955. Staged at the M. H. de

linearity are softened by a few curved shapes

Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco,

that bespeak organic vitality; and texture and

Morrison’s work, including Dawn and Sea

tactility emphasize tangibility. But each collage

(1948; plate 10), prompted the distinguished art

in the series has its own personality. Unlike New

and music critic Alfred Frankenstein to proclaim

England Landscape II—which is ragged, rough,

him one of the few Native artists “sufficiently

and warm, with a few polychrome accents—

creative to go back to primitive Indian forms and

Cumulated Landscape’s individual parts are

develop them in their own ways.” Morrison’s

more neatly fitted together in a tight, mostly

individual strength, Frankenstein wrote, meant

rectilinear composition, and its palette is more

he did not “need to fall back on the collective

variable: shades of brown interplay with grays,

security” of being an Indian.79 Significant also is

greens, blues, and whites. But all the wood

that the other prize winners in the 1968 juried

collages, Morrison observed, “have these little

exhibition in Washington were much celebrated

spaces between them which give the illusion of

figures in the world of Indian art: Patrick Swazo

a carved, incised line around each of them.”82

Hinds (Tesuque), Solomon McCombs (Creek),

Stressing order and clarity but tolerating quirky

Frank LaPena (Wintu/Nompitom), and Pablita

anomalies of form and design, Cumulated

Velarde (Santa Clara). Along with the other

Landscape characterizes the series in its dynamic

exhibitors, including such equally important

balance of part and whole. In this the collages

artists as Tony Da (San Ildefonso), Patrick

are analogies for the self, a society, or the

DesJarlait (Chippewa), Helen Hardin (Santa

natural world.83

Clara), Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Sioux), Ruthe Blalock Jones (Shawnee/ Delaware/Peoria), and

the surface of Cumulated Landscape suggests

Charles Lovato (Kewa), the show featured the

chiaroscuro, reminding us that Morrison

most famous artists of contemporary Native

described the collages as “paintings in wood.”

art. New England Landscape II was quickly

Composed intuitively, but based on his sense of

acquired by the Amon Carter Museum in Fort

proportion (with a horizon line approximately

Worth, where it has long been a visitor favorite.

one-quarter from the top), the collages, he

Indeed, in 1971, Mitchell A. Wilder, director of

explained, were “derived from nature, based

the museum, wrote the artist, “Let me say how

on landscape.” According to Morrison, the

much we enjoy having the Morrison woodwork.

driftwood in Cumulated Landscape “gives a

Astonishingly enough, it is one of the most

sense of history—wood that has a connection

popular items in our collection, and invariably

to the earth, yet has come from the water.”

draws favorable comment even from those I

Although he made the first of them on the

would assume to be critical of anything at all

East Coast, he acknowledged that the collages

abstract. We are very proud to have it.”81

“may have been inspired subconsciously by the

80

Cumulated Landscape, created after

28 Modern Spirit

The pleasing play of light and dark across

rock formations on the North Shore.”84 Thus

Morrison accepted a teaching position in 1970

Cumulated Landscape, and its predecessor, New

at the University of Minnesota and thus returned

England Landscape II, which are touchstones of

to his home country never to move away again,

modern art, symbolize the whole of Morrison’s

typifies the first phase of his collage production:

career, in which memories of specific places are

internalized and realized in a visual language

Landscape II and Cumulated Landscape might

based on mastery of the paradigms of the

be called rustic, Landscape: Wood Collage is

international avant-garde.

elegant and refined. Assembled from custom-

Morrison’s award-winning collages were

cut, highly polished pieces of stained, exotic

made almost exclusively on commission

wood, including butternut, bubinga, ebony,

and were widely collected by museums,

cherry, oak, padauk, rosewood, and walnut—

corporations, and private individuals. Their

Landscape is admirably decorative and more

honesty and plainspoken quality were surely

reminiscent of art deco than it is of primitivism.

keys to their popularity. The subject matter,

Orchestrating a range of browns, tans, and

on the surface at least, no pun intended,

creams, Morrison “paints” the movement

would seem to be the materials and processes

of light and of biomorphic forms across the

of art itself. The audience is thus given a

surface. “Along the way, the river came to

direct encounter with aesthetic form—no

mind—the Mississippi River runs by the school.

iconographic analysis required. And despite

When that happened, I let the lighter wood

Morrison’s statement that he was creating an

come through the center and move in and

illusion, the collages announce themselves

out like a river with all its little tributaries and

without pretension or conceptual difficulty.

inlets. The horizon line is there, of course, one-

There’s nothing tricky, hermetic, or obscure

quarter from the top. That’s the signature of my

about them. Nothing needs to be demystified.

paintings and collages.”87

Indeed, Wilder’s comment about New

The sumptuous sophistication of Landscape

England Landscape II being user friendly to

surely issues from its diachronic and cross-

viewers uncomfortable with abstraction is

cultural sources of inspiration, including ancient

understandable, as the collage does not really

Hopi ceremonial mural painting (the Sikyatki

seem the abstraction (reduction, concentration)

style) and the surrealisms of Jean Arp and Joan

of anything. It is exactly what it appears to be:

Miró. According to Morrison, the organic and

carefully composed pieces of found wood. And

structural forms seen in the work are allusions

therein lies part of the appeal of the collages

to “clouds, rocks, mountains, mesas, waves,

for corporate culture, especially in Minnesota:

suns, moons, stars, earth, growth, animals, and

they are inspiring, not threatening, and they

birds.”88 Numerous factors, including being back

speak directly of the relationship between

in his home country and his limited involvement

art and natural resources. Indeed, Morrison

in the American Indian Movement in the 1970s,

assumed that their initial appeal was the tactility

enabled Morrison to speak more comfortably

of the wood itself, since “the grain is always

about the potential for experiencing indigenous

important.”

content in his art, including Landscape: “Certain

85

86

Not surprisingly, given his presence on the

Indian values are inherent—the interconnection

faculty from 1970 to 1983, one of Morrison’s

of the elements in nature, a consciousness of

most important wood collage commissions

earth, water, and sky, and the use of domestic

came from the University of Minnesota.

and foreign wood to interpret a sense of

Now installed in the Minnesota Law School,

refinement, continuity, and rhythm. There is

Landscape: Wood Collage (The River) (1983)

a universal tactile response to the color and

is dramatic and dramatically different from

texture of wood that also carries with it a sense

the collages discussed thus far. Where New

of history and geography.”89 At four by twenty

29 The Art of George Morrison

feet, the scale of the collage (and its warm,

cubist depth made with overlapping lines,

radiant beauty) gives poetic form to the natural

and a sense of indefinite space extending

authority of the big river.

outwards from all four sides. Also, certain

The grand wood collages were time and labor intensive, so Morrison extrapolated their

I sometimes deliberately create a passage

aesthetic principles in numerous exhibitions of

going up diagonally from the bottom left

drawings, rubbings, and lithographs. In 1973

to top right. That it is going through is very

the Walker Art Center exhibited forty-five of

obvious—a passage of lines that become

his recent pen and ink line drawings, many of

immersed in other lines, weaving in and out.

them almost two feet square, in a show that

This structural or organic element becomes

traveled to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the

an abstract form emerging out of a mass of

Amon Carter Museum, and the Museum of

lines.93

South Texas in Corpus Christi. Morrison was characterized in the catalogue as a “veteran abstract painter,” and the drawings were described in a press release as having “tiny, ribbon-like elements [that] form patterns in ‘sky’ and ‘ground’ around an insistent ‘horizon’ line.”90 The one exhibited in Modern Spirit, Untitled (1973; plate 41), shows well the complexity, dynamism, and linear intensity resulting from Morrison’s process, which was both automatist and methodical. He noted that the drawings shared with the wood collages his “preoccupation with textural surfaces,” which was visible “in the selection of weathered material in the wood reliefs, and in the intricate cross-hatchings and accidental techniques in the drawings.”91 When Philip Larson, curator of the show, asked if figurative elements lingered in the drawings, Morrison said yes and no: “They are remote and hidden. Only an organic suggestion remains. The abstract context takes over.”92 As always, Morrison was a thoughtful and articulate spokesman for his own art and I want him to speak for himself:

30 Modern Spirit

illusionistic qualities come from the lines.

Years later, in his autobiography, he explained yet again the surrealist process of the drawings, in which images appeared less by intention than by accidental effects: “Oddly enough, one of the drawings [see plate 41] represents a tree coming through from the bottom to the top of the drawing. That was very subconscious.”94 This abstract equivalent for tree may be one of the earliest appearances in Morrison’s art of Manido-Gree-Shi-Gance, or the Spirit Little Cedar Tree, a white cedar that seems to defy nature by growing out of a rock perched high above the North Shore of Lake Superior, on land owned by Morrison’s Grand Portage Band of Chippewa. (I discuss this tree as an iconographic element in his work at more length below.) As usual, the Walker drawing show elicited favorable and informed critical reviews. In one such review, titled “George Morrison Weaves Heritage into Landscapes,” Mike Steele wrote in the Minnesota Tribune, “Morrison’s drawings are ethereal, abstract landscapes of the imagination, responses to memory expressed

In the new drawings it [the organic] went

in pure design.” For Steele, the drawings were

into a more pure state and became more

“rooted more in rural values than urban, more

formal. The drawings are laid out with

in impressionism than expressionism—or maybe

precise straight and curved lines, all the same

a blending of the two—more in the earth than

distance apart, and the whole surface is

in the concrete.” Because Morrison “is a careful

evenly textured. There is an effect of shallow

and precise technician,” the drawings “are

delicate and finelined and they must be read

in this argument. Morrison was born in 1919,

carefully and quietly.” They are “very beautiful

had his first solo show in 1948, and by the

drawings,” he wrote, “exhilarating and

early 1970s had a truly outstanding exhibition

compulsive.”

history, with many awards and purchase prizes.

95

Two aspects of Morrison’s historiography

Hinds, a gifted artist, was ten years younger

attendant to the Walker drawing show are

(1929–1974) and exhibited primarily in the

worth noting here, as I intend to revisit them

Southwest in the context of Indian art markets.

later in this essay. First, when Martin Friedman,

Atencio (San Ildefonso Pueblo, 1930–1995),

director of the Walker Art Center, wrote to

the accomplished nephew of the famed potter

Richard Conn, director of the Albuquerque

Maria Martinez, was also a talented artist,

Museum, offering the drawing show, the latter

but the documentary evidence records no

politely declined.

solo exhibitions. Thirteen years younger than

After looking it over carefully, I don’t think

Morrison, Gorman (Diné, 1932–2005) had his

we will plan to show his work just yet. There

first solo exhibition in 1963. I suspect that the

are several reasons for this decision. The

issue was not, in fact, Morrison’s sequential

first, and this can be the official reason if

position (i.e., original) or any question about

you need one, is that we are booked during

his originality. What differentiated Morrison

the opening times your schedule shows. The

from Hinds, Gorman, and Atencio was that his

real reason is, however, that this museum

subject matter was not recognizably Indian.

has not yet exhibited works by any of the

Second, when the drawing show was

outstanding original Indian painters. As you

installed at the Amon Carter in late November

can understand, it would be far better for us

1973, the gallery guide began with a brief

to exhibit works by [Patrick Swazo] Hinds,

biography and style history, but no mention

[R. C.] Gorman, [Gilbert] Atencio, and several

of Morrison’s Native origins. Indeed, the first

others before going further a field.96

sentence of the guide proper states,

Although Friedman’s original letter does describe Morrison as “a prominent member of the studio arts and American Indian studies faculties at the University of Minnesota,” nothing is said about Morrison being Chippewa (but Conn likely would have known that anyway) or about the drawings as Indian art. On the contrary, Friedman’s letter, like the Walker’s press release and catalogue, stresses materials, processes, and effects: “A wide range of inks and papers is used, including metallic inks which give the surface of the paper an ambiguous sheen.”97 And yet, Conn’s “real reason” is his perception of Morrison’s chronological position in the history of “outstanding original Indian

[His] official biography . . . is not important in understanding his work. Nor is it important to know that Morrison is a Chippewa Indian—a member of the Grand Portage Reservation in Minnesota because Morrison is not an “Indian artist.” He is an Indian who is an artist. There is nothing ethnic about his work.

This fact points up an important

concept in the realm of fine art: It is not important what or who an artist is. It does not matter what color he is; what nationality or what religion. The ultimate judgement of an artist must be made on his work. It must stand alone.98

painters.” Students of twentieth-century

In conclusion, visitors were informed that the

Native art will recognize immediately the flaw

museum’s “old friend” George Morrison was “a

31 The Art of George Morrison

dynamic artist who explores the frontiers of his

exhibition is rich with inspiring works of art,

media.” In response to this, I want only to raise

but Wood Collage Fragment LXVIII is especially

some questions to which I will return below.

sublime. Some of the rubbings in this series

What, if anything, is lost when artistic biography

were created in small editions, but LXVIII is

is suppressed or ignored? Is it true that “color,”

one of one, a singular image in gold conte

nationality, or religious persuasion do not matter

crayon on white handmade paper. Delicate and

in the production, circulation, and reception of

subtle, indeed evanescent, LXVIII is radiant and

art? And finally, is there nothing “ethnic” about

mysterious, expressing the secular equivalent of

Morrison’s art?

religious aura.

99

Modern Spirit features other works on paper as well that reveal Morrison’s two-

body of works on paper was also related to the

dimensional engagement with the wood

wood collages. He was making and exhibiting

collages, including two lithographs (based on

paper collages as early as 1977, including

rubbings) in the collection of the Minnesota

Dream of Feather Field (c. 1977), which was

Museum of American Art: Untitled (1976–78;

shown that year in an Invitational Drawing

plate 44) and Untitled (1987; plate 65), which

Show at the Heard Museum. He was quoted

indicate how differences in shape, scale,

in the catalogue by curator Patrick Houlihan as

and palette (black on gold as opposed to a

saying, the collages are “an extension of the

“woodier” brown on white) generated different

drawing elements in the sense that in place

artistic, optical, and psychological effects.

of making black and colored lines of various

Morrison was nothing if not hard working and

widths on a particular surface, a wide range

prolific: he made dozens of rubbings in the late

of Japanese, Italian, and domestic papers are

1970s titled Wood Collage Fragment, thirty-

carefully chosen for their special quality of

six of which were shown in Impressions, an

markings, line, color, and textures. These in turn

exhibition at Macalester College in St. Paul in

are selected for the individual works.” He noted

1978, including Wood Collage Fragment LXVIII

also the “tangible evidence of landscape with

(1977; plate 45). In her curatorial statement,

the horizon line,” which one sees in Dream of

Cherie Doyle wrote, “The large collaged

Feather Field “on many levels.”101 The poetic,

constructions form the matrix for the works

personal titles, he explained, came after the fact

on paper. These subsequent images become

and related to his experience of landscape. One

topographical renderings of the object and the

series of paper collages in particular—call them

creative process.” She identified in the rubbed

the “fragments”—are both playfully surrealistic

passages a “mapping of natural and man made

and art-historically sophisticated. Morrison

forms,” explaining that “the surface streaks and

took fragments of art postcards and exhibition

textures of the fibrous wood interweave with

invitations of artists whose work he admired

the vacant seam lines to create a harmonious

and embellished them with stacked layers of

pattern of construction.” For Doyle, the sheer

colored papers. Each has a two-part title that

number of rubbings resulted from the repetition

includes a surrealist word play and the name of

of a “creative ritual,” and Morrison’s palette

the original artist whose work is being honored,

(black, white, brown, sepia, gold, and silver)

such as I Fought with My Twin: Kandinsky

constituted “seasons of color,” and so “nature

Fragment (1978) or Volcanic Dance: Stamos &

in pure form is rediscovered.”

100

32 Modern Spirit

According to Morrison, another substantial

The current

Gottlieb Fragments (1982). Morrison considered

each of them, including the two exhibited in

detail. In 1971 Morrison met Evan M. Maurer,

Modern Spirit—Propylon: D’Arcangelo Fragment

who was a curator and an assistant to the

(1982; plate 54) and Red Rock Variation. A

director at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts;

Memory for Franz Kline Fragment (1978; plate

both of them were active professionally and

48)—an homage, as he was “using part of

socially in the Minnesota contemporary (Native)

another artist’s work to create a new work.”

art community. Maurer was named curator

Even a short list of the artists celebrated in this

of the Department of Primitive Art (renamed

destructive and creative process reveals the

under his leadership as the Department of

eclectic nature his taste: Claude Monet, Marcel

African, Oceanic, and Native American Art) at

Duchamp, Paul Klee, Edward Hopper, Milton

the Art Institute of Chicago in 1973 and began

Avery, de Kooning, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Georgia

organizing a watershed survey exhibition, which

O’Keeffe, Loren MacIver, and his friend, the

opened in 1977: The Native American Heritage:

Native American painter Jaune Quick-to-See

A Survey of North American Indian Art. In

102

Smith.

103

When he retired from the University

addition to hundreds of high-quality ancient and

of Minnesota in 1983, Morrison had two

historic objects, Maurer selected examples of

exhibitions on campus: George Morrison: Entries

modern and contemporary art, including Pueblo

in an Artist’s Journal, organized by Lyndel King

pottery, Northwest Coast and Great Lakes

at the University Gallery, and George Morrison:

carvings, and a painting by Morrison’s friend

The Paper Collages: The Artist Series, which

Frank LaPena, The Way of Healing (1977).106

was installed in the President’s Office. In that

For both personal and professional reasons,

context, Morrison observed, the collages “are an

Maurer felt morally compelled to present recent

extension of the drawings and the large wood

Native art as an aspect of living cultures with

reliefs I have been doing for the past fifteen

continuing traditions. As a first-generation

years in that they allude to a basic landscape

American Jew descended from Eastern

theme.”104 That exhibition of small-scale,

European Jewry, the possibility of cultural

intimate paper collages was seen the following

extinction—like that faced by American Indian

year at the Tweed Museum in Duluth, where

nations—was not just a concept for Maurer but

the thirty-six aesthetically intriguing visual

an aspect of his family history. He knew, too,

(and verbal) puns were characterized as “the

that anti-Semitic marginalization still existed

culmination of a lifelong interest in working on

in the United States in the 1970s, and thus he

paper.”

had a sense of being “other.” This sensitized

105

him into working with and for Native American

The Totems, or Making His Mark

communities. Furthermore, the A’aninin (Gros Ventre) Indian curator George Horse Capture had taught him an important lesson. When

Morrison was determined to make his mark in

curators mount an exhibition of historic,

this world, and he did so, in part, with a series

traditional Native art, they are taking value from

of monumental standing sculptures he called

the community and are obligated, therefore, to

“totems.” The first of these, the regal Red

give something back. Commissioning Morrison

Totem I (1977; plate 46), slightly more than

and others to create original works of art was

twelve feet tall, has a unique and fascinating

Maurer’s way of honoring the privilege of

“emergence” story, one worth examining in

exhibiting the heritage of Native America.107

33 The Art of George Morrison

Maurer gave the artist carte blanche, and

remembered that Maurer “got the feeling of

Morrison explained that he had been thinking

what I was trying to do.” Indeed, he recalled,

on the one hand about totem poles as a kind

“I chose a red earth color called Indian Red

of public art that announced history and on

to assimilate a certain Indianness because,

the other about the possibility of turning

otherwise, it’s just a modern, abstract version

his horizontal wood collages into four-sided

of a totem pole.”111 Furthermore, the earthy

vertical forms. And so he worked for over a

red gave the totem “potency and an Indian

year, according to Maurer, figuring out how to

feeling.”112

balance the form without having a heavy base, “so it would be as elegant as possible, like a

totems, including Totem (1979), in the Tweed

tree growing up out of the ground without the

Museum of Art, and Red Totem (1980; plate

roots showing.” Maurer installed Red Totem I

50) in the Heard Museum, is a wood mosaic

as the centerpiece of the entrance to the

appliqué that imitates carving. He had multiple

exhibition, “where it proudly stood, the work of

sources of inspiration for his totems, and

a living artist who had walked in two worlds,”

his account of them changed over time. For

one who was still inventing new objects.

example, in a 1979 interview he said of the

Because it constitutes a “first utterance,”

totems, “People say that these works are

Maurer’s catalogue entry for Red Totem I is

reminiscent of the monumental structures

a key component in the historiography of

of Mexico’s ancient Olmec peoples. I’m not

Morrison’s totemic art. Noting that his father

sure whether the influence is conscious or

and grandfather worked as woodsmen and

unconscious, but I’m excited by the idea of

trappers, Maurer wrote that Morrison “began

reincarnating an art form that existed a thousand

working with wood because of its associations

years ago.”113 But almost twenty years later

as a traditional [Chippewa] material.”109

he explained, “I was thinking of Mayan and

108

For the artist, the tall columnar form relates

Olmec columns from 1000 A.D., which are

to the Northwest Coast totem poles, which

chiseled chunks of stone.”114 Almost exactly

abstractly manifest the spiritual presence of

in between these two recollections, he made

the natural world. The piece is an extension

a studious “ethnographic” ink drawing, Stela

of the artist’s earlier flat reliefs and found

(1988; plate 69), with detailed notes about

wood constructions that depend on elements

standing sculptures at Uxmal, Coba, and

of chance to determine the angles and

Tulum, that affirm both his interest in Mayan

patterns of the fitted pieces. Morrison felt

art and his anthropological bent. But Morrison’s

that the sculpture was completed with the

ethnographic desire to revisit ancient art forms

application of the red stain—an allusion

was synthesized with a mastery of modernist

to the sacred earth paint and a sign of

formalism, which was immediately self-evident.

consecration emphasizing the traditional

For example, when Red Totem III and Red

strengths of his ancestral heritage.110

Totem IV (both 1978) were included in a

Earlier in his career Morrison had been uncomfortable with critics identifying Indianness in his work, but by the 1970s a decided shift had occurred in his intentions, and he

34 Modern Spirit

Red Totem I, like all of Morrison’s large

pioneering traveling group exhibition of contemporary Native art in 1981, Confluences of Tradition and Change/24 American Indian Artists, Allan M. Gordon, an art historian, a critic, and a specialist in African American aesthetics, wrote

thoughtfully of the work: “George Morrison addresses the concept of the ancient totem, with its allusions to myth, genealogy, prestige, and funerary purposes, in his vertical, rectangular architectonic monuments. He replaces the stylized naturalism (fish, fowl, animal, and human) found in earlier totems with a severe, uncompromising kind of hieratic, geometric abstraction. In doing so, he not only aligns an older sculptural tradition with twentieth-century Constructivist-Minimalist systems, but he also indicates new directions for a distinctive type of Native American sculpture.”115 Like the wood collages, each of the totems is unique, although they clearly belong to the same clan. For example, the Heard Museum’s Red Totem is wider than Red Totem I, commissioned by Maurer and thus understood as the Ur-form; so the former is slightly boxier and looks sturdier, where the prime object appears to be sleeker, more ascendant. Slow

Totem are more lyrical, curvilinear, and thus

Detail of Red Totem I,

and careful contemplation underscores the

biomorphic, evoking undulant landforms and

1977, stained redwood

fact that Red Totem I is compositionally austere

flowing water, the overall effect a precursor of

panels on plywood form,

but mathematically complex: softly rounded

the nature music later found in the Minnesota

144¼ × 15¼ × 15¼ in.

rectangles of various sizes and shapes are

Law School’s Landscape: Wood Collage (The

Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

arranged in a geometric pattern that stresses

River) (1983). Indeed, Morrison thought the

Robert J. Ulrich Works of Art

both diversity and rhythmic repetition. And

more curvilinear design of the Heard’s Red

close attention to the surface shows how

Totem was “a nice contrast to the angles

unsurrealistic the appliqué is, because its

and straight lines of the earlier totems.”117

precision, order, harmony, and clarity are the

As with the horizontal wood reliefs, Morrison

legacy of cubism and the tradition of geometric

extended the mosaic patterns of the totems

abstraction deriving from it. The artist himself

in other media as well. Both the lithograph

noted, “My design is very precise, with the

Red Cube (1983; plate 58) and Cube (1988;

shapes locked around corners. It’s also very

plate 67), a small wood mosaic as refined objet

angular in the sense that there are only straight

d’art, feature tight, flat surface patterns that

lines, no curves. It’s kind of Constructivist, like

embody nature abstractly. The wavy decorative

Mondrian and Moholy-Nagy. Straight edges, flat

patterns in the lithograph in particular evoke

shapes.”

116

The red stain, which is expressive

Purchase Fund. 2012.5.

the woven surface of textiles and baskets.

but not expressionistic, enhances the natural

As if to prove to himself and to his audience,

voice of the variable and “painterly” organic

as did Barnett Newman, that the issue is not

lines inherent in the wood grain. In comparison,

size but scale and proportion, Morrison cast a

the mosaic units that compose the Heard’s Red

small (only 14¾ inches high) Untitled Totem in

35 The Art of George Morrison

bronze (1988; plate 68) and set it on a marble base.

118

Reductive and autonomous, it relates

Kirili?” The question mark is curious, as the

to its totemic peers in his oeuvre, even as it

images and the fragment of text are definitely

establishes its own (rather precious) identity;

based on an article published in Art in America

the greenish patination, flecked with copper,

(1982) by Kirili, a French sculptor and critic, who

suggests antique Chinese objects and the

has divided his time between Paris and New

indigenous Great Lakes tradition of working

York since the 1970s. His article, “Lingaistics,”

with copper.

explained that the linga, or phallus, “may

119

Because Morrison’s interest in totems

stand alone or on a basin called a ‘yoni.’” The

was artistic and anthropological, his creative

relative absence of such objects in Western

response to source material was both intuitive

art museum collections, he observed, is “both

and studious. Always sensitive to words and

because of its status as a religious object and

language, the origin of “totem” must surely

because of its largely abstract shape—often

have held special significance for him, since he

it is simply a very plain shaft of stone.” Given

identified increasingly with his own heritage

the totems Morrison had already produced, he

after 1970, even as he continued to evolve

was no doubt sympathetic to Kirili’s assertion

an anthropological consciousness. He stated,

that “of particular interest to the Westerner is

for example, “Totem is a Chippewa word that

the abstract nature of the yonilingas—free, as

means ‘family mark.’ Totemic imagery may be

many are of all figurative decoration,” allowing

common to native peoples all over the world.

for their “great symbolic force.”121 I expect

Such vertical structures are found in the Taula

Morrison related also to Kirili’s belief in the

forms in Minorca, linga structures in India,

“spiritual quality of sculpture.”122 In fact, he

Stonehenge in England, and those of the

stated this explicitly: “Contemporary sculpture,

ancient Olmecs in Mexico.”

abstract sculpture—like one of [Constantin]

120

Morrison’s interest in the linga and yonilinga

36 Modern Spirit

of sexuality—Shiva as source of life—Alain

Brancusi’s beautiful, fluid sculptures—can

sculptures associated with Hindu worship is

be spiritual for me as well.”123 And because

realized in Modern Spirit in two works of art:

formalism for Morrison was always a means to

Yonilinga (1988; plate 71), a sketch with notes,

a metaphorical end, and because his note from

and Untitled (Linga Form) (1988; plate 72), a

Kirili’s article was fractured and fragmented, I

wood sculpture on a marble base. The sketch

want to reinsert here the original, unadulterated

shows two linga (vertical, or male forms) and

passage. Kirili asks (as Morrison might well

two yonilinga, that is, linga connected to or

have done), “So why am I, a modern Western

rising from a yoni (a base or basin, the female

sculptor, drawn to the linga? Certainly my

element). Morrison’s notes reveal that two of

interest is not that of an historian or a mere

the sketched objects were located in India, while

lover of the exotic. No, it is the symbolic power

two are in the collection of the Museé Guimet,

of the form that stimulates me. To me the

in Paris. Across the whole width of the paper

yonilinga is a ‘sign’ (the word ‘linga’ actually

beneath the images he made the following

means ‘sign,’ in particular the male ‘sign,’ the

notation: “It is the symbolic power of the form

phallus), one that communicates directly on the

that is stimulating. The yonilinga is a ‘sign’ (the

level of sexuality—Shiva as a source of life—and

word ‘linga’ actually means ‘sign,’ the phallus),

so resists the Western bias that abstract art can

one that communicates directly on the level

be seen in strictly formalist terms.”124

Morrison’s sketches of the linga and

sensibilities enabled him to create talismanic

yonilinga illustrated in Kirili’s article constituted a

visual poems from natural, if exotic, materials.

rehearsal for his sculpture, which, à la Brancusi,

Despite both its origins in a museum object he

is an essentializing object. The linga, or vertical

admired and its allusions to landscape, Chiringa

element, is a pure abstraction of the phallus,

Form (small #1) is an autonomous work of art,

with Morrison’s trademark horizon line creating

notable for its Brancusi-like purity. It reminds

the head (or what Kirili called a “half-moon”

us that abstract art is not necessarily vague,

top). Because it is portable, as opposed to sited,

obscure, or hermetic. On the contrary, his

Morrison’s sculpture refers to a type known as

Chiringa Forms, like all his totems, including

chalalinga, or “small enough to be moved.”

a late untitled one in wood that evokes an

125

Morrison also made totemic sculptures in

international style skyscraper (1999; plate 82),

response to Australian Aboriginal art. In the

are literal and specific objects. Think of them as

mid-1980s he saw an inspiring churinga (also

artistic imagination made tangible, “markers”

tjurunga, or turinga), or sacred object, at the

that testify with quiet pride to their material

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which intrigued

existence.129

him enough to do research on it. He described

Like many institutions, especially those in

it as “a dark, flat, oblong stone with some

Australia, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts no

marks on it.” When he learned how much such

longer exhibits the churinga that captivated

objects vary in scale—from ten inches to ten

Morrison, respecting the secret and sacral nature

feet—Morrison came to the realization that

accorded such objects by the Aboriginal people

“totems are universal—as small as the little

who make and use them. Morrison recognized

churinga or tall as the sixty-foot poles of the

and respected that the “little churinga” had

Northwest Coast Indians.”

126

According to the

to be cloistered because it was “precious with

anthropologist Elman R. Service, churingas,

certain spiritual connections.” Moreover, he

which house spirits, are secret and sacred,

understood the complex relationship between

and his description of them is in accord with

being in solidarity with indigenous sovereignty

Morrison’s: they are “usually flat, oval pieces

and the importance of protecting and preserving

of wood or stone, carved with symbolic

(sacred) visual culture: “Though many Indians

designs.”127 When Morrison began making what

are requesting museums to return sacred

he called his Chiringa Forms, such as Chiringa

tribal objects, I can see the value of a museum

Form (small #1) (1987; plate 66) he focused on

taking care of important objects. In the past,

“their physical beauty.” In Turning the Feather

sacred objects were in the care of an elder or a

Around, he described them this way: “The

shaman; but when a shaman died or religious

shape and tactile quality of the wood appealed

attitudes changed, or when tribal religions were

to me. I made them oval and wide, not very tall,

lost, everything was scattered, wiped out.”130

out of imported woods like purpleheart and padauk, sanded and smoothed. Some have a circle of wood grain in the middle.”128 And all

Modern Spirit: Natural Magic

of them, we should observe, have a horizon line

Had he done nothing else, the collective force

that inscribes nature in them, even if covertly.

and weight of Morrison’s abstract expressionist

Collectively, his Chiringa Forms demonstrate

paintings of the early 1960s, his grand wood

that he was a skilled artisan, whose refined

collages, and the heroic totems would have

37 The Art of George Morrison

established his critical reputation and secured

attack in 1979 and the onset of Castleman’s

for him a notable place in the history of

disease, a form of cancer, in 1984. According

modern art. And yet, in the 1980s and 1990s

to Belvo, following his heart attack he wanted

he produced literally hundreds of marvelous

to live and work more permanently back home

paintings that reified the healing powers of

on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and his

nature and the redemptive qualities of art.

own recollections indicate that continuing to

Synaesthetic and inspired almost exclusively

paint was integral to his healing process.134

by his beloved Lake Superior, these magisterial

Indeed, the pure beauty of such works as Lake

paintings are improvisational and exploratory—

Superior Landscape (1981; plate 51) suggest

like the jazz he admired—and the seemingly

that Morrison was not just celebrating nature

endless variety of images, surfaces effects,

but literally drawing sustenance from it.

and chromatic music found in them can only

Related compositionally to Badlands (1981),

be described as magical. Certainly he was

now in special collections at the University of

interested in the magic and mystery of both

Tulsa Law School, a painting he identified as

nature and art, as he made clear on several

an early example of the horizon series, Lake

occasions, including in an interview with Larry

Superior Landscape balances sheer sensuality

Abbott in 1998: “I think that all art from every

with an irregular linear structure that prefigures

source has a certain element of magic. I like

the organic flowing forms in Landscape:

to feel that every work has that kind of special

Wood Collage (The River) (1983). Scumbled

quality by virtue of the artist doing it in some

and stippled, the multilayered surface has an

reverential manner.”131 And although Morrison

active texture, like the lake itself, and the color

could not be described as religious in any

is almost erotic in its orchestration of pink,

orthodox sense, he was a pantheist, and many

lavender, greens, blues, and rust. The quasi-

viewers and critics have identified a modern

cubist landforms of the shoreline read as flat

form of spirituality in his abstracted landscapes.

and organic, while the horizon line divides the

For his pantheism we need only note his artist’s

wide expanse of the lake from the sky above.

statement, written in 1987 in the context of

But at the far left, the tint and value of water

his horizon paintings: “I seek the power of the

and sky are very close to each other, resulting

rock, the magic of the water, the religion of the

in a Cézannesque passage, which establishes

tree, the color of the wind, and the enigma of

an ambiguity between the illusion of depth and

the horizon.”

132

Of the many examples of art

criticism that speak to the spiritual nature of

After he retired from teaching in 1983,

his abstractions, this one from the art historian

Morrison worked for seventeen years from “Red

David W. Penney is especially poignant: “As

Rock,” as he called it, the studio and home he

a personal symbol, the horizon line alludes to

and Belvo built on the Grand Portage Indian

a broader cosmological awareness of spiritual

Reservation, along the North Shore of Lake

mysteries of the earth and its elements—

Superior, near the place where he had been

rock, water, sky—that seems ever present in

born and raised. As I have noted previously,

Morrison’s oeuvre.”

“From this vantage point, he pursued, like a Zen

133

Morrison’s productivity in the 1980s

38 Modern Spirit

the integrity of the picture plane.

master, the paradoxically tangible yet ineffable

and 1990s was astonishing, given his almost

truth of nature in a series of paintings and

unrelenting health problems, including a heart

collages of varying scale that seek not to picture

the visible but to offer an abstract equivalent for the artist’s response to land, water, and sky.”135 Indeed, he always insisted that he was a studio artist, one who was not looking at the lake when he painted it. His Lake Superior Landscapes and Red Rock Variations form the diverse Horizon series and include masterful paintings and works on paper whose surfaces ranges from telluric and thickly impasted to evanescent and transitory. Many of them rely on automatic drawing and frottage and refer yet again to the biomorphic shapes of abstract surrealism. Spatially complex, diverse but unified, and sometimes pictographic, these later works, such as Witch Tree (1981; plate 52) are intriguing and memorable. Visiting the so-called Witch Tree was part of Morrison’s reconnection with his tribe, and subsequently he treated the subject in a wiry, animated, surrealist pen and ink drawing, now in the Minnesota Historical Society: Witch Tree Variation (1982; plate 56).136 Unusual for its low horizon line, his acrylic painting Witch Tree is marked by its vertical format and by the insistent vitality and diagonal yearning of the tree, which evolves from its precarious perch on the rocky shoreline into the periwinkle-colored sky. Cropped by the upper limits of the canvas, the “disappearance” of the tree from our vision suggests an expansive cosmos beyond perceptual reality. It is related iconographically to a square format oil-on-canvas painting Untitled [Lake Superior

thin strip Newman called a “zip,” Morrison’s

Spirit Little Cedar Tree,

Landscape] (1986; plate 63).

horizon line, which first appeared in his work

Grand Portage Indian

in the 1940s, is simultaneously a critical formal

Reservation, Minnesota. Photo

surface, Untitled [Lake Superior Landscape]

element, a symbol, and the artist’s logo. The

courtesy W. Jackson Rushing.

recalls the White Paintings (which date from

persistence of the horizon line in his work

the mid-1960s to the early 1970s). But its

establishes a dialogue between phenomenon

horizontality, ostensible subject matter (the

and noumenon as a leitmotif of his mature

sublime, febrile beauty of the superior lake),

aesthetic: the horizon is frequently visible from

visionary expressionist palette, and thematic

the shore, but we cannot, in fact, ever go there.

structure—land, water, sky—establish it as part

It is thus a concept, not a destination. Indeed,

of the Lake Superior Landscape series. Like the

all in the same breath the artist spoke of “the

In its linear division of a richly wrought

39 The Art of George Morrison

enigma of the horizon” and the “wind—that

plate 57), done in pen and ink: above a low

phenomenon of nature we can’t even see.”

horizon line, a frenetic cluster of constellations

And yet, the scumbled layers of scintillating

swarms like mosquitoes. This admixture of

pigment produce a sensuous palimpsest,

intuition and observation is confirmed by

reinforcing the fact that the painting is a

the inscription beneath the drawing, which

physical object, here and now.

amends the title, “Automatic—Grand Portage,

137

The irregular red “cloud” that drifts, floats, or evolves diagonally through the strata of

of Sky Watch Chart (1988; plate 70), is more

Untitled (Lake Superior Landscape) from lower

diaristic, as the inscription informs us that

left to upper center-right links it, as noted above,

the image is derived from a sky watch chart

to Morrison’s images of the Witch Tree. Manido-

published in the New York Times on August

Gree-Shi-Gance, or Spirit Little Cedar Tree, is

2, 1984. Morrison also made notes on the

a white cedar that seems to defy nature by

drawing about the visibility of planets and

growing out of a rock perched high above the

their moons in June, July, and August 1984.

lakeshore on land owned by the Grand Portage

This concern with specificity suggests that the

Band of Chippewa. At least three hundred years

signature and date (G. Morrison 1988) were

old, the Spirit Little Cedar Tree is believed by

added four years after the fact, perhaps. These

many to have healing powers and is regarded

modest image and text works on paper deserve

as sacred by both Native and non-Native people

to be taken seriously, at least in part because

alike, and Morrison and Belvo helped raise funds

he took them seriously, writing that he liked

to preserve and protect the tree. The significance

“to view a drawing as a complete work of art

of this miraculous tree for Morrison is reflected

in itself.” When drawings similar to these two

in the fact that he investigated or represented it

were exhibited at the University of Minnesota

on at least eight other occasions. Morrison was

in 1983, he emphasized their immediacy:

interested in magic (as in indigenous medicinal

“Drawing became an intimate source of personal

practice) and the magic of nature, which would

expression—first as a means of social narration

explain part of his attraction to the fierce beauty

and place description, then progressing toward

of the tree. But like the Grand Portage Chippewa

a probing of the subconscious through surrealist

Indians, including Morrison himself, Manido-

automatic techniques to record an inner solitude

Gree-Shi-Gance is a weathered but dignified

and loneliness.” The addition of words to the

survivor. Surely he understood and appreciated

images, he added, makes them “a sort of

this aspect as well.

journal or almanac, and this ‘diary’ serves as a

Although they may be (quasi-)abstract,

40 Modern Spirit

December 24, 1983.” A similar drawing, Part

reference guide as well as a convenient place to

Morrison’s representations of the inspiring

record quotes and pieces of writing that appeal

tree, as the pen and ink drawing (plate 56)

to me.”138 With this in mind, I propose that the

demonstrates, are based on close observation

Horizon series paintings constitute a fine arts

of the form in nature. Two other drawings in

almanac about healing and survival. And despite

the exhibition also testify to what we might call

their singular integrity and aesthetic autonomy,

a naturalist impulse that is leavened at times

collectively they represent serial painting. In serial

with surrealist experimentation. Living again on

painting (such as Robert Motherwell’s Elegies for

the lakeshore, Morrison became a sky watcher,

the Spanish Republic), typically the basic format,

as revealed in Sky with Constellations (1983;

structure, or design (land, water, horizon line,

sky) is given in the first instance and repeated in

The pigment in Phenomena Against the

each ensuing work. Reductive and somewhat

Crimson: Lake Superior Landscape (1985; plate

repetitive, the unique invention of each painting

59) has a whipped consistency—like cake

in the series takes place within the parameters

icing or meringue—which is reminiscent of the

of the system, which it reinforces and subtly

marbled papers he used in his earliest paper

modifies. The overall sameness of the series

collages. In the bottom half of the painting in

tends to amplify the specificity of each individual

particular, the pigment is slathered on, and the

painting, as is the case with the Horizon series,

intensity of the colors, especially the visually

which represents a kind of physical and spiritual

jarring juxtaposition of pink and green, is

self-medication.

unsettling. The crimson of the sky has “bled”

139

“During the spring of 1980,” Morrison

into the landscape below, giving form to the

wrote in 1988, “when I was recuperating from

poetic violence implied in the title. He was

a heart ailment, I started several small paintings

attracted to the natural drama of sunrise and

that I eventually called the Small Painting

sunset and sensitive to the shifting weather, as

Series.” The scale of the work was related,

we see in Morning Storm, Red Rock Variation:

he noted, to “a period of physical setbacks,”

Lake Superior Landscape (1986; plate 61).

which prompted him to think about “legacies,

Despite the subject, the pigment does not

This, in

look as “wet” as that seen in Phenomena

documentation, and my life’s work.”

140

turn, encouraged him to pursue the series even

Against the Crimson, although in the upper

more diligently, and sixty-one of them were

register the storm has a palpable presence.

exhibited from November 1987 to January 1988

And we should note that like many of the

in George Morrison: Horizon: Small Painting

Horizon paintings, this one is conceptual. That

Series, 1980–1987, at the MMAA’s Gallery 208.

is, the transitory patches of color beneath

Three works from that first public presentation

the waterline that refer to the rocky shoreline

of the Horizon paintings are included in Modern

would only be observable in “real life” if you

Spirit. Together they make the case for the

stood with your back to Lake Superior, facing

dialectic in serial painting between similarity and

Red Rock, the home and studio that sits

difference. According to Morrison, in each of

high above the shore and lake. In short, two

them the horizon line is the focal point.

views—one facing the lake and one facing

The title of the show . . . comes from a

Red Rock—are combined and presented on

depiction of the sky, water, and shore

a single field of gestural color. The mood and

imagined as I worked from the vantage point

character of Autumn Dusk, Red Rock Variation:

of our home-studio in Grand Portage, a

Lake Superior Landscape (1986; plate 62) is

stone’s-throw to the water of Lake Superior.

different yet again. Befitting the season and



time of day, the palette is lower in value,

There is a strong fixation in one’s mind

about this line that divides sky and water; it

but the overall effect is no less provocative.

makes an indelible image that for me stems

Its “music” is quieter and dependent on

from being born and growing up near the

patterned layers of broken brushstrokes, such

edge of the lake. Later it was reinforced

that we see and experience colors in terms of

by spending many summers on the

their relationship to others. This is especially

Atlantic shores at the tip of Cape Cod near

true in the upper register, which seems a

Provincetown, Massachusetts.141

demonstration of the word ineffable. Indeed,

41 The Art of George Morrison

writing about such paintings is admittedly

managed to be present—aesthetically and

challenging, for their visual subtlety, delicacy,

psychologically—in the moment, so he let

and complexity resists absolute translation

himself discover colors, surfaces, and forms

into language. Despite its reasonably reserved

during the working process. A quartet of

expressionism and intimate scale, just six by

paintings from 1990, a year in which he had

eleven inches, Autumn Dusk has the capacity

a major retrospective, bears this out. Larger

to seduce thoughtful viewers and hold their

than the three discussed above, they are done

attention a long, long time.

in acrylic and pastel on paper and are airier,

The different emotional effects generated by these three Horizon paintings obviously

Awakening, Time Edge Rising, Red Rock

affected the artist just as much as they did

Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1990;

his audience. Indeed, they are the record of a

plate 73) testifies to Morrison’s statement

sophisticated process involving observation,

that he responded to changes in nature in

memory, and performance, and he was well

ways that were “both subconscious and

aware of that fact: “I am fascinated with the

perceptual.” Dreamy and nonobjective, the

ambiguity, the change of the many moods

painting is barely tethered to the phenomenal

and colors, the sense of sound and movement

world, and its surface appears to have been

above and below the [horizon] line. Therein

dusted with pollens. Similarly, Quiet Light

lies some of the mystery of the painting: the

Towards Evening, Red Rock Variation: Lake

transmutations, the choosing and manipulation

Superior Landscape (1990; plate 74) is virtually

of pigment that becomes the substance of

weightless, as the rocky shore is dematerialized,

art.” Because he honored his fascination with

and we experience the image as the analog

the tremendous variety of experiences given

of an emergent nocturne in the most fragile

by the natural environment at Red Rock, each

of colors. If ethereality can have a visual form,

Horizon painting has a unique personality

surely this is it. The lyricism of such paintings,

dependent on specific techniques. Or, as he

including Lavender Wind, The Beyond, Red

explained, “There was a deliberate attempt to

Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1990;

vary techniques in this series, to gain a wider

plate 76) and Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock

variation, using the tricks and methods of

Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1990; plate

applying paint that I had acquired through the

75), is self-evident, as is their kinship with both

years.” Two of the examples he gave will suffice.

impressionism and abstract expressionism.

He wrote, concerning Beyond. The Mist. Red

And in all of them, as Morrison observed, “the

Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1987),

shimmer of nature is coming through.”143

that it had “stippled and pointillistic-like short

Phenomena Against the Crimson, Autumn

strokes of paint over alternate layers of cold or

Dusk, and other Horizon series paintings were

warm color.” And Alpenglow: Lake Superior

included in Standing in the Northern Lights,

Landscape (1986) was created, he recalled,

a 1990 retrospective organized by the Tweed

by “letting the paint flow uniformly over

Museum of Art and the Minnesota Museum

rough layers to get a shimmering and bumpy

of American Art, which was also shown at the

effect.”

Plains Art Museum (then located in Moorhead,

142

The Horizon paintings were made by a “veteran abstract painter” who always

42 Modern Spirit

seeming to whisper their colors into the wind.

Minnesota). The title of the exhibition is an English translation of Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Go

Bo, a name dreamed for Morrison by his cousin, Walter Caribou, an elder of the Grand Portage

An Indian Artist of Today

Chippewa, as part of a healing ceremony.144 In

The critical issue I have largely deferred thus far

the late 1980s, as Morrison had struggled with

is whether a Native American identity or Native

illness, he had longed for such an exhibition,

American content is embedded in Morrison’s

and he was pleased with the results: sixty-seven

art, as many of his earliest critics assumed. As

works in a wide variety of media spanning

an art-historical or Native American studies

forty-four years of artistic practice. The show

“problem,” this aspect of his life and work is

was both a regional success and the prompt

rather complicated and admittedly subjective.

for national attention. The Twin Cities art critic

Ultimately, it is a matter of interpretation

Mason Riddle wrote informed reviews of the

and always has been, and the historiography

exhibition in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and

reflects this, as I have shown. A purely formalist

in Arts Magazine (founded as the Art Digest

methodology, which I reject, holds that

in 1926), which for decades was a preeminent

Morrison’s experience as a Chippewa man is

national and international art periodical. Riddle

irrelevant in determining the meaning and

was and is a sensitive viewer of Morrison’s

significance of his art. This was the position

art, and one passage from Arts Magazine is

articulated by the Amon Carter Museum in

especially noteworthy.

1973, as noted above, in the context of his

In addition to long overdue recognition, the exhibition revealed Morrison’s sometimes lyrical, sometimes muscular continuity of vision throughout a diverse body of work. It is a mature, eloquent vision that proves him to be not only a significant abstractionist, but also a superb colorist and a landscape painter in the richest sense of the tradition. Morrison is the first to acknowledge that his work has evolved more from a European tradition than one of tribal culture. Yet it is his intimate and powerful sense of the northern landscape and horizon line, found even in the most abstract of his works, that distinguishes him from the canonical Abstract Expressionists.145

And, in a prescient prefiguration of the work I seek to do in the three sections remaining in this essay, she wrote, “His expansive show . . . raised important cultural questions about racial and artistic identity and the struggle of Native American artists to achieve visibility in an art world dominated by whites.”146

traveling exhibition of fine-lined drawings. The museum’s press release denied the importance of his personal experience, insisting that his work had no ethnic content. Indeed, the museum observed—as he did on several occasions—that he was an artist who was an Indian. And yet, we know that very early in his career he sought, without success, inclusion in exhibitions of Indian art. In 1948 he submitted an abstract painting titled Rock Quarry to the third annual juried exhibition of American Indian Painting at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa. In a rejection letter from Dorothy Field, curator of Indian art, Morrison was informed that the jury felt the work “was not painted in the traditional manner of your forefathers and therefore could not be included.” Field further explained, “Since Philbrook invites persons prominent in the field of Indian painting to serve on its jury, its action is guided entirely by their decision. Be assured that we are anxious to have you enter your work in next year’s competition and the new jury can honor your work by approving it for exhibition.”147 Morrison himself recalled that

43 The Art of George Morrison

because the work “was too extreme” it was not “Indian enough” for the jury.

148

Twenty-

five years later, the curator Richard Conn, also

today, one who was doing interesting work. Less than twenty years later, in July 1964,

writing in the context of the 1973 drawing

Jeanne O. Snodgrass (King), who was then the

show, indicated that Morrison was not one

assistant director of the Philbrook Art Center—

of “the outstanding original Indian painters.”

an institution that first rejected and then later

But as early as 1947, one year after Morrison

embraced him as an Indian artist—wrote to

finished his studies at the ASL, he received an

Morrison at the Rhode Island School of Design,

inquiry from no less an authority on modern

where he was teaching. Like Jacobson before

Native painting than Oscar B. Jacobson, who

her, Snodgrass was seeking information for

was a painter, curator, author, and patron of The

a forthcoming book, then being called A

Kiowa Five in the mid-1920s at the University

Dictionary of American Indian Painters, which

of Oklahoma, where he founded the school of

was subsequently published by the Museum

art in 1915. Jacobson organized an exhibition

of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in

of contemporary Kiowa painting at the First

New York (1968). Snodgrass, too, attached a

International Congress of Folk Arts in Prague in

questionnaire, explaining, “I am well aware

1928, and with C. Szwedzicki he published a

you are not an artist in the ‘Indian style’: your

portfolio of the show, Kiowa Indian Art, in Nice,

style of painting has no bearing on your being

France, in 1929.

149

Jacobson’s historic role as

included. A great many of the artists I include

an animateur of early modern Native painting

in the book represent schools of art other

makes his query all the more significant.

than ‘Indian style.’”151 Ultimately published

Addressing his letter to Mr. John George

44 Modern Spirit

Jacobson understood him as an Indian artist of

as American Indian Painters: A Biographical

Morrison (the artist’s given name), care of the

Directory, the book featured entries on

ASL, Jacobson explained that he had resumed

individual artists with information organized in

work on a book begun before World War II

the following categories: education, teaching,

on “Indian Artists of Today,” which would

career, honors and awards, exhibitions, and

feature sixty-five “Indian Artists who are doing

collections. Many entries had no narrative

interesting work.” Jacobson, who was then the

component whatsoever, and those that did

director of the University of Oklahoma Museum

were remarkably brief. Morrison’s consisted of

of Art, sought both information about, and

a single revealing and compelling sentence:

photographs of, Morrison’s work: “I wish to

“Mr. Morrison has distinguished himself and his

include you also. In a general way I know about

tribe by establishing what is probably the most

your work, but I have very little information

outstanding record of any painter in the fine

about yourself, and I should like to have a

arts field.”152 Certainly Snodgrass was qualified

great deal more. I therefore take the liberty

to come to this conclusion. She had served

to send you this questionnaire which I hope

from 1955 to 1968 as assistant director and

you will fill out and return.”150 Unfortunately,

curator of American Indian Arts at the Philbrook,

thus far there is no documentary evidence that

where she had organized 214 exhibitions. In

shows Morrison responded to Jacobson’s letter.

1959 she was instrumental in establishing

Nonetheless, it is crucial to note that somehow,

the museum’s more progressive policy about

a year before Morrison’s first solo exhibition in

including nontraditional art in its annual Indian

New York, when he was still an emerging artist,

art exhibition.153 And yet, when her biographical

directory went to press, Morrison had likely

off into a segregated category called Indian

only been included in about a half-dozen group

art. He put the world of art on notice that

exhibitions of Native art, all but one of which

contemporary Native artists bring their own

was sponsored by the federal government’s

unique vision to art, and that no American art

Indian Arts and Crafts Board (1954, 1957,

history is complete without art produced by

1961, 1966, 1967), as opposed to a museum

Indians.”156

or fine arts gallery. In the 1967 show, he took

According to Bernstein, Morrison would

first place in mixed media for his Landscape—

only allow his art “to be judged on its aesthetic

Provincetown Collage (c. 1967) and received an

and communicative qualities, rather than

honorable mention for an oil painting, White

whether or not it was Indian.” 157 Just two

Environ VI (c. 1967), which was acquired by

caveats: first, from the 1940s through the

the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

154

However, that

1960s, Morrison was largely segregated from

aspect of his career as an exhibiting artist—

the category called Indian art as a result of

being shown in the context of “Indian art”—

conservative, indeed, hidebound definitions

was certainly about to change. Two special

of Native art; and second, between 1968 and

recognitions more than thirty years later, one

1999, he proudly exhibited his work in dozens

of them posthumous, underscore the endgame

of Native art exhibitions.

of the emergence and trajectory of Morrison’s exhibition history as a Native American artist. In 1999 the Eiteljorg Museum of American

The posthumous achievement came in the form of his inclusion in a two-person exhibition with the Chiricahua Apache modernist

Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis

Allan Houser, which helped inaugurate the

premiered its Fellowship for Native American

Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of

Fine Art. In each biennium, the fellowship

the American Indian (NMAI) on the National

recognizes and exhibits the lifetime

Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2004. With key

achievements of a Master artist who is selected

loans from the MMAA and other important

by the museum. Five fellowship artists, chosen

public and private collections, the NMAI

by a jury, are also featured in the exhibition

exhibited works from all of Morrison’s major

and catalogue. Morrison, who reported being

periods in all media. There was no small irony

flattered and honored, graciously accepted an

in the fact that when the last available space on

invitation to be the inaugural Master artist.

the National Mall was finally given over to an

The rightness of this choice struck many as

institution devoted to the first peoples of the

self-evident, and indeed, the Eiteljorg Museum

Americas,158 a key ingredient in the celebration

announced in a press release, “Morrison’s name

was an artist whose work was originally deemed

was the first that everyone mentioned.”

not Indian enough and who for decades was

However, the complexity of Morrison’s status, as

hesitant to acknowledge that his art might have

either an artist who was an Indian or an Indian

indigenous content. To his credit, W. Richard

who was an artist, is reflected, I believe, in the

West, Jr., founding director of the NMAI, spoke

laudatory comments written in the catalogue

to this issue directly in the catalogue of Native

by the anthropologist, arts administrator, and

Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and

curator Bruce Bernstein: “He has continually

Allan Houser:

155

sought to integrate his work into the fabric of

Neither wanted to be marginalized as an

American art instead of allowing it to be cast

“Indian artist.” Each felt fully equipped to

45 The Art of George Morrison

take his rightful place among the leading

poor health in a declining village.161 They spoke

artists of the day, without any confining

“Indian,” he noted, until they began grade

labels. I believe they were absolutely

school and began to be “Americanized.” He

right to feel this way. Now for the slightly

had virtually no access to traditional forms of art

contradictory part: they are, indeed,

and remembered that indigenous crafts were

Indian artists. You can see it and sense it

disappearing, along with the “smattering of

in the extraordinary pieces they produced.

Indian stories” that remained. And although his

It informs the subject matter, attitude,

grandmother practiced herbal medicine, which,

media, and aesthetic vision characteristic of

he speculated, might have been “a spiritual

their work. I hope and believe that as we

thing, like a fetish,” his “family never did have

tentatively feel our way into the twenty-first

many Indian customs.”162

century, we can now come to a conclusion

As I look back on my childhood, it was a

that once might have seemed contradictory:

time of transition. Indians had lost the best

it is clearly possible, as Morrison and Houser

of the old world and could not fully cope

demonstrate, to be a major American artist

with the new one. White civilization was

and Indian artist at the same time.159

encroaching on our lives. We attended white

When Morrison arrived in New York in

schools and were taught to imitate white

1943, the Indian Space Painters (some of whom

people’s ways. Our old mystical rites were

he studied with) and the mythmakers of abstract

no longer being performed because they

expressionism were making the study and

conflicted with church teachings. Our people

inclusion of Native art a critical component of

viewed the church, I think, as a substitute for

avant-garde practice.

160

So why would Morrison

what they’d lost. People will take spiritual

have felt marginalized as an Indian artist? And

consolation wherever they can find it.

what happened in his career after 1970 that

Remnants of the old life survived, however.

enabled Morrison to accept himself as a Native

Fragments of the superstitions and lore I

artist and the world of Native art to identify and

heard as a child stayed with me.163

embrace him as a founder, along with Houser,

As poor survivors of the Great Depression,

of Native modernism? To answer these two allimportant questions, it is necessary to return to the beginning.

he and his siblings knew racial prejudice as well, which rose on occasion to belligerent discrimination. “For many years,” he stated, “Indians lived hard.” In the face of such colonial

An Endless Field of Feathers

duress, is it any wonder that his parents, who

What did it mean to be born Chippewa in

children to behave like white people? “In other

1919? Many things, surely, and no doubt what it meant varied from person to person and place to place. As Morrison grew up, to him it meant a mixture of loss and survivance, and an everincreasing consciousness of class and ethnicity. Although he had “many recollections of a happy childhood with families and neighbors,” he and his siblings experienced poverty, hunger, and

46 Modern Spirit

understood “their situation,” wanted their words,” he recalled, “not be too Indian. But how can one change his color?” In the face of all this, he found it remarkable that various tribes survived: “I think that their strong art and philosophies gave the people strength. You can’t kill that.” 164 Even today it takes nearly five hours to drive from Grand Marais, where Morrison

attended high school, to the Twin Cities, where he began to study at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1938. In the late 1930s, the cultural and psychological distance between the two places must have felt substantial. Given his experience up to that point, it seems highly unlikely he would have imagined any advantage in being an Indian artist. On the contrary, besides discovering he had a natural predilection for modern art, he had an equally natural urge, triggered by the poverty and racism he had known in the rural woodlands on the North Shore, to trade provincialism for cosmopolitanism. Two undated newspaper clippings (c.1940–43) in Morrison’s papers at the Minnesota Historical Society speak to the ironic complexities of his identity formation as an artist who was an Indian and to the social and political spaces he had to negotiate. In the first, probably the earlier of the two, beneath a headline that reads “Make Patriotic Posters,” Morrison and a fellow student at the Minneapolis School of Art are seen making posters for a contest sponsored by the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies. On the wall behind him is one of his finished posters, which boldly declares “STOP HITLER NOW.” If only we could read the

another student sketching a Japanese American

George Morrison and

mind of the studious young artist before us,

soldier, Private Shigeo Miyashiro, who “is

a fellow student at the

a partly assimilated Chippewa man who had

posing in full Indian regalia”? Morrison, who

Minneapolis School of Art

felt marginalized in Grand Marais, but who

always had a flair for dressing well, is wearing

making posters for a contest

also had been nurtured and supported there

a suit, sweater, dress shirt, and necktie. For that

sponsored by the Committee

by teachers who recognized his potential. We

matter, what on earth did Miyashiro think of

to Defend America by Aiding

can only wonder but never know if he found

this situation? What unseen historical agents

the Allies, 1942 or 1943.

it odd to dedicate his art, at least for a time, to

enacted this cross-cultural ethnic kitsch? Is it too

Clipping courtesy Minnesota

the nation state that was directly responsible

much to presume that witnessing Miyashiro’s

Historical Society Archives.

for his people’s cultural, economic, and spiritual

ersatz performance reminded Morrison of

decline, even though he had been undergoing

the tourist trinkets he carefully crafted in high

the process of “Americanization” since first

school in order to buy his own clothes, so that

grade. Similarly, what might he have recalled

he might “look neat and proper,” as he does in

about the scene pictured in the second clipping,

the clipping?165 A third clipping (1943) reveals

in which we see him—identified in the caption

the determination of the popular press to make

as a “Chippewa Indian art student”—and

Morrison an Indian artist, regardless of what

47 The Art of George Morrison

George Morrison and

“Indian Wins Art Award,”

another student sketching a

Minneapolis Morning Tribune,

Japanese American soldier,

1943. Clipping courtesy Minnesota

1942 or 1943. Clipping courtesy

Historical Society Archives.

Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

he wanted. Looking dapper, as he often did,

opportunity to tag him and his work with ethnic

Morrison, described yet again as a “Chippewa

signifiers.

Indian,” is seen receiving the Ethel Morrison

48 Modern Spirit

Once the artist was in New York, as Bill

Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship, which enabled

Anthes has written, the cosmopolitan art world

him to continue his education at the ASL. The

“offered Morrison an escape from midwestern

headline is the textual equivalent of a blunt

provincialism, the grim realties of reservation

instrument: “Indian Wins Art Award.” To put

life, and the anti-Indian racism of small-town

this in perspective, try to imagine a headline

Minnesota.”166 Morrison arrived in Manhattan in

that read, “White Man Wins Art Award.” Even

the midst of a world war, when the mythmakers

as he quietly refused to rely on his Indianness to

of abstract expressionism, including Adolph

promote his art, the popular press and the fine

Gottlieb, Barnett Newman, Richard Pousette-

arts critics seemed determined never to miss an

Dart, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, were

experiencing a crisis of subject matter, which

his Indian heritage as a component of either

they resolved, in part, by turning to ancient

his art or his artistic identity. What if his peers

and tribal myths and tribal imagery, drawing

had asked him to recount Chippewa myths

especially on Native American objects found

or to share esoteric knowledge about rituals,

in books and seen in New York museums.

shamanism, or ceremonial objects? He, whose

The Indian Space Painters, some of whom

grandfather, James Morrison, Sr., was an elder

were associated with the ASL, represented a

and founder in 1895 of St. Francis Xavier

competing paradigm of avant-garde abstraction,

Church, and whose father, Jim Morrison,

but they, too, drew inspiration and sustenance

translated French hymns into Chippewa, led

from Northwest Coast, Pueblo, and Peruvian art.

prayer ceremonies, and sang at wakes in the

Although Morrison knew some of the Indian

church? Even if he had wanted to, he could not

Space Painters casually (Oscar Collier, Peter

share that which had not been given him.170

Busa, and Steve Wheeler), and described being

The dominant culture, which often envisions

flattered that “everyone knew I was Indian,” he

Native Americans in an ethnographic present,

did not share their depth of interest in Native

has a way of making indigenous people feel

American art.

167

He had not had any particular

inauthentic for not being and living exactly like

exposure to it back in Minnesota, so, like his

their ancestors. Did he sometimes feel, in those

New York contemporaries, he encountered it

New York years, not Indian enough? Perhaps.

in books and museums. That much they had in

But this much is certain: with his sharp taste in

common. For example, he met the Indian Space

clothes and his cosmopolitan passion for jazz

artist Robert Barrell through Carl Ashby, who

and modern art, he hardly embodied the raw,

employed Morrison in his frame shop, which

mythic spirit that forties primitivists identified in

doubled as a small gallery. And although they

Native American art, especially since they had no

looked together at the volumes of the Bureau

demonstrable interest in contemporary Indian

of American Ethnology, with an eye for texts

art, preferring instead museum objects whose

and images about Native art, Morrison did not

patination invoked for them primal nature and

incorporate such material into his own work,

atavistic memory. It was not his style to write a

even though it fascinated him.

168

Based on an

defiant manifesto. Instead, he quietly refused

interview with him, Ann Gibson explained that

to construct himself or be constructed as a

Morrison “was keenly aware of the low regard

“Primitive.” Not only was he averse to being

extended by the professional art establishment

primitivism’s “Other,” he was determined to be

to Native American ‘artifacts’ in his youth,”

fully in and of artistic modernity.171

and thus he told her in 1991, “I never thought Indian art could measure up—although now I think just the opposite.”

169

Clearly, in the 1940s

In 1970, as noted above, twenty-seven years after he made that fateful journey from northern Minnesota to begin art school,

and for many years thereafter, he felt (pace

Morrison joined the faculty at the University of

West) that he could not “be a major American

Minnesota, where for the first year he taught

artist and Indian artist at the same time.”

American Indian studies, a discipline then

But I expect there was another issue

emerging in American universities in the wake

at work in his refusal to participate in the

of the civil rights movement. Perhaps winning

primitivist’s use of Native American–derived

the grand prize in the juried competition

images or designs and in his refusal to assert

in Washington in 1968 had changed his

49 The Art of George Morrison

Reservation and his willingness to give up his teaching position at RISD. “At this time,” he wrote, “nothing would suit me better than to be of help to my people and particularly to my own reservation.”173 Some of the ramifications of this homecoming must be noted carefully. It must have seemed a sea change to be invited back to teach Native art history at the university level, given his youthful experience of a tribal culture in artistic, economic, and spiritual decline. But, by his own admission, he knew little about the subject, and so he found it salutary to do research, acquire slides, and build an Indian art library for himself. And while it was restorative to be near his family again, Chippewa City had vanished, making literal for him the novelist Thomas Wolfe’s Americanism, “you can’t go home again.”174 It is one thing to acknowledge that no one can revisit precisely the hometown of their youth, but another altogether for that place to disappear. Today, other than Lake Superior, only St. Francis Xavier Church—no longer in use—and the cemetery remain of the place where Morrison grew up. And so he began the process of establishing a closer St. Francis Xavier Catholic

perceptions about his place and role in the

relationship with cultural life on the Grand

Church, formerly Chippewa

world of Native art. Indeed, the very fact that he

Portage Reservation and reaffirmed his ties to

City, near Grand Marais,

had submitted work to the jury would indicate

local land by visiting the Spirit Little Cedar Tree,

Minnesota. Photo courtesy

a shift in his thinking. Certainly he recalled

which became a major motif in Belvo’s art as

W. Jackson Rushing.

being ready to go home, especially as he had

well, such as Spirit Tree Torso, Dawn (1985).

largely given up his tribal connections in the

Morrison’s entry into urban Native culture

years he had lived away: “I wanted to come

in Minneapolis was facilitated by his friendship

back to the Indian connection, to Minnesota

with Ron Libertus, a Chippewa scholar and

and my family. I felt an inner need to come

curator from the White Earth Reservation.

back, not realizing the consequences of what I

Like Morrison, Libertus was among the first

was doing. I felt the need to put certain Indian

faculty members in the American Indian studies

In fact, before he was

program established in 1969. Libertus was both

values into my work.”

172

50 Modern Spirit

offered a position at the university, he had

a major point of contact between Morrison

written a letter in November 1969 to the federal

and Maurer, who commissioned the first of his

Office of Economic Opportunity, expressing

totems, and head of community outreach at

both an interest in a job on the Grand Portage

the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) in 1971,

where he emphasized the cultural contexts (visual art, powwow dancing) for reconnecting with traditional communities. Maurer describes him as a respected community leader who provided a framework in which Morrison could serve a local Native constituency. Indeed, according to Maurer, Libertus helped create an environment in Minneapolis that enabled Morrison to signal not just his physical but also his spiritual return to his home country.175 For example, Libertus had a lead role in the Indian Art Association (IAA), which was formed to advise the Walker Art Center and the MIA in organizing what proved to be an historic exhibition, American Indian Art: Form and Tradition (1972). The IAA represented the points of view of several Native groups, including the American Indian Movement, and Libertus wrote in the foreword of the catalogue, “At a time when Indian groups and individuals throughout the nation are searching for identity through redefinition of cultural values, the power and beauty of the works of art in this exhibition can only serve as a catalyst in the quest for knowledge of the traditions of our people.”176 The nine hundred objects in the show, drawn from outstanding public and private collections across the country, surely constituted one of the most comprehensive and qualitative exposures to traditional Indian art that Morrison had had up to that point. Although no

again, noting that an “Indian doesn’t have to

contemporary artists were featured, Morrison

paint tipis to be an artist.”178

was no doubt among the Native people for

Hazel Belvo, Spirit Tree

Libertus also had a leadership role in

Torso, Dawn, 1985, oil on

whom, Libertus wrote, “the exhibition reflects

founding the American Indian Center in

canvas, 72 × 48 in. Collection

a reawakening of pride.” Indeed, Morrison

Minneapolis in 1975, and he helped secure a

Plymouth Congregational Church,

probably recognized his own situation when

National Endowment for the Arts grant that

Minneapolis, Minnesota.

he read Libertus’s assertion, “Today the Indian

supported Morrison’s design for the façade,

is in theory what he has never been allowed to

which took the form of a monumental, site-

be in fact, a synthesis of himself.”

177

When the

Photo by Rik Sferra.

specific wood collage. “My design for the

Minneapolis Tribune interviewed local Native

façade was taken from a feather,” Morrison

artists about the exhibition, Morrison took the

recalled. “I think all Indians have connections to

occasion to assert his artistic integrity once

birds and their feathers, using them in symbolic

51 The Art of George Morrison

Untitled, 1975, wood

ways. My sources were varied, inspired by

collage, 216 × 1,176 in.

chevron shapes. When you look at my design,

Minneapolis American Indian

with its geometric form, it isn’t a realistic

Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo Rik Sferra.

rendering of a feather, but it derives from the feather.”179 In terms of context and function and subject matter and source thereof, his untitled collage is undeniably an example of Native American art, one that is celebratory and that embodies Morrison’s complicated urban Indian identity, as befits the mission of the building it announces. Even though the dedication of the center the first week of May 1975 was a grand, public declaration of Morrison’s homecoming, his pride in his achievement was commingled with anxiety. In his autobiography, he recalled having a dream the week of the dedication in which he envisioned a “vast field of feathers.” But a notebook sketch with text, Fragments of a Dream—May 1–2 (1975), tells a more complicated story. The sketch itself is

Notebook sketch “Fragments

pictographic and atypically lacks any pretension

of a Dream—May 1–2, 1975.”

of aesthetic merit, but the text is honest and

Courtesy Briand Morrison.

revealing. He situates the dream in time: “Approaching Indian Week and opening of Native American Center, Minneapolis—May 4,

52 Modern Spirit

1975.” As he walks alone through dream space, he sees “A vast, rolling, endless field, which on first glance seemed covered with flowers, but were actually feathers (eagle?) white and light.” Continuing on, he encounters “a young Indian lying in street-curb-gutter, drunk, passed out.” The Indians he sees along the way are, in terms of clothing and accoutrements, a mixture of tradition and assimilation (as one might expect in downtown Minneapolis in 1975). He walks with a younger Indian, “who remarks that he has been drinking for 3 days and that he is hung over. I remark that I had been drinking the night before and hung over. We are walking towards events . . . . . . . [sic]” Some of this, such as “A vast, rolling, endless field . . . [of] feathers,”

as underwater panthers.”180 As is typical of

The Underwater

strikes me as redemptive. The bulk of it, though,

his work, the piece is not representational but

Panther, 1976–77,

especially Morrison’s frank admission, as he

visualizes abstractly ideas and feelings associated

redwood. Daybreak Star

approaches an Indian center whose purposes

with the mythic creature. In fact, writing in

Cultural Center, Seattle,

include the treatment of alcohol abuse, of a

American Indian Art Magazine, Guy and Doris

Washington. Photo courtesy

drinking problem he shares with Indian youth,

Monthan noted, “The abstract design is so

Daybreak Star Cultural Center and

suggests that his anticipation of the dedication

contemporary in feeling, that it is a surprise to

the Estate of Paul M. Macapia.

was fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. The

discover that it is a traditional design done by

seven ellipsis points that follow the phrase

the Ojibway originally on birchbark and also

“We are walking towards events” imply the

frequently appearing in Eastern Woodland

prolongation of an unspoken dread, as if

beadwork.”181 The other artists selected to

the opening of the center might constitute a

produce inaugural works for the center were

dénouement not altogether pleasant.

accomplished indeed, and some of them, like

Another mural commission for an urban

Morrison, worked in contemporary idioms,

Indian center, this one for the Daybreak Star

including the painter T. C. Cannon (Caddo-

Center in Seattle, which was dedicated in

Kiowa) and the sculptor Robert Haozous

1977, continued Morrison’s engagement with

(Chiricahua Apache). By the time of the

Native themes. Following a juried competition

Daybreak Star dedication, in a major reversal,

for regional artists, Morrison was selected

Morrison had already served, by invitation, as

to represent the Eastern Woodlands. After

a juror for the Philbrook’s Indian Artist Annual

doing research for an appropriate subject, he

(1976).182 Then in 1980 he was included in

fashioned The Underwater Panther (c. 1976–

Jamake Highwater’s The Sweet Grass Lives On:

77), an eight-by-twenty-foot wood collage of

Fifty Contemporary North American Indian

natural and stained redwood. The theme, he

Artists, along with such Native modernists as

recalled, was a common one among Woodlands

Houser, Dan Namingha (Tewa-Hopi), and Fritz

peoples, “who claim there are spirits living in

Scholder (Luiseño). Although Highwater proved

the water; some of the spirits are referred to

to be an unreliable narrator of his own Native

53 The Art of George Morrison

ethnicity and not much of an original scholar,

University during the Third National Conference

the book was a useful resource at that moment

of the Native American Art Studies Association

for identifying Native artists in the United States

(NAASA), where Morrison spoke, along with

and Canada working in nontraditional styles.

Peter Jemison, Quick-to-See Smith, and others,

Certainly it provided me with my first awareness

on a panel titled “Artist as Indian and Indian as

of Morrison as a (Native) modernist.

Artist.” The banquet speaker for the conference

183

In the early to mid-1980s Morrison’s status and stature as a contemporary Indian artist

Heritage: Visual Relationships Through Time,”

intensified as he looked for new directions and

presented Morrison as an elder to a younger

as awareness of him as a Native artist continued.

generation of artists and scholars. This new

For example, the Philbrook acquired Badlands

role—elder statesman of Native art—was one

in 1981, a year in which he appreciated

in which he was frequently cast in historic

being exhibited with other Native artists in

group exhibitions in the 1990s. Following

the Confluences of Tradition and Change

this, in 1985, when the NAASA meeting

exhibition in California. In 1981 he was also

was held in Ann Arbor, Maurer included ten

featured in the Philbrook’s exhibition Magic

of Morrison’s drawings in an exhibition on

Images: Contemporary Native American Art,

Woodland/Great Lakes art at the University of

where he was assigned by the curators to a

Michigan Museum of Art. Among these was

(nonstyle) category they called individualism.

Automatic Drawing (1981; plate 53), a mixed-

“Individualism is not a single style but is

media work on paper made in Mexico City.185

totally indistinguishable from mainstream

Morrison annotated the drawing at the bottom:

contemporary art. The artist’s allegiance is to

“frottage technique—color added later.” As in

self, not movements or ethnic identification.

many of his paintings and drawings, the forms

These artists are often mavericks, such as

drift or lean rightward, as he did, as a result

Richard Glazer Danay [Mohawk], Bob Haozous,

of hip surgeries in his youth. The whole of it

and George Morrison, who exercise complete

might be read as an analog for biological or

artistic freedom. They are frequently criticized

psychological growth, although the fascinating

for visually abandoning Indian tradition or

shapes (some of which, in the lower register, are

subject matter and are challenged about their

just wiry scratches) refer less to nature than to

right to call themselves ‘Indian artists.’”

dreams of nature. Clearly, Morrison’s permanent

Although it is true that in the past (1948)

return to Minnesota and to his Native roots

Morrison had been critiqued for not working

in 1970 had only intensified his commitment

in a recognizably Indian style, critics had been

to nature, automatism, and the unconscious,

identifying latent Native themes in his work from

as in seen in Surrealist Landscape, a mixed-

the very beginning of his career. Furthermore, by

media work on paper from 1985 (plate 60).

1981 he had been openly identifying ethnically

The abstracted landforms, water, and horizon

as Chippewa since his return to Minnesota in

line seen in these two drawings are essential

1970, and his 1977 mural for the Daybreak Star

components of Morrison’s iconography of the

Center represented a modern extension, not

North Shore of Lake Superior. The spontaneous

abandonment, of indigenous visual traditions.

linear entanglements witnessed in both are

In 1982 the Confluences of Tradition and

explicated by his comment that much of his

Change exhibition was on view at Iowa State

work “emerged out of scribbles,” which he

184

54 Modern Spirit

was Maurer, whose lecture, “Native American

related to French automatic drawing that was

abstract vision of the landscape around Lake

“influenced by the associative thinking deriving

Superior. These “Red Rock Variations” . . .

from psychoanalysis.”

186

These image-producing

are both celebratory (sensuous, atmospheric

scribbles, he explained, combined frottage and

color) and meditative (evoking the noise and

automatic drawing and resulted in arbitrary

silence of wind and water).188

patterns. From 1991 to 1993, four of Morrison’s acrylic and pastel paintings from 1990—all now in the MMAA collection and featured in Modern Spirit (see plates 73, 74, 75, and 76)—were included in Our Land/Ourselves: American Indian Contemporary Artists, an exhibition of 375 works of art by thirty artists representing thirtyone tribes. Curated by Quick-to-See Smith and organized by Nancy Liddle for the University Art Gallery of the University of Albany, the show had a dozen venues, including the Museums at Stony Brook, where I saw it in summer 1991. A wide range of two-dimensional art was exhibited, including imaginative computergenerated prints by Joe Feddersen (Colville) and the compelling dyadic diptychs of Kay WalkingStick. Smith selected works that investigated the relationship between land and Native cultures that generate artistic identity. Along with Feddersen’s and WalkingStick’s art, Morrison’s paintings were among the more successful works in realizing this triad of land, culture, and self. I noted in a review in New Art Examiner that Morrison had “quietly matured into the grand old man of Modernist Indian abstraction.”187

Unfortunately, the painter Paul Brach’s comments about Morrison’s paintings in the exhibition catalogue were old-fashioned—both romantic and primitivist: “These landscapes express a yearning for a lost partnership with nature. George is able to choose the styles of his white artist-ancestors and transform them into an elegy to the dwelling place of his true ancestors.”189 I agree that Morrison was transforming inherited forms of modernism, but I identify in the Lake Superior landscapes not an elegiac yearning for something lost, but rather a heightened awareness of an indwelling spirit that speaks to being acutely present in the present. In 1991 Morrison was featured prominently in the Heard Museum’s historic traveling survey exhibition, Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century, which displayed one of his White paintings, as well as works on paper, and two of his small totemic sculptures.190 In addition, the exhibition was the occasion for a major conference with dozens of Native artists in attendance representing three generations, where I had the privilege of moderating a panel, “The New Indian Painting,” with Morrison, Joe Herrera

I say “old” with great respect and admiration

(Cochiti Pueblo), and Jeanne Snodgrass King.

because at age 72, Morrison, the subject

A review of some of Morrison’s conference

of a recent retrospective [Standing in the

comments is instructive in the context of his

Northern Lights] at the Minnesota Museum

evolving consciousness of Native American art.

of Art in St. Paul, is not only painting with

He described himself on that occasion as “an

more confidence and grace than ever before,

old fashioned painter,” one who manipulated

but also continues to produce monumental

pigment on canvas. When I queried him about

totemic sculpture. Morrison presents,

his interest in Native art in the 1940s, he

through expressionist facture, impressionist

responded, “I think as I grew older I became

color, and subtly nuanced surfaces, an

more conscious of who I was and what I was

55 The Art of George Morrison

wanting to do. . . . I became more conscious of

and symbolic, and I kind of like that idea of . . .

Indian art, and being interested in it. And being

not being pictorial, but having somewhat of

part of it, and so I got into Indian art, so to

an Indian feeling in these works.”194 Looking back on the exhibition and conference several

speak, in that way, in maybe developing in my own sense, that idea of Indianness in the art.”

years later, Morrison reflected on the Heard’s

But he was careful to clarify his intentions: “I

curatorial agenda and observed, “I like the idea

can’t say that I’m specifically wanting to do

of being part of the Native American Fine Art

Indian art . . . but I would like to think that

Movement.”195

191

underneath there is some kind of a spiritual

The public art projects Morrison spoke

sense coming out by use of materials, perhaps

of at the conference were his La Salle Totem

by the use of some symbology and some

(1991), installed in downtown Minneapolis in

references to the idea of landscape . . . or even

the lobby of the La Salle Plaza, and his unique

the totemic images.”

192

He also indicated the

granite mosaic dedicated at the Nicollet Mall,

ever-widening scope of his vision. “Towards

also downtown, in 1992. The La Salle Totem,

the end of my life,” he said in an unrehearsed

which is twenty-one feet tall and two feet

statement, “I am beginning to see the power

square, is constructed from exotic and dyed

and the impact of the arts of primitive peoples,

woods. He recalled trying to “maintain certain

from time immemorial, the primitive peoples

Indian colors” in the piece, which, in some

from all over the world. And that has come

respects, is a vertical variation on his earlier

to influence my work too, in a way. . . . I

Landscape: Wood Collage (The River) (1983).

wanted to mention that.”

193

He also reported

The difference is a higher degree of abstracted

on two commissions he had received for large

signs associated with nature and Native culture:

public art projects that would “employ Indian

“animal, bird, weather, and plant imagery—a

imagery, not specific, but they’re suggested

beaver, for instance, and some leaves, along with a lightning bolt and suggestions of water or clouds.”196 His statements at and about the Shared Visions conference, along with his willingness to use an abstracted indigenous iconography in his work, reflect a greater self-acceptance of his own indigeneity that he associated with his life coming full circle, especially in the years after he “retired” to the North Shore. Indeed, when the Our Land/ Ourselves exhibition was shown at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University in 1992, a student there—the Minneapolis architect Sam Olbekson (Anishinabe)—asked Morrison if being Anishinabe was important to his work, and the

George Morrison and

artist replied, “very important,” adding that he

W. Jackson Rushing at the

liked being in exhibitions with contemporary

Heard Museum, Phoenix,

Native artists because he was “right in there

Arizona, 1991. Photo courtesy

with them. . . . I’m very proud to be in shows of

W. Jackson Rushing.

56 Modern Spirit

Indian artists [because] . . . I consider myself an American Indian working in art, . . . and there might be some Indian coming through in some of the works.”197

Modern Spirit Rising Morrison’s artistic practice was varied and always evolving, such that we can identify numerous stylistic or thematic periods that prompt, intersect, and overlap with each other. Perhaps his popularity with collectors, both private and institutional, had to do with the fact that he had so much to offer over the course of a long, active career. He was, for example, an exciting colorist, except when he was exploring monochromaticism, as in his drawings of the early 1970s (see plate 42). His paintings were painterly and expressionistic (plate 27), except when they were linear and constructivist (plate 25), or both simultaneously (plate 36). He was, he insisted, an old-fashioned painter, except when he made sculptures (which he discussed in terms of painting). Intrigued by textures, he layered and scumbled the surfaces of his paintings and assembled rough-hewn pieces of scavenged wood into collages that emphasize objectness over mysticism. Other times, though, in sculptures both heroic and intimate, he gave us smooth, highly polished surfaces, and in these objects, such as the La Salle Totem and his Chiringa Form (small #1) (plate 66), he synthesized decoration with high concept, and for many viewers the resultant visual poetry hints at a profound secret hidden deep within.

La Salle Totem, 1991, wood, 249 × 24 × 24 in., La Salle Plaza, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Courtesy Zeller Realty Group. Photo by Rik Sferra.

57 The Art of George Morrison

In a thoughtful review written in 1991, the critic Jeffrey Kastner took note of Morrison’s

the critics or his peers—to be the author of his

conceptual poetry and his near constant

own identity. In the late 1990s, thinking about

reference to the natural world in abstract art:

his Horizon paintings, he said he was always

“Though he has repeatedly recast his densely

interested in the act of painting: “Using Surrealist

lined drawings from the 1950s, the underlying

ideas and techniques, I let images emerge from

inspiration for their energetic structure has

the masses of paint. So there may be hidden

remained the world of natural forms and

associations that become real for me in the final

structures: the universe of leaf filigree and

mark.”199 The creative process allowed Morrison

spider web, of pine cathedrals and glaciated

to become real, to both self-discover and self-

boulders.” Moreover, Kastner saw, as I do,

invent, and here we are reminded that no less

two threads running through the whole of

an authority on the existential nature of action

Morrison’s oeuvre. “The two dozen elegant

painting than the critic Harold Rosenberg noted

drawings included in the Bockley Gallery show

that “the artist is obliged to invent the self who

. . . testify not only to Morrison’s wanderlust,

will paint his pictures—and who may constitute

but also to his remarkable consistency over four

their subject matter.”200 It was widely understood

decades. Delicate linear arrangements built

in the New York School that the spontaneous

into complex spatial webs, Morrison’s inks can

gestures of action painting generated

often be read as northwoods reveries—filtered

autobiographical content. In other words,

through the compositional styles (modernism

Morrison’s “one-shot paintings” of the late

and automatism) that were in vogue when he

1950s and early 1960s and automatist drawings

With this in mind, I

of the 1980s and 1990s were self-revelatory.

want to call attention in particular to Morrison’s

Therefore, how could anything but “Indian”

ecstatic vision of nature, often initiated by

come through? Or, as he told Olbekson, “If

automatism, and in doing so conduct a final

there’s any ‘Indian’ coming through it’s because

analysis of his work in the late 1980s and

I am Indian and I’m painting what’s coming out

1990s. But first, a précis on automatism’s role in

of me rather than an Indian trying to paint a

becoming real, to see how and why, exactly, an

landscape in any kind of Indian style, if that were

Indian feeling was coming through.

possible.”201 Paraphrasing Libertus, we might

was a young art student.”

198

Morrison matured as an artist in New York

ask, how could Morrison be anything other than

in a surrealist–abstract expressionist context

a synthesis of all that he had experienced? In his

that valued starting automatically and relying

accounts of his art, he was always generously

on intuition, improvisation, and chance.

inclusive: “I think these responses [to nature

Discovering forms and images while working

and materials] become part of the inner self,

was the processual equivalent of a found object.

springing from a combination of many things,

Starting from scratch, an artist such as Morrison

perhaps from my early background in northern

reinvented himself each and every day in the

Minnesota—that in combination with Cape Cod,

studio through the act of painting, which was

which is more expansive in terms of space and

understood as having moral as well as aesthetic

light, sea and sky, and with living and working in

value. He stuck with the surrealist process for

New York.”202

fifty-plus years because it was an existential one, which stressed generating visionary content out

58 Modern Spirit

of the subconscious, and thus enabled him—not

A previously unpublished gem of a drawing from the MMAA collection, Morrison’s Surrealist

Drawing, “Erotic” Landscape (1987; plate 64)

of a hard-edged color field do double-duty as

is one of several two-dimensional works from

the abstraction of land, water, and sky, on top

the 1980s and 1990s in the exhibition that are

of which float totemic, biomorphic, surrealist

proof positive of his unwavering commitment

forms. Their glyph-like character reminds us of

to a surrealist process and content. The elegant

Morrison’s keen interest, documented many

curvilinear shapes that evolve up and across the

times in his sketchbooks, in pre-Columbian

abstract space were created with a French curve,

relief sculpture. The shapes seen in yet another

a template consisting of various shapes used

untitled drawing from 1995 (plate 81) might

in drafting. Linear, crisp, and monochromatic,

be parts of a cryptic alphabet, the abstraction

the drawing has a high degree of “finish,”

of elemental biological critters, or the liberated

reminding us of Morrison’s assertion that

fragments of a visionary map. And the clarity

automatism begins a process that typically ends

of the shapes fails to mask their thematic and

with a conscious formalizing of the elements.

organic connection to the biomorphic forties.

His acrylic painting Faraway Parade. Red Rock

Indeed, Mark Rothko’s 1947 description of his

Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1990; plate

multiforms seems appropriate here:

77), collected by the sculptor George Rickey, is a

They are unique elements in a unique

quintessential example of the Horizon series. The

situation.

fragile patches of impressionist color appear as if blotted on, and the “magic of the artist,” as he noted, is working with the “magic of nature” to evoke water, wind, and clouds as living forces that are constantly moving and changing.

203

The

horizon line gives compositional definition to the otherwise amorphous colored vapors, resulting in an effect he described as “not pictorial,” but “more universal.”204 Poor health from the mid-1980s onward

They are organisms with volition and a passion for self-assertion. They move with eternal freedom, and without need to conform with or to violate what is probable in the familiar world. They have no direct association with any particular visible experience, but in them one recognizes the principle and

generally, although not exclusively, kept

passion of organisms.205

Morrison from working on a large scale, and

In 2004, the Anishinabe literary critic

many of his most poignant objects from that

Gerald Vizenor proposed that the quirky shapes

period are intimate and prismatic drawings,

in these drawings might refer to the spirits of

including a trio in Modern Spirit from the mid-

Chippewa cosmology, such as Mishapishoo,

1990s. In an untitled drawing from 1995 (plate

the underwater panther (which Morrison had

80), he worked with a range of values and

treated in his mosaic for the Daybreak Star

hues, reminiscent of Kandinsky’s influence on

Center).206 The artist had indicated as much in

Gorky, situating flat, clear shapes onto a variable

1998 when he noted, “Individual titles often

field of rubbed-on color. The clarity, intensity,

use the idea of spirit forms. All those shapes and

and purity of his vision is realized in elemental

things that come from the images . . . can relate

terms appropriate to the symphony of nature

to spirits. The shapes might suggest objects in

he internalized from the vantage point of his

the lake coming out of the water. Often they’re

studio above the lake. Similarly, in an untitled

irregular, shaped like an amoeba—organic forms

drawing from 1995 (plate 79), the three bands

that relate to clouds or puddles.”207

59 The Art of George Morrison

In using the underwater panther as a

meant “a natural attraction to where you were

sculptural theme to represent Woodlands

born, your locale. Like the lake or woods for

culture and in referring to spirit forms rising

me.” Building a home and studio at Red Rock

up out of the lake, Morrison was interlacing

was to be rerooted in his place of origin—the

(modernist) artistic practice with oral traditions.

literal ground of his Chippewaness: “The lake

He believed that the “original meaning of Indian

has certain magical qualities for me in the sense

art begins with tribal meanings” and that many

that I like to be near it. To be part of it.”211 The

Native “sculptures had a religious or spiritual

constant reiteration of land, shoreline, water,

meaning.”208 In discussing Morrison’s Native

horizon, and sky at Red Rock in the Horizon

modernism, Anthes has invoked the philosopher

series paintings and related drawings gave form

Scott Pratt’s idea of emplacement, in which

to an indivisible bond between self and place.

the indigenous homeland is the fundamental

Because he made so many of them over two

ground out of which oral traditions derive

decades, collectively they function like a visual

their meaning.

209

Unlike his Chippewa artist

peer, Patrick DesJarlait (1921–1972), however,

mantra: I am home again, I am home again, I am home again.

Morrison was not a cultural preservationist. Even DesJarlait’s earliest works in the 1930s used modern idioms to make figurative art

Morrison’s Legacy

that spoke of the dignity of traditional Native

John George Morrison died in the hospital

(communal) labors. His 1946 watercolor Red

in Grand Marais on Monday, April 17, 2000.

Lake Fishermen, from the MMAA collection, is

According to Belvo, with whom he had

a fine example of this “Minnesota modernist,”

remained close friends after their divorce in

who used a quasi-pointillist brushstroke,

1991, his health finally failed him after many

which is not dissimilar to Chippewa beadwork

years of illnesses. In the thirty years between

techniques.210 For Morrison, emplacement

his homecoming and his passing, he had

Patrick DesJarlait, Red

Lake Fishermen, 1946 (postdated 1/3/61 by artist), watercolor on paper, 14 × 28 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Katherine G. Ordway Fund Purchase. 95.01.01. Art © Robert DesJarlait.

60 Modern Spirit

Andrea Carlson, Long

Week-end, 2011, oil, acrylic, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper, 41½ × 59½ in. Photograph courtesy Bockley Gallery.

been claimed by the world of Native art

Chris Casey noted in the Duluth News-Tribune

and to a certain extent re-regionalized as

that Morrison’s Red Totem (1980; plate 50) was

Minnesota’s most cherished artist. Describing

exhibited in the Jacqueline Kennedy Sculpture

him as “distinguished and beloved,” Mary

Garden at the White House in 1998, and he

Abbe wrote in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune

reported also that Martin Dewitt, director of

that “members of Minnesota’s art and Indian

the Tweed Museum, which had collected and

communities expressed sorrow at the loss of

frequently exhibited his work, had called him

an elder and a guiding spirit whose character

“a major model for so many artists.” Casey also

and career exemplified Minnesota’s best.”

quoted the painter and ceramist John Steffl,

She reported that Maurer, then the director

director of the Duluth Art Institute: “America

of the MIA, had called him pioneering and

has lost a cultural treasure,” whose “artwork

courageous and that, according to Minneapolis

transcended both popular culture and traditional

sculptor Ernie Whiteman (Northern Arapaho),

American Indian culture.” Steffl, who mentioned

“He was a living legend and the godfather of

Morrison’s “spirits of the lake,” predicted he

contemporary native artists.” And she quoted

would “be remembered as a person who built

Libertus as saying, “Indians were often treated

bridges between American Indian culture and

as anthropological phenomenon rather than

European American culture.”214 Recently, the

as artists,” but Morrison “was a trained,

Anishinabe artist Andrea Carlson, who, like

wonderful, world-important artist who just

Morrison, is enrolled at the Grand Portage

happened to a Chippewa Indian.”

212

An editorial

Reservation, recalled, “When I was about

in the Star-Tribune the following day pointed

sixteen years old [c. 1995] Morrison said to me,

out that Morrison had won scholarships to

‘Start off young and paint until you die.’ That’s

two art schools at a time when precious few

a brilliant thing to say to a young artist because

Native people attended college at all. His art,

it implies a sense of urgency (something I had

the editorial observed, “enriched our lives.”

at the time) and a passion for the craft that

213

61 The Art of George Morrison

extends beyond career aspirations (something

Morrison’s art the keen scrutiny it deserves,

liberating).” Carlson, who has a sustained

taking into consideration formal, technical, and

commitment to inventing northern landscape

philosophical issues, and neglecting neither its

imagery, recognized and shares Morrison’s

modernity nor its Indianness. I especially admire

sensitivity to the environment at Lake Superior,

Silberman’s recognition of the continuity over

which she called a “moody creature.” In

decades of Morrison’s essentially “harmonious

reference to such works as her Long Week-end

vision.”216 A final comparison between two

(2011), Carlson observed, “I often say that I am

images underscores the irrefutable fact of this

using seascape allegorically, as bodies of water

continuity.

connect and divide us globally or culturally, but I don’t doubt that I am also saluting Morrison’s

was included in Morrison’s solo show at the

sense of that great lake with this gesture.”

Grand Central Moderns in 1950 and in the

215

Many members of the viewing audience,

62 Modern Spirit

Dawn and Sea (c. 1948; plate 10), which

Twenty-Second Corcoran Biennial the following

then, both art world professionals and

year, is a vigorously brushed expressionist

“civilians” alike, would agree with West’s 2004

seascape, notable for its exaggerated color,

assertion that Morrison had managed to be

which Morrison insisted was the artist’s

both a major American artist and an Indian

prerogative. An untitled mixed-media work on

artist. As a historian, I value historiographical

paper from 1994 (plate 78) is more modest

evidence, as my essay demonstrates, and a very

in scale but shares with its predecessor

fine example in this particular case is the art

intensely felt color and a cubist fracturing of

historian Rob Silberman’s essay, “A Long Look at

landforms beneath the sky, some of which are

the Art of George Morrison,” written when the

undulant and organic, while others are more

artist’s retrospective, Standing in the Northern

geometric. Or, to borrow from the review of

Lights, was on tour. In a probing examination

his first solo exhibition, “forms are broken up

of Morrison’s oeuvre, especially the Horizon

in analytical patterns, but without ever losing

paintings, Silberman referred knowingly to

direct reference to reality.”217 Both works of

the American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo

art might be characterized as searching, a

Emerson and the modern American poet

word he employed for his own artistic journey,

Wallace Stevens, as well as several key modern

either for the self, the sublime in nature, or

visual artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe,

both. As works of modern art they are the

Jean Dubuffet, Clyfford Still, Gottlieb, and

abstract equivalents of a synthesis of perception,

Jasper Johns. Silberman sorted thoughtfully

conception, feeling, and memory. Morrison

through various issues, including romanticism

could have had either one of them in mind

and the influence of “primitive” art, as well

when he articulated his personal philosophy:

the reasons for the positive critical reception

“I always see the horizon as the edge of the

of the wood collages. He noted in particular

world. And then you go beyond that, and then

Morrison’s “sensibility as it navigates between

you see the phenomenon of the sky and that

the painterly and the analytical, between the

goes beyond also, so therefore I always imagine,

textural and the linear, between abstraction

in a certain surrealist world, that I am there,

and representation, between cosmopolitanism

that I would like to imagine for myself that it is

and regionalism.” In short, Silberman gave

real.”218

Plates

Plate 1

Dirt Track Specialist c. 1940, oil on canvas, 24 × 20 in. From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.

64

Plate 2

Mt. Maude c. 1942, oil on canvas, 26 × 32 in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Local Art Purchase Fund. 42.20.

65

Plate 3

Duluth Corner 1942, pen and ink on paper, 6 × 85⁄8 in. From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.

66

Plate 4

Untitled (figure with exaggerated limbs) c. 1945–50, ink on paper, 10 ¾ × 8 ¼ in. Collection Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth. Gift of George Morrison.

67

Plate 5

Three Figures 1945, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, 113⁄8 × 8 ½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.05.

68

Plate 6

Dream of Calamity 1945, ink and watercolor on paper, 57⁄8 × 9 in. Collection Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth. Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation Purchase Fund.

69

Plate 7

Untitled 1945, ink on paper, 75⁄8 × 5 in. Collection Dr. Robert and Frances Leff.

70

Plate 8

Untitled 1948, pen, ballpoint pen and watercolor on paper, 4 ¼ × 9 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.11.

71

Plate 9

Whalebone 1948, oil on canvas, 25 × 24 ¾ in. Collection Kevin and Kathy Kirvida.

72

Plate 10

Dawn and Sea c. 1948, oil on canvas, 24 ½ × 47 ¼ in. Collection Cook County School District ISD 166.

73

Plate 11

Untitled (green and brown whorls) 1949, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 ¾ × 9 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.12.

74

Plate 12

Untitled (Quarry Face) 1949, pencil, pastel, and ink on paper, 18 × 24 in. Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.11.

75

Plate 13

Sun and River 1949, watercolor and crayon on paper, 15 ¾ × 21 in. © Plains Art Museum. From the permanent collection of the Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota. Museum Purchase. 1991.001.0001.

76

Plate 14

Abstract Composition 1950, watercolor on paper, 115⁄8 × 87⁄8 in. From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.

77

Plate 15

Landscape 1950, woodcut printed in color on Japanese rice paper, 145⁄8 × 177⁄8 in. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts. Purchased. SC 1954:13.

78

Plate 16

Black and White Patterned Forms 1952, ink on paper, 10 ¾ × 83⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.14.

79

Plate 17

Geometric Vertical Forms 1952, ink on paper, 11 × 9 ½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.15.

80

Plate 18

Painting #12, Pacific 1952, oil on canvas on board, 273⁄16 × 33 ½ in. Seattle Art Museum. Gift of the Bodlaender family in memory of Hesi and Hans Bodlaender, in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum. 2007.83.

81

Plate 19

Paris 1952, pen, black ink, graphite, and watercolor on paper, 95⁄8 × 75⁄8 in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Gift of Lora and Martin G. Weinstein. 96.133.4.

82

Plate 20

Untitled (Cap d’Antibes) 1953, oil on paper, 183⁄8 × 22 ¼ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Katharine Ordway Fund Purchase. 94.01.08.

83

Plate 21

Construction 1953, gouache on paper, 17 ½ × 23 ½ in. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund. 1954.3.

84

Plate 22

New York 1954, pen, brush, and black ink on paper, 10 ¼ × 7 ½ in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Gift of Lora and Martin G. Weinstein. 96.133.5.

85

Plate 23

Jive Samba 1955, ink on paper, 17 ½ × 225⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.09.

86

Plate 24

Untitled 1955, watercolor on paper, 21 ½ × 31 ¾ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.06.

87

Plate 25

Painting #10, Abstract 1955, oil on canvas on board, 263⁄16 × 32 ½ in. Seattle Art Museum. Gift of the Bodlaender family in memory of Hesi and Hans Bodlaender, in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum. 2007.82.

88

Plate 26

Untitled 1957, tempera on paper, 231⁄8 × 313⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Dorothy and Ester Bauer. 2005.03.

89

Plate 27

Untitled 1958, oil on canvas, 27 × 39 in. Collection Briand Morrison.

90

Plate 28

Plant Variations 1959, oil on canvas, 20 ¾ × 28 ¾ in. Collection Kevin and Kathy Kirvida.

91

Plate 29

Gray, Black and White Lines 1959, gouache and ink on paper, 14 × 10 ¾ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.20.

92

Plate 30

Gray and Black Composition 1960, gouache on paper, 14 × 10 ½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.23.

93

Plate 31

Untitled Painting No. 60 1960, oil on canvas, 40 ¼ × 50 ¼ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Weyand Fund Purchase. 94.01.01.

94

Plate 32

Red Painting (Franz Kline Painting) c. 1960, oil on canvas, 47 × 79 in. Collection Gerald and Dorit Paul.

95

Plate 33

Reunion 1962, oil on canvas, 34 × 34 in. Collection of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. Gift of Samuel Golden. 63.158.

96

Plate 34

Untitled 1962, oil on canvas, 36 × 72 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

97

Plate 35

Pennsylvania Triptych 1964, acrylic on board, 361⁄8 × 73½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Philip E. Camerer, Mary Carothers, Charles de Limur, and Hildegarde Hellum Conkling. 99.04.03.

98

Plate 36

Group 1964, acrylic on board, 50 × 70 in. Collection Mary Sue Comfort.

99

Plate 37

White Painting 1965, oil on canvas, 15 × 21 in. Collection Bockley Gallery.

100

Plate 38

New England Landscape II 1967, wood, 48 × 1197⁄8 × 3 in. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. 1968.273.

101

Plate 39

Art as Illusion 1967, found wood, 63⁄8 × 10 in. Collection Barbara Surprenant.

102

Plate 40

Provincetown, Sky—Seascape 1970, found wood, 8 × 11 in. Collection Carole Ann Jones.

103

Plate 41

Untitled 1973, ink on paper, 23 × 23 in. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Purchased with matching grant from the Museum Purchase Plan and the National Endowment for the Arts, 1973.

104

Plate 42

Untitled (Black on Mustard Yellow) 1974, ink and pencil on paper, 9 ¾ × 13 ¼ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.27.

105

Plate 43

Cumulated Landscape 1976, wood, 48 × 120 × 3 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Honeywell, Inc. 2000.01.

106

Plate 44

Untitled 1976–78, lithograph, 30 × 44 ½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. 79.42.14.

107

Plate 45

Wood Collage Fragment (gold/white) 1977, conte crayon on handmade paper, 251⁄8 × 37 ¼ in. Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Museum purchase. 1998.10.1.

108

Plate 46

Red Totem I 1977, stained redwood panels on plywood form, 144 ¼ × 15 ¼ × 15 ¼ in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The Robert J. Ulrich Works of Art Purchase Fund. 2012.5.

109

Plate 47

Untitled 1977, ink and pencil on paper, 413⁄8 × 30 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Museum Purchase. 77.17.13.

110

Plate 48

Red Rock Variation. A Memory for Franz Kline Fragment 1978, collaged paper, 161⁄8 × 35⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Hazel Belvo. 2010.06.02.

111

Plate 49

Instrument Drawing 1979, red ink on paper, 105⁄8 × 81⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.25.

112

Plate 50

Red Totem 1980, stained cedar, 145 × 20 × 20 in. Heard Museum Collection, Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph by Craig Smith. IAC2231.

113

Plate 51

Lake Superior Landscape 1981, acrylic on canvas, 30 × 60 in. Private collection.

114

Plate 52

Witch Tree 1981, acrylic on canvas, 36 × 30 in. General Mills Art Collection.

115

Plate 53

Automatic Drawing 1981, pencil, crayon, and ink on paper, 11 × 141⁄16 in. University of Michigan Museum of Art. Gift of George Morrison. 1985/2.67. (Not in the exhibition)

116

Plate 54

Propylon: D’Arcangelo Fragment 1982, collaged paper, 10 ¼ × 11 in. Collection Bockley Gallery.

117

Plate 55

Brown and Black Textured Squares 1982, ink on paper, 123⁄8 × 9 ¼ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.31.

118

Plate 56

Witch Tree Variation 1982, pen and ink on paper, 105⁄8 × 8 ¼ in. From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.

119

Plate 57

Sky with Constellations 1983, ink on paper, 12 ¼ × 93⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.33.

120

Plate 58

Red Cube 1983, lithograph, 297⁄8 × 22 ½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. 87.14.1.

121

Plate 59

Phenomena Against the Crimson: Lake Superior Landscape 1985, acrylic on canvas, 9 × 12 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 87.17.1.

122

Plate 60

Surrealist Landscape 1985, pen, ink, pencil, and crayon on paper, 131⁄8 × 105⁄8 in. Collection Thomas J. Arneson.

123

Plate 61

Morning Storm, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1986, acrylic on canvas on board, 6 × 11 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 87.17.2.

124

Plate 62

Autumn Dusk, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1986, acrylic on canvas on board, 6 × 11 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 87.17.3.

125

Plate 63

Untitled (Lake Superior Landscape) 1986, acrylic on canvas, 47 ¾ × 477⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Katherine G. Ordway Fund Purchase. 94.01.02.

126

Plate 64

Surrealist Drawing, “Erotic” Landscape 1987, ink on paper, 10 ¾ × 8 ¼ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.36.

127

128

Plate 65

Untitled 1987, lithograph, 255⁄8 × 713⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.03.

129

Plate 66

Chiringa Form (small #1) 1987, purple heart and padauk wood on marble base, 10 × 8 × 37⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.13.

130

Plate 67

Cube 1988, wood, 11 ¾ × 11 ¾ × 11 ¾ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Sylvia Brown, Dr. Wolfgang Zeman, and Renato and Giorgio Marmont Funds Purchase. 91.14.01.

131

132

Plate 68

Untitled Totem 1988, bronze on marble base, 19 × 4 × 4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.14.

133

Plate 69

Stela 1988, ink on paper, 10 ¾ × 81⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.42.

134

Plate 70

Part of Sky Watch Chart 1988, ink and pencil on paper, 11 × 8 ¼ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.44.

135

Plate 71

Yonilinga 1988, ink and pencil on paper, 11 ¾ × 81⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.45.

136

Plate 72

Untitled (Linga Form) 1988, wood on marble base, 13 × 5 × 5 in. Collection Briand Morrison.

137

Plate 73

Awakening, Time Edge Rising, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 223⁄8 × 30 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.01.

138

Plate 74

Quiet Light Towards Evening, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 22 ½ × 30 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.02.

139

Plate 75

Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 22 ½ × 301⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.03.

140

Plate 76

Lavender Wind, The Beyond, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 223⁄8 × 301⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.04.

141

142

Plate 77

Faraway Parade. Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape 1990, acrylic on canvas on wood, 4 ¾ × 145⁄8 in. Collection Phillip Rickey and Mary Sullivan Rickey.

143

Plate 78

Untitled 1994, ink and colored pencil on paper, 17 × 19 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

144

Plate 79

Untitled 1995, colored pencil on paper, 17 × 15 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

145

Plate 80

Untitled 1995, colored pencil on paper, 15 × 17 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

146

Plate 81

Untitled 1995, colored pencil on paper, 105⁄8 × 135⁄8 in. Collection Dr. Robert and Frances Leff.

147

Plate 82

Untitled 1999, wood, 20 × 4 × 4 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

148

George Morrison Chronology 1919 –2011 Netha Anita Cloeter

1919–1927

John George Morrison is born to James and Barbara (née Mesaba) Morrison on September 30, 1919, in a four-room house in Chippewa City, Minnesota.1 Is the third of twelve children, nine of whom survived childhood, and is enrolled in the Grand Portage (Lake Superior) Band of Chippewa. James, a native of the area, works as a trapper, logger, and a hunting guide throughout Morrison’s childhood. Barbara, who was originally from Fort William, Ontario (present day Thunder Bay), raises the children. George has fond memories of his mother’s self-taught cooking skills as well as her strength and perseverance, raising nine children in a crowded home with limited resources. At a young age, helps his father pick raspberries and cut and haul wood to sell. Begins carving pieces of found wood with kitchen knives and making toys from junk pile scraps and castoff objects. Also draws, copying images from illustrations and books, and when he begins school, he barters with his classmates, swapping drawings for jackknives and other small objects. Neighbor Iva Clare Downey recalls that as a child, while playing the game “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with neighbors, George always declared, “I’m going to be an artist.”2 The family had strong ties with the community and church: his grandfather helped found the village and build St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Chippewa City in 1895, where he served as a church elder, bell ringer, and officiator.3 Speaks his Native language until beginning school at age six. 1928

Sent at age nine, along with his brother Bernard, to the Hayward Indian School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs–run boarding school in Hayward, Wisconsin. The school, which opened in 1901 and closed in 1934, enrolled mainly Chippewa students from reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Bernard and George live on campus during the nine-month school year without once seeing their

family. Later in life George recalls that his teachers were supportive and recognized his artistic talent. 1929

Returns to Chippewa City for the summer, then returns to Hayward Indian School in the fall. Begins experiencing pain in his legs and has trouble walking. Is first sent to an Indian sanatorium in Onigum, Minnesota, and is then transferred to Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children in St. Paul, where he spends fourteen months. Like three of his siblings, he is diagnosed with tuberculosis (in his left hip). 1930

In June, six months after he is admitted to the hospital, George undergoes hip surgery to treat the tubercular hip. Both legs remain in casts for the following eight months. These bed-ridden months mark a formative period in his young life: despite his immobile state, it is his first experience of city life. He has access to a rich library, abundant art materials, and entertaining performances by celebrities, including heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey. Spends much time reading, drawing, and exchanging ideas with peers. He will later attribute a sustained, introverted shyness to this period of his life, but he also felt that it strengthened him in other ways.4 1931

Treatment for tuberculosis of the hip ends. Returns to Chippewa City and resumes grade school in nearby Grand Marais. For the rest of his life he walks with a pronounced limp, to which he will later attribute an “oblique angle,” a diagonal slant to the upper right, frequently visible in his work. 1932

Around age thirteen, begins developing his artistic practice by making pencil sketches of Grand Marais Point for his neighbors and tourist souvenirs to sell to local stores, including decorated birdhouses, canoe-motif tie racks,

149 Chronology

and miniature tomahawks, drums, and bows and arrows. Also begins picking up odd jobs in Grand Marais. This entrepreneurial spirit enables him to support his interest in nice clothing, books, and musical instruments. He will later buy and learn to play the guitar, mandolin, and banjo with the money he earns working various jobs. 1934

Begins attending Grand Marais High School, a little over a mile from his home in Chippewa City. While no formal “art” courses are offered, George enrolls and excels in many manual training and industrial arts classes. Has a good rapport with Donald Clark, his manual training instructor, and his English teacher, who exposes him to both literature and art and encourages him to attend college. Encouraged also by Iva Clare Downey, a neighbor who had a summer home in Chippewa City and who helped him forget that he “was born and raised on the wrong side of the tracks.”5 She later travels to Minneapolis to attend his graduation from art school. Works for the WPA throughout high school, first mending books in the library for six dollars a month. Becomes known as the “school artist,” making theatrical sets and scenery for plays. This appeals to him “because you could retreat to a room and do it. I didn’t have to be in the play if I painted the sets.”6 Also continues to make posters for various schooland church-related functions in Grand Marais. 1937

At age seventeen, works in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Grand Portage, with several other young Native American boys from throughout the state. Does manual labor and lives in the barracks. Earns approximately thirty dollars a month.

While in Minneapolis, corresponds with his family through his older sister Mary, who writes his mother’s letters for her. He creates several scrapbooks filled with newspaper and magazine clippings, brochures, letters, and announcements. The scrapbooks are an amalgamation of his different social spheres: clippings range from Twin Cities art and music news to North Shore travel advertisements and human interest stories about Grand Portage Chippewa life.8 After beginning his second year of studies in the fall, has another corrective hip surgery, as the first one left him with a pronounced limp because his left leg was shorter than the right. Is hospitalized for four months, with both legs wrapped in plaster casts. 1940

Discharged from the hospital in February, George is unable to finish the school year in Minneapolis and returns to Chippewa City to recuperate. Brings art supplies with him and continues to develop his practice while healing. Excited to return to the city and pursue his art career, he resumes coursework at MSA in the fall. Encouraged by his painting instructors, Frances Cranmer Greenman and Alexander Masley, shifts his focus to the fine arts. Greenman, a portrait painter, influences the development of Morrison’s early representational and regionalist style, evident in works such as Dirt Track Specialist (c. 1940; plate 1). Greenman introduces him to the social aspects of the art world, including drinking, by inviting him to parties. Masley, a proponent of Bauhaus design principles, exposes George to the work of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso and encourages freedom and individual expression, a methodology George finds more agreeable than a traditional, academic one. 1941

1938

On June 10, graduates with thirty-three of his peers from Grand Marais High School, making him the first in his family to receive a high school diploma. The class of 1938s motto is “Not the Sunset, But the Dawn.” At the suggestion of his English teacher and with assistance from the Consolidated Chippewa Agency, he enrolls at the Minneapolis School of Art (MSA), later renamed the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, intending to study commercial art. Travels to Minneapolis by bus and lives in a rooming house near the art school. Will later say that he left the Catholic Church at age 18.7 1939

Completes his first year at the MSA, taking courses in design, color, and life drawing (the nude figure). Excels in his courses and gradually acclimates to city life, which at first he found difficult.

150 Chronology

Views and is greatly impressed by the exhibition Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) from February 1 to March 2. The show was “very extreme for Minneapolis,” he later recalls.9 1942

Returns to the North Shore of Lake Superior intent on spending the summer painting. Lives with his older brother Bernard and family. Bernard works at and lives near the Mount Maude forestry tower on the Grand Portage Reservation, and George paints Mt. Maude (c. 1942; plate 2), a plein air landscape that incorporates expressionistic brushstrokes. The painting is featured in the year’s Annual Local Artists’ Exhibition at the MIA and is purchased for the museum’s permanent collection with the Local Art Purchase Fund for $50, likely making it the first painting he sold to a museum. During his continued studies at the Minneapolis School

of Art, he is selected by his instructors to receive the Lucy Gilbert Prize for $15 and the Women’s Club Scholarship for $195. The award money covers tuition for the 1942–43 school year.

After a few months of school, George moves into a third-floor apartment on Waverly Place in Greenwich Village with a friend, Harry Sexton. Living in New York, he is exposed to several different types of foods, spends time at pubs with teachers and friends, and frequently takes the subway or bus to galleries and museums with friends. Spends the summer in Minnesota and wins third place for his portrait painting Old Woman at the Minnesota State Fair. Awarded a Bernay’s Scholarship for the 1944–45 school year.

1943

As American involvement in World War II increases, students at MSA participate in patriotic artistic endeavors: Morrison submits a poster, which advocates, “Stop Hitler Now: Aid the Allies,” to a contest sponsored by the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies and is photographed sketching Japanese American private Shigeo Miyashiro posing in “full Indian regalia.” Though he is unable to enroll in the draft due to his hip ailment, he pastes Cook County draft lists from local newspapers into his scrapbooks, underlining the names of acquaintances. A friend from high school and a former roommate in Minneapolis are killed in action. Graduates from MSA in the spring, and his mother, who is separated from his father and living in Duluth, attends the ceremony. Upon graduation, he is awarded the prestigious MSA Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship, which granted $500 to a “student of high personal character” who “possesses artistic ability of exceptional promise.” The scholarship was meant “to encourage artistic development, and to provide further study in America.”10 Lives at home and works odd jobs for the summer, then buys a one-way ticket to New York City and moves via train in the fall. Matriculates at the Art Students League (ASL), one of the most important art schools in the country. He continues taking courses through 1946. Morrison’s move to New York City in the 1940s coincides with a critical moment in international art politics, when New York replaces Paris as the art capital of the world during World War II. This decade marks the naissance of the New York School, in which George would become an active participant.

1945

Pool Player, 1943, ink and watercolor on paper, 9½ × 6 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art, Gift of George Morrison, 96.10.01.

1944

At ASL, located on the Upper West Side, on 57th street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, he studies under many influential artists, including the Russian-born American painter Morris Kantor. In the 1943–44 ASL catalogue, Kantor is described as “One of the more modern instructors, with a keen imagination, known for his haunting compositions, rich color and tendency toward abstract design. Encourages personal expression and enthusiasm in his students, emphasizing color, texture, design, and structural composition.”11

George Morrison’s membership

Like several fellow art students, works in a factory painting buttons and joins the union for the first time. Also works at a frame shop operated by Carl Ashby, a job he will continue for several years. Spends his first summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with friends. He will continue to spend summers in Cape Cod throughout the 1950s and ’60s, where many New York School artists maintained summer studios. Lives with a fellow student, Martin Bloom, in a converted garage. Summer jobs include working construction and dishwashing in a restaurant. Likely meets his future wife Ada Reed, an art student and waitress living in Provincetown. The influence of the ocean is frequently seen in his work in the 1940s and ’50s, as he repeatedly explores seaside objects and textures. Participates in his first Manhattan show: a threeperson exhibit, featuring five of his works alongside work by the artists Phyllis Goldstein and Kazumi Sonoda, at the Ashby Gallery at 18 Cornelia Street (March 16–April 16). The show is reviewed in the Art Digest, the New York Times, and Art News, where the reviewer asserts, “Morrison seemed most at home with his medium. His Starfish, in glowing browns and yellows, was a successful abstraction and outstanding in the exhibit.”12 Artists associated with the Ashby Gallery, including Cicely Aikman and Helen De Mott, form the Pyramid Group. The Ashby Gallery is part of the frame shop where he is employed.

card for the Art Students League of New York, 1945–46. Courtesy

1946

Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

While in New York, George remains loosely connected to Minnesota arts communities. A self-portrait is included, along with work by former teacher Frances Greenman, in a group show at the Woman’s Club in Minneapolis in April. Spends time in Duluth during summer break, where he attends studio sessions at the Duluth Art Institute “in order to ‘keep his hand in.’”13 In an article in the Duluth News-

151 Chronology

Tribune, Morrison explains that the direction of his work is “away from the literal, the maudlin and the narrative; toward the formal, expressive and lyrical.”14 In November, he is included as one of twenty former St. Paul artists in the St. Paul Gallery and School of Art’s exhibition Return Visit of the Local Artist. In December is selected by either the critic Ben Wolf or the editor Peyton Boswell for inclusion in the annual Critics Show at Grand Central Art Galleries, where he wins fourth prize and $100 for his painting Still Life (1944). Thirty-two other paintings were selected by New York art critics, including Edward Alden Jewell from the New York Times, for inclusion in the show (December 10–21). In his review, Jewell highlights one of Morrison’s paintings as “a powerfully organized still-life in somewhat the Cézanne tradition.”15 Is one of two hundred artists selected from over five thousand entries for inclusion in the national competition Paintings of the Year, sponsored by Pepsi-Cola, which opens at the National Academy of Design in New York. In the winter edition of the ASL student paper, The League, edited by George’s friend Cicely Aikman, he composes a scathing review of a Pepsi-Cola–sponsored exhibition Portrait of America at Radio City. Titled “Three Blind Juries,” the article emphasizes the show’s “inadequate show room space, bad lighting, and unusual method of showing the paintings,” as well as the weak jury and conservative selection: “Surrealism was excluded from the show and the few abstractions that were accepted, were on the safe side.”16

Arrowhead Exhibition (May 29–June 8) in Duluth, Minnesota. Is one of twenty-four painters and several sculptors featured in a group show at the Kraushaar Gallery in New York City. Driftwood (1947), his “colorful and simplified” composition, receives special mention in a New York Times review.18 He is also selected to participate in the Corcoran Art Gallery Biennial in Washington D.C. Subjugation is also included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, a group exhibition of 162 paintings (December 6, 1947–January 25, 1948).19 The Art Digest reproduces this “brooding” painting in its review of the show.20 Moves to an apartment at 15 Leroy Street in New York City, near the Ashby frame shop on Cornelia Street. Around this time, George trades a watercolor for a black standard poodle, which he names Kobi after Kaaba, the holy building and sacred site of Islam. 1948

1947

Capitalizing on his success in the Critics Show, Morrison takes a position teaching summer courses at the Cape Ann Art School in Rockport, Massachusetts, operated by former ASL instructor William McNulty. Enters the oil painting Subjugation (c. 1945–46) in the Rockport Art Association’s twenty-seventh annual summer show. In the Boston Sunday Herald review of the exhibition, critic Lawrence Dame calls Morrison’s painting a central and honorable example of the new modernism, saying, “there is something moving about the balance of his design and more than a little fascination in his use of color. The crudity of the figures will repel many even though we suspect that the artist, a newcomer to Rockport, could do conventional forms about as well as anyone in the show.”17 Dream of Calamity (1945; plate 6), a small ink and watercolor composition that is a response to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is shown at the First Biennial Exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (August 21– September 28), where it is priced at $350. Dirt Track Specialist (c. 1940; plate 1) and a small still life win first-prize awards in the professional division at the Fourteenth Annual

152 Chronology

Announcement for the exhibition George Morrison Paintings, Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1948. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

Confirmation (c. 1945–46) receives honorable mention at the National Painting Exhibition (February 15–March 31) in New Orleans, though a local review states, “For our money, first prize should have been awarded to Confirmation by George Morrison as the most moving and the strongest piece in the show.”21 His still life painting Whalebone (1948; plate 9) is featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual Exhibition, which he will continue to participate in through 1952. Submits a painting entitled Rock Quarry to the Philbrook Art Center’s Third Annual Exhibition of American Indian Painting. In April, he receives a rejection letter from Dorothy Field, the curator of American Indian art at the Philbrook, which states that the jury “felt that it was not painted in the traditional manner of your forefathers and therefore could not be included.”22 Has his first one-person show at the Grand Central Moderns Gallery in New York City (April 26–May 8). A review of the show in Art Digest praises his painting Spirit of the Ocean as “a large work that pits a prominent figure against a strong and curiously evocative landscape,” but feels Self Portrait with Sophisticated Girl and Pilgrimage are “less self-assured.”23 Several other reviewers cite his Native heritage as formative influence, though a Swiss newspaper takes exception to this.24 He will have eight more solo shows at the Grand Central Moderns, and a total of twelve one-person shows at various venues in New York through 1960. Teaches private art classes and, with Albert Kresch,

operates the summer school in Cape Ann, Massachusetts, which they rename Rockport Art School. Marries Ada Reed in a small city hall gathering.

Magical Plant are included in the Third Biennial at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (October 28–December 30). Confirmation is exhibited in Tokyo at the Third Tokyo Independent Art Exhibition.

1949

Continues teaching private art classes in New York and summer art courses on the Cape. Participates in several group and invitational exhibitions throughout the year. Has a two-person exhibition with Byron Browne at the all-women Stephens College in Missouri in November. Also has two midwestern shows: a one-person show of sketches, watercolors, and oils at the Hart Gallery in Duluth, Minnesota (May 2–June 15) and a show at the Douglas County Historical Society in Superior, Wisconsin. In November, his father dies. Although he had not been close to his father, he comes home to be with the family at the funeral. While at home, he is featured in a December story in the Duluth News-Tribune, where he states he is home “on business,” describes himself in the “mid-channel of contemporary art currents,” and states, “Europe can offer the painter nothing he cannot find in New York. French art that finds its way into American galleries is less original than our native painting.”25

Ada, George, and their dog Kobi live in a loft on 23rd Street in New York. George is awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study in France. The Grand Marais paper announces, “Chippewa City to Paris—that’s the stride that George Morrison, local artist has achieved in the past fourteen years, and should come under the title of ‘local boy makes good.’”27 Ada and Kobi travel with George via ship in September. They live in a two-room apartment, and George attends the École des Beaux Arts in Paris for approximately three months. After that they relocate to a villa in Antibes, a half block from the Mediterranean Sea. He enrolls at the University of Aix-Marseilles in Aix-en-Provence. Is included in five group invitational exhibitions in the United States, including the Second Biennial Pyramid Show at the Riverside Museum in New York City (December 4–23). Untitled (Quarry Face) (1949; plate 12) is one of five works exhibited.

1950

1953

Second one-person exhibition at the Grand Central Moderns Gallery in New York City, George Morrison: Gouaches—Oils—Drawings (May 2–May 13), features twenty-eight works, including Sun and the River (1949; plate 13—later renamed Sun and River). A review in Art News stresses the show’s wide range—“from the sturdy realism of Rockport House to the imaginative abstractness of Cellular Organization”—as well as “his strong sense of design and his forceful color, often in the earthy tones of the quarries that are a favorite Morrison subject.”26 Another one-man show is at the Ed Weiner Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Also participates in group invitationals at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Makes his first print, a woodcut titled Landscape (plate 15), which features a delineated horizon line.

Spends winter and spring on the French Riviera and travels to Spain and Italy in May. Appears in group shows of American artists in Paris, including one at the Galerie Craven and an exchange with the Grand Central Moderns Gallery at the Galerie Jeanne Bucher (April 24–May 7). Reviews of the shows emphasize his Native American background, link his work to modern Mexican painting, and critique American colonialism.28 Returns to the United States at the end of June, after he is awarded an Opportunity Fellowship for $2,500 from the John Hay Whitney Foundation. The fellowship enables him to return to Duluth, Minnesota, in the fall to “study patterns of Chippewa culture in relation to art,” as reported by the critic Earl Fineberg.29 Ada, George, and Kobi reside in a house on West Tischer Road in Duluth. His painting Façade is included in the Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting (October 15–December 6). Work is included in The Four Indians, a four-person show at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. The show links four artists—Yeffe Kimball, Helen Boswell (Cherokee), Woody Crumbo (Pottawatomi), and Morrison—each of whom is reported to have “considerable American Indian blood,” but a local review notes that “styles vary considerably.” Regarding Morrison’s work, the reviewer states, “Indian influence is obvious in Sun and River and The Quarry, which are much alike.”30

1951

Continues to exhibit widely in American museums and university galleries (Santa Barbara, California; Houston, Texas; Washington, D.C.; New York City; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Toledo, Ohio). Has his third solo show at the Grand Central Moderns in New York City and Magical Forest, a watercolor, is included in the Whitney Museum’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, and Drawings (March 17–May 6). The woodcut Landscape and the ink and tempera composition

1952

153 Chronology

1954

1955

Works in his Duluth studio and supplements his funding from the John Hay Whitney Fellowship by teaching adult art classes on Thursday evenings. On February 28, the Duluth NewsTribune publishes a story on George entitled “Career Artist.” The art critic Earl Fineberg recognizes that the “uninitiated” might laugh off George’s work as “doodles,” although Morrison insists that his abstract drawings are landscapes, stating, “They are landscapes in the sense that there is a horizon and an earth and a sky. Or, they are landscapes because they express patterns of man-made structures.”31 Seventeen gouache, pastel, and casein works, including Cathedral Forms and Luminous Landscape, are featured in his fourth one-person exhibition at the Grand Central Moderns in New York (March 6–26). These “semi-abstractions” were made in France, New York, or Minnesota between 1952–54. Also participates in the Grand Central Modern’s exhibition An Architect’s Choice: Paintings and Sculptures (May 10–June 8). The show “tries to answer where and how modern works should be displayed.”32 Additional one-person exhibitions at the Minnesota State Fair, Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, and his largest show in Minnesota to date, featuring thirty gouaches and drawings, at the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth. For the second time, participates in the Walker Art Center Biennial (January 17–March 7), where he is awarded one of five purchase prizes. The Minneapolis Star runs a story about the Walker’s purchase of his gouache Construction (1953; plate 21), describing George as “one tribesman of whom the community is proud.”33 Dawn and Sea (c. 1948; plate 10) and Façade are shown in Contemporary American Indian Painting, an exhibition sponsored by the Department of the Interior and the Indian Defense Association of Northern California at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (November 25, 1954–January 2, 1955). A review by Alexander Fried in the San Francisco Examiner grapples with Morrison’s modern aesthetic: “Can you imagine American Indians painting modern abstractions? They do sometimes, and with ability too. Look for example at ‘Façade’ by George Morrison (Chippewa). . . . You may note, however, that Morrison lives not on any Indian reservation, but in New York City.”34 Later in the year, returns to New York where his marriage to Ada dissolves.

On January 19, receives an honorable mention from the Audubon Artists group, of which he was a member, for his 1952 painting Structural Landscape (Highway), now in the Joslyn Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. The Walker Art Center stages a one-person show, Paintings by George Morrison (February 20–March 20), featuring forty-one paintings and drawings, including Thorny Construction, Totemic Image, and Fantastic Apparatus, priced between $25 and $200.35 He now resides, with Kobi, in Greenwich Village on E. 9th Street in New York City.36 Spends time at the legendary Cedar Bar in Greenwich Village, where he meets many influential abstract artists, including Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. He continues to work at Carl Ashby’s frame shop and shows in several small galleries, including the Tanager Gallery on East 10th Street in an exhibition with Ad Reinhardt, Joan Mitchell, Robert Rauschenberg, and others (December 20, 1954–January 20, 1955). Is included in nine or more group shows in various American venues, including the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors Fifteenth Annual Exhibition at the Riverside Museum in New York (November 13–December 4), where he exhibits alongside Milton Avery, Will Barnet, Louise Bourgeois, and his former teacher, Morris Kantor.

154 Chronology

“Honored Artist,” Duluth NewsTribune, Feb. 28, 1954. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

1956

Solo exhibition Paintings by George Morrison at Shorter College in Rome, Georgia (November 20–December 14) and two group shows in Provincetown, including one at the Provincetown Art Association. Luminous Landscape is included in a show sponsored by the American Federation of Arts and in the Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, and Drawings in New York (April 18–June 10). Primeval Landscape hangs in the office of the general counsel, Mutual Service Insurance Company in St. Paul, who writes, “Usually I react rather unfavorably to abstraction, but in this case I find that the pattern of the design and the entire construction of the picture is one of which I never tire. I thought you would like to know that your picture is not simply another entity in an impersonal collection but is something to which I react very positively and favorably nearly daily.”37 1957

Is a teacher and art therapist at the Wiltwyck School for Boys in Hyde Park, New York. Has solo shows at the University of Georgia in Athens and at the Grand Central Moderns in New York. The latter (January 25–February 13) features eighteen paintings,

light.”40 Is included also in group exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a two-person show at Karlis Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and an invitational at the Nonagon Gallery in New York, along with the artists Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, and Milton Resnick.

which are characterized by a “well controlled boldness” and an overall, general effect of “glowing warmth.”38 Participates in several group and invitational shows, including one at Gallery 256 in Provincetown, the Brooklyn Museum Watercolor Biennial, the Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors at the Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan, Connecticut (September 29–October 25), the Indian Arts and Crafts Board in Washington, D.C., and a show with work by Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Leon Polk Smith, and others at the James Gallery in New York (May 16–June 6). Is involved in divorce proceedings with Ada Reed.

1959

Announcement for the

1958

Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of

Receives a Master of Contemporary Art award from the Cook County Historical Society during a Minnesota Centennial Event reception in his honor on May 8. The ceremony, held in the Grand Marais High School gym (paired with a turkey dinner), is accompanied by an exhibition of twenty-five of his paintings and several photographs of earlier works. In his thank-you address, he mentions the mixed feelings that many may have toward his new “non-objective” approach: “Some people might think that I am again on the wrong side of the tracks, having developed from the more objective type of painting toward the less conventional type of art—the non-objective. I have tried to make somewhat clear this development and its meaning to me. I do not expect that all of you are going along with me in this development, and to those who don’t—I just want to say, ‘Bear with me, until I’m grown up.’”39 While he is home, Grand Marais High School acquires Dawn and Sea, and he arranges to teach at the Minneapolis School of Art the following spring. He summers in Provincetown and serves on the artists’ committee for the national Provincetown Arts Festival. Has another one-person exhibition of recent paintings at the Grand Central Moderns (April 15–May 3). An associated press release highlights his ethnicity as well as European influence, stating, “American of Indian Ancestry, George Morrison has in the past shown a kinship to Peruvian art,” yet “in addition to his own background, Morrison had captured some of Seurat’s treatment of

the Federation of Modern Painters

Returns to Minnesota as a guest instructor at the Minneapolis School of Art in February and has a oneperson show of eighteen oils and sixteen temperas at the Kilbride-Bradley Gallery in Minneapolis that month. His work still circulates in New York, where he is featured in his seventh one-person show at the Grand Central Moderns (Morrison: 14 Gouaches, February 3–21). A review in Arts suggests, “the strong two-dimensional patterns recall the textiles of the Incas,” while an unfavorable New York Times review deems the paintings “unambitious and perfectly pleasing.”41 Also participates in the Brooklyn Museum Watercolor Biennial and is included in a Provincetown Art Association group show. His oil painting Quite Far is featured in the December issue of Vogue magazine, where it is priced at $400.

and Sculptors, Silvermine Guild of

1960

Artists, New Canaan, Connecticut,

In February, moves to 548 Forest Avenue in Dayton, Ohio, to teach painting at the Dayton Art Institute for the remainder of the school year and the summer. He is replacing John King, the head of the painting department, who is on sabbatical in Europe. Eleven of Morrison’s oil paintings and twelve tempera works are highlighted in a one-person show at the Dayton Art Institute (June 7–July 10). In his artist’s statement he notes, “My involvement with the painterly tangibles of color, form and texture is my primary concern.”42 The Dayton Daily News runs a story on the new “youngish Abstract painter” on February 7, where Morrison is quoted saying, “You have to start with something tangible. As a child grows, he is affected by what’s around him. Nature is all around him and he is influenced by what he sees.”43 Hazel Belvo joins his painting class after reading the article in the Dayton paper. Fifteen years his junior, she is married with two sons, Dan and Joe, and seeking to develop further as an artist. They depart for New York at the end of the summer, where he gives her an eight-day tour of the city and introduces her to many of his friends, including Herman Cherry, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Louise Nevelson. Following her divorce—finalized on

1957. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

Clipping of George Morrison in “Music and Art,” Dayton Daily News, Feb. 7, 1960. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

155 Chronology

November 30—George and Hazel marry on December 13. Has his eighth and final one-person exhibition at the Grand Central Moderns (November 26–December 15). The show presents the Red Feathers series, oil paintings completed during the past eleven months, which are “mostly concerned with an approach to landscape.” The press release for the show emphasizes his “Indian ancestry” but states that he “has often found vigor and inspiration in a cultural background more related actually to pre-Columbian Peruvian textiles than to the North American Indian workmanship.”44 Donates a watercolor titled The Prairies to the American Chess Foundation in New York, in connection with an auction of artworks organized by Marcel Duchamp as a fundraiser for the foundation.45

Springs, Ohio (August 2–26). The paintings, mostly untitled, range from small to large format and are priced from $25 to $500. 1963

Begins the year as a visiting artist at Pennsylvania State University. After he returns to New York and works various carpentry jobs, Hazel organizes his résumé and sends out numerous applications for teaching positions, resulting in his appointment as assistant professor of art at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, where he teaches until 1970. Accompanied by Hazel’s two teenage sons, the family begins spending their summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In Providence, the family lives in a house from the 1730s at 12 Cole Farm Court, which they renovate and will live in for three years. The painter James Rosenquist stays at their home when he is artist-in-residence at RISD. They maintain their studio in New York, where they visit friends from time to time, spending summers in Provincetown on Cape Cod. Shows an untitled oil-on-canvas abstraction in an exhibition of works from the Jean Outland Chrysler Collection at the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences (later the Chrysler Museum of Art) in Norfolk, Virginia (February 26–March 26). Participates in group exhibitions in New York, including one at the Key Gallery on West 57th Street (June 4–24). In August, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University acquires Reunion (1962; plate 33) from his friend, the paint manufacturer Leonard Bocour.

1961

After getting married, George brings Hazel home to meet his family in Duluth. Is a visiting artist and faculty member at the State College of Iowa in Cedar Falls (now known as the University of Northern Iowa) during the summer, where he presents a public lecture on abstract art and has a one-person exhibition. The college purchases the painting Crevasse. Black Desert is included in the Twenty-first International Brooklyn Museum Watercolor Biennial in New York. Also participates in group exhibitions in New York City and a show in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. George and Hazel’s son, Briand Mesaba Morrison, is born on April 9 in New York. According to Morrison, Franz Kline “elected himself Briand’s godfather.”46 The family resides in George’s apartment on East Sixth Street in New York. Writes a brief article titled “Abstractionism” for a special magazine feature on “Concepts in Art.” The article praises abstraction, stating, “In the end product the abstract artist conveys the directness of his statement. Never before in the history of art have paintings and sculpture, in their diversity of ‘styles,’ materials and treatments hit the spectator with such impact.”47

1964

1962

Hazel and Briand remain in the family’s rented loft on Avenue A and Sixth Street in New York while George serves as visiting artist and teacher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he also has a one-person exhibition. Although he maintains warm relations with gallery director Colette Roberts, Morrison leaves Grand Central Moderns, citing poor sales of his work.48 Has a one-person exhibition of oil and tempera paintings and ink drawings at Antioch College in Yellow

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George Morrison and Hazel Belvo, Provincetown, Rhode Island, c. 1964. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

Has a one-person exhibition at J. Thomas Gallery in Provincetown (August 29–September 3), and is part of a group exhibition sponsored by the Provincetown Art Association. Participates in group exhibitions in New York. New York University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst purchase oil paintings by Morrison. Hazel receives a grant from the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study designed to support women in their professional development. She also begins teaching at the all-girls Lincoln School after they settle in Providence. Both Hazel and George participate in art shows at the Lincoln School, including an exhibition of edible art.

Wins first prize at the Rhode Island Arts Festival in Providence. Also participates in a group show at the RISD Museum and continues to show in New York with the Audubon Artists group and the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors. Begins collecting driftwood along the beaches near Provincetown, forming careful assemblages with the found pieces. Friends and family join him in this collecting of raw materials, helping him comb the beaches for choice pieces and sending him found wood from around the world.

Included in Jeanne Snodgrass’s pioneering volume American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory, published by the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in New York City. The family’s 1968 Christmas card features a reproduction of New England Landscape II. George will continue reproducing recent work on Christmas cards for the remainder of his life.

1966

1969

1965

In addition to shows in Provincetown and New York, he is included in group shows at the Center for Arts of Indian America in Washington, D.C., and the Silvermine Artists’ Annual Exhibition in New Canaan, Connecticut. Continues teaching at RISD, where his undergraduate courses include advanced painting and drawing (landscape, still life, and life drawing). Also serves as a graduate adviser and critic.

Announcement for exhibition at Hathorn Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, 1968. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society Archives.

1967

Is awarded second prize at the Providence Art Club Annual and receives the Albert Dorne Memorial Purchase Award of $500 at the Audubon Annual in New York. Also has a one-person exhibition of thirty-one tempera paintings at the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center in Lynchburg, Virginia (April 2–21), and participates in another group show at the Center for Arts of Indian America in Washington, D.C., where he wins first place in mixed media for Landscape— Provincetown Collage (c. 1967) and earns an honorable mention for the oil painting White Environ VI (c. 1967), which the Bureau of Indian Affairs purchases for $800.

1970

1968

George and Hazel show together at the Hathorn Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, along with Jack Massey and Alfred de Credico, a former colleague and former student at RISD (January 3–15). New England Landscape II (1967; plate 38) wins the Grand Award of $300 at the Fourth Invitational Exhibition of Indian Arts and Crafts at the Center for Arts of Indian America in Washington, D.C. The large wood collage is quickly purchased by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

Morrison is promoted to associate professor at RISD. He is also awarded an Honorary Master of Fine Arts degree from his alma mater, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (formerly the Minneapolis School of Art), on May 9. Serves as the final selection juror for the Ethel Morrison Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship, which he received in 1943. Joins the International Native Council of Arts (INCA) and remains an active member through 1978.49 Returns to Duluth with his son, Briand, at the end of the summer to visit his mother, who is ill with cancer. Interviews for a position in economic development with the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa through the federal Office of Economic Opportunity. In a follow-up letter to Jim Wilson on November 29, he stresses his desire to return home and be of service to the people on his reservation.50 Barbara Morrison, George’s mother, passes away just before Christmas.

George Morrison, c. 1968. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

Morrison and family continue to travel to Provincetown in the summers, where they maintain their East Coast friendships and continue to show their work. He is featured in a one-person show at the Cyrk Gallery in Provincetown, Rhode Island, a gallery that also shows Hazel’s work. Accepts a one-year teaching position at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he is visiting professor in studio arts and in the newly established American Indian Studies Department. Does research for a new course, Arts of the American Indian, which he begins teaching in September. The decision to return to Minnesota was a difficult one, as Hazel’s son Joe was sick with leukemia. They buy an abandoned church, formerly the Ascension Lutheran Church, on the corner of Cleveland and Stanford avenues in St. Paul. They convert the building into a creative living space, with separate studios for each of them: George in the basement, Hazel upstairs. The former

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church was an indisputably “good place” for both of them: “Our personalities,” Morrison later reflected, “went into the house and were reflected in what was there.”51 Circa 1970–71, he joins the American Indian Movement, for which he and Hazel will raise funds. Becomes active in the contemporary arts community and is befriended by the curators Ron Libertus and Evan Maurer. Expresses interest in recent plans and proposals for development of tourist attractions and facilities at Grand Portage. Composes a letter to Jim Hull, chairman of the planning committee, on May 28, in which he advocates for leadership and control over tourist enterprises to “at all times and by all possible means be in the power of the Grand Portage Band,” stating, “I feel confident that the people of Grand Portage will hold their own.”52 He is opposed also to construction of a souvenir sales building, suggesting instead an art workshop and store, which would sell high-quality products not only by Chippewa artists but by those from other tribes as well. Fills sketchbooks with automatic and gestural drawings of nude figures, buildings, and landscape scenes throughout the 1970s. Frequently dates and identifies the place of production of such sketches. 1971

Begins teaching full time in the Studio Arts Department at the University of Minnesota, where he offers courses in painting and drawing and conducts graduate critiques. Awarded second prize at the Twelfth Red River Annual at the Red River Art Center in Moorhead, Minnesota (which will be renamed the Plains Art Museum in 1975 and relocated to Fargo, North Dakota, in 1997). He is included in the fourth edition of Indians of Today, edited and compiled by Marion E. Grodley. 1972

The St. Paul Pioneer Press publishes an article, “Artists Create Home in Former Church” in the Family Life section on March 5, which includes intimate photographs of the Morrison and Belvo home, praising the couple’s avantgarde taste and characterizing the style as “MinnesotaMediterranean Gothic.”53 George and Hazel are presented as an artistic and culturally relevant power couple. Details and saves his daily activities on calendar pages, a practice he will continue for the remainder of his life. In addition to meetings, reminders, and various commitments, fills each page with the amount of time he spends drawing, birthdates of various artists and composers, anniversaries of important events such as the Beatles’ “first invasion of America,” lines from famous poems, and automatic drawings. For example, in the calendar box for September 3, 1972, he records lines from Conrad Aiken’s long poem Senlin: A Biography:

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I arise, I face the sunrise, And do the things my fathers learned to do. Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die, And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet Stand before a glass and tie my tie.54 Hazel creates Manifesto in 21 Days, a series of images that document her last days with her son Joe, who dies of leukemia this year. She begins teaching at the St. Paul School of Art, where she continues until 1989. George delivers five lectures in October, November, and December, sponsored by the University of Minnesota Department of American Indian Studies, at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in conjunction with the exhibition American Indian Art: Form and Tradition (1972, organized jointly by the Walker Art Center, the Indian Art Association, and the MIA). 1973

Receives a full-time permanent appointment as professor of studio arts at the University of Minnesota. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis organizes George Morrison: Drawings (April 15–May 27), a major one-person exhibition of forty-five recent drawings, including Untitled (1973; plate 41). A catalogue with black-and-white illustrations and a lengthy interview by curator Philip Larson accompanies the show; the exhibited drawings are priced at either $100 or $400. The Walker Art Center purchases four of the untitled 23- by 23-inch drawings, each in a different color: black, brown, blue, and red. The show then travels to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona (June 23– August 5), the Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi (September 9–October 8), and the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art in Fort Worth, Texas (November 8, 1973– January 30, 1974). Solo exhibitions at the Left Bank Gallery in Prescott, Wisconsin (July), the University of Wisconsin–River Falls (September), and Bethel College in St. Paul (November). Visiting professor (fall semester) at the College of St. Catherine, where he teaches a lecture course on American Indian art. Serves as a juror for an exhibition on Native American Children’s Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (August). Becomes increasingly active in the American Indian community in Minneapolis, with the encouragement of the Anishinabe curator Ron Libertus. Shows in the Ojibwe Art Expo Annual in Bemidji, Minnesota, which he will continue to do through 1988. Commissioned to design and create a wood mural for the exterior of a new American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. The mural is based on the image of a feather, related to a dream he had of an endlessly repeating feathered field. Serves as a design consultant to the architectural firm Hodne-Stagaberg.

1974

Suffers an attack of peritonitis and is taken to the Mayo Clinic for emergency surgery in February. Three group exhibitions, including a faculty exchange show with the University of Notre Dame. Reviews four books related to Native American art, history, and culture for the Minneapolis Tribune.55 1975

Completes the wood mural for the façade of the Minneapolis American Indian Center, dedicated on May 5. Continues to work on wood collages, both large and small, created for both private individuals and large corporations, including First Bank of Minneapolis, which commissioned a ten-foot work for their lobby. Reflecting on the construction of these increasingly popular wood collages, Morrison said, “They aren’t planned out but there are no mistakes. I can do one in 15 days, although they’re 15-hour days.”56 Sam Sachs, the director of the MIA, sees a twelve-footwide wood collage at a party at George’s house and asks to have it sent to the museum for a proposed acquisition. Collage IX: Landscape (1974) is purchased by the MIA on May 22 for $5,400.

George Morrison at the entrance to the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, 1974. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

1976

Dillon Press publishes George Morrison: The Story of an American Indian, by his close friend Dragos D. Kostich, a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Long Island University. The book, written for young adults, begins with a history of the Chippewa people, then focuses on Morrison’s life, with such chapters as “A Northern Childhood,” “The Making of an Artist,” and finally “Horizons.” It is illustrated with photographs of George’s family from his youth, seminal early paintings, and recent photographs taken by his friend Victor Bloomfield. Solo exhibitions at the Touchstone Gallery in New York City, Bethel College in St. Paul, and a solo exhibition of the wood collages at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (February

15–March 28), where he gives a lecture on his work. This same year, The Love Drawings of Hazel Belvo shows at 118: An Art Gallery (February 14–March 13). The show features thirty-seven figure drawings in pale pencil, many with gold leaf, which deal primarily with sexuality and relationships between men and women. Mike Steele’s article “Native American Son Brings Artistry Back Home” appears in the Minneapolis Tribune on December 19. Steele describes the interior of George and Hazel’s home: “A traditional Hopi pot sits next to a Louise Nevelson sculpture. A Navaho rug lies on the floor beneath a sleek, white, electronic artwork.” Steele uses this diverse collection of art objects as a metaphor for the artist’s distinct and wide-ranging career. On his return to Minnesota, the artist reported to Steele, “I think one of the main reasons I returned here in 1970 was to gain a fuller sense of my identity. It was important to make that move, even late, and perhaps that move has to do with a certain strength my work has now.”57 The American Indian Center honors Morrison on December 3 with a celebration that opens its annual arts and crafts festival.

George Morrison: The Story of an American Indian, by Dragos D. Kostich (Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1976). Photo by Victor Bloomfield.

1977

Invited by master printer Steve Andersen to be one of the first artists to create a print at the newly formed Vermillion Editions Limited fine print studio in Minneapolis. Closely related in composition and technique to the drawings he exhibited at the Walker Art Center in 1973, the untitled lithograph is produced in an edition of 50. Andersen begins to work with George to produce a large series of rubbings based on the wood collages (Untitled, 1976–78; plate 44). George would create three more prints for Vermillion Editions (in 1977 and 1987) and continue to work with Andersen on prints and reproductions of his paintings well into the late 1990s. Evan Maurer, curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, who befriended Morrison in Minneapolis in the early 1970s, commissions new work for the museum’s grand survey exhibition The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art (July 16–October 30). Morrison responds by creating his first monumental, vertical totem: Red Totem I (1977; plate 46). The twelve-foot high redwood form is stained an earthy red to intensify the material and metaphorical content. The Art Institute of Chicago purchases the totem in 1978 (now in the collection of the MIA). A commissioned redwood mural titled The Underwater Panther is dedicated at the Daybreak Star American Indian Center in Seattle. The mural depicts Mishapishoo, the underwater panther, a powerful creature in Anishinabe and Eastern Woodlands Indian traditions.58 Has a solo exhibition at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota.

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Totem IV (1979) and the acrylic painting Landscape (1981) to the project.60

1978

Has one-person shows at Macalester College in St. Paul, the University of Wisconsin–Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and the Carl N. Gorman Museum at the University of California–Davis. In November, exhibits three lithographs and one rubbing in Portfolio 15: An Exhibition by Minnesota Artists, at Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis. The bank commissions and purchases the portfolio, which features fifteen prints by different artists and is produced by Vermillion Editions. The bank donates copies of the portfolio to various local museums, colleges, and universities, including the Walker Art Center and George’s alma mater, Minneapolis College of Art and Design. A twenty-eight-minute film titled George Morrison: Indian Artist is produced by Minneapolis’ KTCA-TV Public Television and the Jerome Foundation for the series Five Minnesota Artists. Participates, along with his cousin Walter Caribou, in the Rendezvous Powwow on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation.

1980

George Morrison with Walter Caribou at the Rendezvous Days Powwow, Grand Portage Indian Reservation, c. 1978. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

1979

Experiences a life-threatening aneurysm in September, which is but one of several major health problems that plague him in the last thirty years of his life. Briand begins college at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In late September, George and Hazel travel to Cuba, where he is one of approximately forty American Indian artists invited to participate in a cultural exchange program and exhibition sponsored by the Cuban government and the International Native Council of Arts. While staying in Havana, George lectures to Cuban students on American Indian arts and is featured in two newspaper articles along with other Native American painters, including Frank LaPena and Oren Lyons. While the articles ended up being quite political, highlighting the oppression of Native Americans in the United States, Morrison later noted that the trip was primarily cultural and intended “to promote . . . cultural understanding.”59 Commissioned by the General Service Administration’s Art in Architecture Program in Washington, D.C., to design a totem for the Federal Forestry Building in Sandpoint, Idaho. Completes the redwood Totem V, which is installed in the lobby of the building. Listed as one of twenty Native “Exhibit Planning Consultants” for the Native American Center for the Living Arts exhibit Symbols from the Earth, which opened in Niagara Falls in 1981. Serves as part of the “Great Lakes & Eastern Woodlands” committee, and also contributes Red

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George Morrison at the “Witch Tree” (Spirit Little Cedar Tree), Grand Portage Indian Reservation,

While recuperating from a heart attack that limited his mobility, begins creating small oil and acrylic paintings on canvas-covered two-by-fours, which come to be known as the Horizon paintings. Concerned about his health, begins to keep detailed logs about his vital signs and his exercise regimen. Expresses interest in historic preservation along the North Shore, suggesting to the Grand Marais Historical Society that they improve the condition of the Chippewa Cemetery, where most of his family is buried. Acquires the historic Stebbins House on Stevens Avenue in Minneapolis, near MIA. Begins building his and Hazel’s studios on the North Shore on the Grand Portage Reservation, using his tribal allotment. Collaborates with Hazel to teach at a summer arts program for Native American students at an elementary school in Duluth, culminating in a mural they make with the students. George’s influence is especially apparent in the facturing of the rocks at bottom. An October feature on George and Hazel in Twin Cities Magazine emphasizes their artistic independence. According to the article, Hazel’s work addresses traditionally feminine subjects. Additionally, as a member of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM), which she helped to found in 1973, Hazel was increasingly identified with the feminist art movement and as an advocate for the role of women in art. The article contrasts this with George, an artist whose work is “distinctly masculine in form and feelings.”61 Despite the feature’s emphasis on their marriage and photos of the interior of the church house in St. Paul, George and Hazel are increasingly spending time apart. Included in two monographs on Native American artists: Jamake Highwater’s The Sweet Grass Lives On: Fifty Contemporary North American Indian Artists and This Song Remembers: Self-Portraits of Native Americans in the Arts, edited by Jane B. Katz.

c. 1980. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

1981

Participates in numerous regional, national, and international group exhibitions, including a Sister Cities Art Exchange between Minneapolis and Kuopio, Finland. Takes first place in the paintings category at the 1981 Ojibwe Art Expo at Bemidji State University, collecting a $75 award. Also shows with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and

others in the traveling exhibition Confluences of Tradition and Change: 24 American Indian Artists at the University of California–Davis (January 19–February 27) and is one of thirty-seven contemporary Native American painters and sculptors in the landmark exhibition Native American Arts ’81 at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma (August 2–September 6). Hazel earns her master’s degree from the University of Minnesota. George travels to Chiapas, Mexico. Writes to Dragos and Jeanne Kostich that he is halfway through building his and Hazel’s studios on the North Shore and “would like to retire but the economy is too shaky. Will hang on for a year or two.” Also states, “We are enjoying a ‘new’ old home near the museum; you can see I’m retracing old steps and haunts.”62 1982

Featured in a traveling exhibition, curated by his friend Ron Libertus, 8 Native Minnesota Artists, on view at the MIA (June 4–July 25). Is part of the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian’s So the Spirit Flows: A Program of Native American Artists and Artisans (September 1982– June 1983) in New York. George is the featured artist on October 28–30. Confluences of Tradition and Change: 24 American Indian Artists is on view at Iowa State University during the Third National Native American Art Studies Association Conference, where Morrison participates in an artists’ panel and receives a standing ovation at the banquet in recognition of his status as a distinguished progenitor of modern Native art. In a two-person exhibition with the artist Stuart Nielsen at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul in November, featuring new paper collages that incorporate reproductions of other artists’ work with colored papers he had been collecting since the late 1970s. According to one reviewer, the collages make for an “amusing art history game.”63 1983

Two exhibitions commemorate George’s retirement from the University of Minnesota at the end of the spring semester: George Morrison: Paper Collages (installed in the President’s Office), and George Morrison: Entries in an Artist’s Journal (installed in the University Gallery). The latter is organized by Lyndel King and features 120 pieces, many of which incorporate documentary texts. In regards to retiring, Morrison reports that he will miss his students because “young people bring new and fresh ideas that are constantly shifting in time.”64 Moves permanently to Red Rock, his house and studio on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. Built thirty feet from the water and high enough to receive ample light,

George Morrison and Hazel Belvo at Land Mark Editions, Minneapolis, 1983. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

he names the site Red Rock for the red jasper stone that lines the shore. They maintain an apartment on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, while Hazel continues to teach at St. Paul Academy. George makes the commute every three to four weeks. Witch Tree (1981; plate 52) is featured in the Fortythird Anniversary Exhibition of the Federation of Modern Sculptors and Painters at the City Gallery in New York (February 23–March 23). St. Paul Academy and Summit School, where Hazel has taught since 1972, commissions them to create lithographs for a school fundraiser, ARTS 83: A Festival of the Fine Arts. George’s Red Cube (plate 58) and Hazel’s Woods’ Floor, Path to the Witch Tree are created at Land Mark Editions in Minneapolis with master printer Jon Swenson, and the prints are exhibited from March 7 to April 9 at the St. Paul Academy. It is the first time the two artists have collaborated on a print project. Creates Landscape: Wood Collage (The River), an assemblage of highly polished pieces of various exotic woods, commissioned by the family of Julius Davis and installed in the University of Minnesota Law School. 1984

George Morrison: Paper Collages is mounted at the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth (July 22–August 26). The show appears in conjunction with the Ojibwa Nation International Powwow (Ni-Mi-Win), August 17–19, and the first annual Ojibwe Art Exhibition, where three of his paintings hung alongside works by Patrick Desjarlait, Carl Gawboy, and Jeffrey Chapman. A trip to China, which George and Hazel were planning as visiting artists to the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou in 1985, is postponed (and ultimately canceled) due to George’s continuing poor health. 1985

Is diagnosed on February 2 with Castleman’s disease, a rare lymph system disorder. Spends approximately three months at the University of Minnesota hospitals, where he is treated with chemotherapy and radiation, and is discharged on June 20. Hazel takes a yearlong leave of absence from teaching to remain with George at Red Rock. He continues to draw and make small paintings but must postpone a commission for a wood collage for Iowa State University. Composes a surrealist valentine poem for Hazel on February 11.

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Participates in New Ideas from Old Traditions: Contemporary Native American Art at the Yellowstone Art Center in Billings, Montana (July 5–September 1). Curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Gordon McConnell, the exhibition also features works by Richard Glazer Danay, George Longfish, Jolene Rickard, and Kay WalkingStick.

1988

Conversations are under way between the Tweed Museum of Art and the North Dakota Museum of Art concerning a retrospective exhibition, ultimately realized by the Tweed and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. 1990

1986

In response to Morrison’s desire to participate in healing ceremonies, Walter Caribou, his cousin and an elder of the Grand Portage Band of the Chippewa Tribe, becomes concerned that Morrison had never been given an Indian name. Subsequently, Caribou dreams two names for him: Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Go Bo (Standing in the Northern Lights) and Quay Ke Ga Nay Ga Bo (Turning the Feather Around). Red Totem (1980; plate 50) is included in the exhibition What Is Native American Art? at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma (April 6–June 1) and is published in the exhibition’s companion volume The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution, edited by Edwin L. Wade. Suffers recurrent bouts of Castleman’s disease and returns to the hospital in the winter. Stays with Hazel in St. Paul when she returns to teaching. Moving and occasionally living apart further strains the couple’s relationship. In an article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “Lake Superior: A Lifetime Source of Artistic Inspiration,” George discloses his ongoing struggle with Castleman’s disease and subsequently receives numerous handwritten notes from friends, colleagues, and former students.

Hazel Belvo and George Morrison at the dinner for Standing in the

1987

An interview with Elizabeth Erickson in the summer edition of the Minneapolis periodical Artpaper emphasizes his artistic process and explores his philosophy of art. He feels that artists are always seeking the inevitable, the ultimate, and the unknown.65 Horizon: Small Painting Series, 1980–87 is presented at the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth (July 10–19) and then at the Minnesota Museum of Art, at Landmark Center in St. Paul (November 14–January 17, 1988). Sixty-one paintings are included in the exhibit, which showcases George’s response to water, sky, and the horizon line. These responses “spring from a combination of many things— such as my early years in Northern Minnesota and later at Cape Cod, plus the urban experience of New York and the Twin Cities.”66 Participates in The Drawing Show, a group exhibition at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and Traditions and Innovations: Seven American Artists at the Plains Art Museum in Moorhead, Minnesota (October 1–November 29).

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Northern Lights: George Morrison, a Retrospective, with Minnesota Museum of Art director Jim Czarniecki, 1990. Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

Shown in a three-person exhibition at the Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis with Daniel Soderlind and George’s former student, Frank Big Bear (March 2–April 14). Morrison’s first retrospective exhibition, Standing in the Northern Lights: George Morrison, A Retrospective, is organized jointly by the Minnesota Museum of Art in St. Paul and the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth. The show opens at the Minnesota Museum of Art on May 6, then travels to the Tweed Museum of Art and the Plains Art Museum in Moorhead, where it closes on November 25. The retrospective includes sixtyseven objects, ranging from early works on paper, such as Dream of Calamity (1945; plate 6) to small, acrylic Horizon paintings from the late 1980s. George is immensely proud of the exhibition and invites many friends to the opening. In an invitation to Dragos Kostich, the author of a 1976 monograph on the artist, he writes, “Here’s the big one. Perhaps if you make a trip to Mpls. between May 6 & June 24, you could see the show. And you must get a catalog. I was impressed. I will see some old works (between 60 & 70) that I haven’t seen for 30 years and more. They are collecting them now. Was the wood collage you saw from the Norwest Corp? I’m glad I’ve been paying my phone bill. AT&T came across. More about this later. Love, George.”67 AT&T, principal sponsor of the exhibition, advertised for the show with the tagline “How an Original American has become an American Original.”68 1991

Featured in the traveling group exhibition Our Land/ Ourselves: American Indian Contemporary Artists at the University Art Gallery at the University at Albany, State University of New York (February 1–March 17). Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1990; plate 75) is featured on the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Participates in the exhibition Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century, which premieres at the Heard Museum in Phoenix,

Arizona (April 9–July 28). Other venues included the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. In May, attends the Shared Visions conference in Phoenix, where he participates in the panel “New Indian Art” with Joe Herrera, Jeanne Snodgrass King, and moderator W. Jackson Rushing. He fields questions regarding his relationship to “Indian art” and his awareness of the “studio style,” and he emphasizes the influence of abstract expressionist ideas along with pre-Columbian, Northwest Coast, and Australian Aboriginal art forms.69 Receives an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. Hazel accompanies him to the ceremony in September. His monumental La Salle Totem (1991), an assemblage of exotic and dyed woods, is installed in downtown Minneapolis.

1994

Begins collaborating with author and educator Margot Fortunato Galt on his memoir, which is published in 1998. Attends the grand opening of the George Gustav Heye Center of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan, October 30. 1995

1992

George Morrison, c. 1994.

Creates Tableau: A Native American Mosaic for Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, consisting of over two hundred interlocking pieces of granite and concrete and fourteen different colors of stone. It is both geometric and biomorphic, suggesting landscape, plant, and flower patterns, animals, snakes, birds, and lightning. It is one of several site-specific commissions George receives in the early 1990s, including a five-foot-tall bronze chiringa for the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, near the Fond du Lac Reservation. Is featured in the group exhibition We, the Human Beings: Twenty-Seven Contemporary Native American Artists, curated by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith at the College of Wooster Art Museum in Wooster, Ohio (August 26– October 19).

Photo courtesy Hazel Belvo.

1993

Divorce with Hazel Belvo is finalized in August, although the two remain good friends, and she continues to be very involved in George’s life.70 An x-ray in August shows two spots on his lungs. The spots and part of a lung are removed by surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. In the early 1990s, George spends most of his time at Red Rock, drawing and creating small horizon paintings and small sculptures. He continues to exhibit close to home, in venues such as Minneapolis, Duluth, and Grand Marais, and his works are acquired by the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (formerly the University Gallery) and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Donates fourteen works from his personal collection made between the 1940s and 1995 to the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul. The MMAA holds a reception in his honor on May 5 in the Minnesota State Capitol, where the works are on display. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune records that George is “expected to make one of his increasingly rare appearances” at this event.71 Receives a $10,000 commission to create a totem for the new atrium of the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic in Grand Marais. 1996

Continues to serve on the advisory board of the Weisman Art Museum, although his health continues to deteriorate. Exhibits in Many Hands: Contemporary Art of the Anishinabeg, organized by the Duluth Art Institute and guest curated by Wendy Savage. 1997

Morrison’s Red Totem is installed in the Jacqueline Kennedy Sculpture Garden at the White House as part of the exhibition Honoring Native America (September 1997–October 1998), a milestone in the history of Native American sculpture. The installation is the sixth iteration of the exhibition series Twentieth-Century American Sculpture at the White House. George attends the ceremony honoring the twelve participating artists in November, where he meets First Lady Hillary Clinton. The MIA sends an example of Morrison’s work to Papua New Guinea on behalf of the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies Program. George donates forty-nine works on paper, made between 1942 and 1990, to the Tweed Museum of Art. Seventy-eight works made between 1942 and 1996 are seen in A Tribute to George Morrison: Selected Works, 1940s–1990s at Lizzards Art Gallery in Duluth, Minnesota (May 30–July 11). Undergoes eye surgery in December.

163 Chronology

1998

1999

The Minnesota Historical Society publishes Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art, a biography by George Morrison as told to Margot Fortunato Galt, based on taped interviews with George and his family. George attends several signings in conjunction with the book’s release in May. The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, a nonprofit arts organization based in Duluth, establishes the George Morrison Artist Award, which recognizes an individual artist whose body of work has made a significant contribution to the arts over an extended period. This is one of two Arrowhead arts awards given annually to recognize individuals who have made important contributions to the arts in the Arrowhead region of Northeastern Minnesota. George is the inaugural recipient of the award in his name. The State of Minnesota proclaims August 7 George Morrison Day. Morrison’s Horizon: New Paintings from the Horizon Series by George Morrison is organized by the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at MIA (October 25–December 6). The intimate catalogue is accompanied by a short video filmed by Tom Schroeder at Red Rock in August and October 1998. Set against a score of waves crashing into shoreline, George’s voice narrates the film. He speaks about universal origins and the personal elements in his work, while discussing the natural world and how it influences his art. The video ends with George explaining that he does not believe in an afterlife or a heaven/earth dichotomy and is not a religious person “in the church sense.” Rather, he aligns himself with a “certain kind of spirituality” that is a religion of nature, the mystery of which involves looking into the beyond. Another film, George Morrison Reflections, directed and produced by Lorraine Norrgard, is part of the series Album, by Duluth/Superior’s Educational Television Corporation, WDSE 8. The film wins Best Documentary Award at the Red Earth American Indian Film Festival. Composes several letters to friends regarding his deteriorating health, and announces that his big goal is to make it to year 2000.72 Writes to his friends Dragos and Jeanne Kostich, of various health issues but expresses happiness with the spirit of the lake.73 In December, he is interviewed on National Public Radio along with Margaret Archuleta, curator at the Heard Museum, and Margot Fortunato Galt. The interviewer emphasizes that “at 79, he still paints,” and points out that “after a lifetime of health problems and bouts with alcoholism, his work is smaller, because it’s easier to handle.”74 Additionally, in a phone conversation with a St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter, he states, “Artists don’t retire. What are you supposed to do if you don’t make art?”75

Receives the inaugural Master Artist Award in the Eiteljorg Museum’s Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. Is included in the first fellowship exhibition and is honored at the gala, but his failing health prohibits him from attending the ceremony. Exhibits collaborative work in the exhibition The New Exquisite Corpse, along with Hazel and Hazel’s companion, Marcia Cushmore, at the New French Café Bar in Minneapolis (May 21–June 26). Writes in August, “I am well slowing down as I approach 80 next month.”76 Turns eighty on September 30.

164 Chronology

2000

Dies April 17 at the age of eighty, after many years of failing health. In honor of the artist, the Tweed Museum of Art presents George Morrison: Selections from the Collection, on display from June 1 to July 18. Additionally, the Weisman Art Museum presents the group show Listening with the Heart: The Works of Frank Big Bear, George Morrison, and Norval Morrisseau, guest curated by Todd Bockley (September 9–December 31). Morrison’s work is included in the exhibition Our Mother Earth: A Tribute to Ojibway Art at the Jacques Art Center in Aitkin, Minnesota (July 28– September 18). Members of Minnesota’s art and Native communities respond to the death of this influential elder, and several local newspapers publish feature stories on the artist. Evan Maurer, director of the MIA and longtime friend, reflects, “It’s a generation gone because he was a pioneer, a courageous man who followed his path where no other Indians were.”77 2004

Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser is an inaugural exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The show contains 105 of George’s works, demonstrating the trajectory of his career. The City of Minneapolis begins discussing the conservation of, and thus the need to, relocate Morrison’s Tableau: A Native American Mosaic (1992), which was installed in the heavily trafficked Nicollet Mall area. 2006

George Morrison, Works on Paper: 1944–99 is on display at the Bockley Gallery (March 18–April 22). The show, which spans Morrison’s career, is organized stylistically as opposed to chronologically. The exhibition George Morrison: Finding Abstraction is organized by the MMAA in St. Paul (August 4–December 21). Over sixty works of art are included in the show, many of which had never before been on view in the Twin Cities. Attendant to the exhibition are an interpretive dance, poetry

readings, and a dialogue featuring Hazel Belvo, the artist Perci Chester, Evan Maurer, and the art historian Rob Silberman. Tableau: A Native American Mosaic is removed from its location on Nicollet Mall and is reinstalled on the same street several blocks down in front of the new Minneapolis Central Library designed by César Pelli. 2007

An entry on Morrison is included in Minnesota 150: The People, Places and Things that Shape Our State by Kate Roberts, published in conjunction with the forthcoming exhibition MN150 at the Minnesota History Center. 2008

George is one of the 150 “topics” selected for the exhibition MN 150, which opens on October 13 and remains on view at the Minnesota History Center through December 31, 2011. The exhibition is part of the 2008 celebration of “150 Years of Statehood,” led by the Minnesota Statehood Sesquicentennial Commission. 2009

Morrison’s work is included in Personal Journeys: American Indian Landscapes at the Heard Museum, North Scottsdale (October 22, 2009–March 14, 2010). The exhibition, which features work by various Native artists, including Kay WalkingStick and James Lavadour, explores themes of land and land loss by illustrating the unique relationship American Indians have with land and how that has been expressed in art. 2010

Eight paintings hang in the show George Morrison: From the Minnesota Museum of American Art at the Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis (January 17–January 30). In response to the

show, Mason Riddle writes a review for the Twin Cities Daily Planet, in which she equates the paintings to “embracing a dear old friend.”78 Shown in the exhibition Generation Abstraction: Selections from the Minnesota Museum of American Art (March 11–28) at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. The show ranges from abstract expressionism through minimalism, including the artists Joan Brown, Peter Voulkos, Eugene Larkin, and Louise Nevelson. Painting #10, Abstract (1955; plate 25) is featured in a small exhibition, George Morrison, Native Modernist, at the Seattle Art Museum. Morrison’s lithograph, Red Cube (1983; plate 58), is featured alongside works by Robert Rauschenberg, Joan Mitchell, and May Stevens in the exhibition Director’s Choice: Prints from the Minnesota Museum of American Art, on display at the Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis (September 8–October 5). 2011

George Morrison: New York School, an exhibition of more than a dozen paintings and works on paper from the mid1940s through the early 1960s, is on display at the Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis (May 14–June 11). The show contains the seldom seen works Untitled (Iowa), a mixedmedia composition (1961), and Red Construction, mixedmedia on paper (1953). The wood collage Cumulated Landscape (1976; plate 43) and his 1986 painting Untitled (Lake Superior Landscape) (plate 63) are featured in the exhibition Our Treasures: Highlights from the Minnesota Museum of American Art, seen at the Tweed Museum of Art, the Hillstrom Museum of Art at Gustavus Adolphus College, and the Carleton College, Plains Art Museum, and Weisman Art Museum.

165 Chronology

Checklist of the Exhibition

Dirt Track Specialist, c. 1940, oil on canvas, 24 × 20 in. From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Mt. Maude, c. 1942, oil on canvas, 26 × 32 in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Local Art Purchase Fund. 42.20. Duluth Corner, 1942, pen and ink on paper, 6 × 8 5⁄8 in. From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Untitled (Quarry Face), 1949, pencil, pastel, and ink on paper, 18 × 24 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.11. Sun and River, 1949, watercolor and crayon on paper, 153/4 × 21 in. © Plains Art Museum. From the permanent collection of the Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota. Museum Purchase. 1991.001.0001. Abstract Composition, 1950, watercolor on paper, 115⁄8 × 87⁄8 in.

Untitled (figure with exaggerated limbs), c. 1945–50, ink on paper, 103/4 × 81/4 in. Collection Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth. Gift of George Morrison. Three Figures, 1945, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, 113⁄8 × 81/2 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.05. Dream of Calamity, 1945, ink and watercolor on paper, 5 7⁄8 × 9 in. Collection Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth. Alice Tweed Tuohy Foundation Purchase Fund. Untitled, 1945, ink on paper, 75⁄8 × 5 in. Collection Dr. Robert and Frances Leff. Untitled, 1948, pen, ballpoint pen and watercolor on paper, 41/4 × 9 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.11. Whalebone, 1948, oil on canvas, 25 × 243/4 in. Collection Kevin and Kathy Kirvida. Dawn and Sea, c. 1948, oil on canvas, 241/2 × 471/4 in. Collection Cook County School District ISD 166. Untitled (green and brown whorls), 1949, ink and watercolor on paper, 113/4 × 9 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.12.

From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Landscape, 1950, woodcut printed in color on Japanese rice paper, 145⁄8  × 17 7⁄8 in. Collection Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts. Purchased. SC1954:13. Landscape, 1950, woodcut on paper, 13 × 16 in. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund,1951. Black and White Patterned Forms, 1952, ink on paper, 103/4 × 83⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.14. Geometric Vertical Forms, 1952, ink on paper, 11 ×  9 1/2 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.15. Painting #12, Pacific, 1952, oil on canvas on board, 273⁄16 × 331/2 in. Collection Seattle Art Museum. Gift of the Bodlaender family in memory of Hesi and Hans Bodlaender, in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum. 2007.83. Paris, 1952, pen, black ink, graphite, and watercolor on paper, 95⁄8 × 75⁄8 in. Collection Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Gift of Lora and Martin G. Weinstein. 96.133.4. Untitled (Cap d’Antibes), 1953, oil on paper, 18 3⁄8 × 221/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Katharine Ordway Fund Purchase. 94.01.08.

167

Construction, 1953, gouache on paper, 171/2 × 231/2 in. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund. 1954.3. New York, 1954, pen, brush, and black ink on paper, 101/4 × 71/2 in. Collection Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Gift of Lora and Martin G. Weinstein. 96.133.5. Jive Samba, 1955, ink on paper, 171/2 × 225⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.09. Untitled, 1955, watercolor on paper, 211/2 × 313/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.06. Painting #10, Abstract, 1955, oil on canvas on board, 26 3⁄16 × 321/2 in. Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Bodlaender family in memory of Hesi and Hans Bodlaender, in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum. 2007.82. Untitled, 1957, tempera on paper, 231⁄8 × 313⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Dorothy and Esther Bauer. 2005.03.

Pennsylvania Triptych, 1964, acrylic on board, 361⁄8 × 73½ in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Phillip E. Camerer, Mary Carothers, Charles de Limur, and Hildegarde Hellum Conkling. 99.04.03. Group, 1964, acrylic on board, 50 × 70 in. Collection Mary Sue Comfort. White Painting, 1965, oil on canvas, 15 × 21 in. Collection Bockley Gallery. New England Landscape II, 1967, wood, 48 × 119 7⁄8 × 3 in. Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth Texas. 1968.273. Art as Illusion, 1967, found wood, 63⁄8 × 10 in. Collection Barbara Surprenant. Provincetown, Sky—Seascape, 1970, found wood, 8 × 11 in. Collection Carole Ann Jones. Untitled, 1973, ink on paper, 23 × 23 in. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Purchased with matching grant from the Museum Purchase Plan and the National Endowment for the Arts. 1973.

Untitled, 1958, oil on canvas, 27 × 39 in. Collection Briand Morrison. Plant Variations, 1959, oil on canvas, 203/4 × 283/4 in. Collection Kevin and Kathy Kirvida. Gray, Black and White Lines, 1959, gouache and ink on paper, 14 × 103/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.20. Gray and Black Composition, 1960, gouache on paper, 14 × 101/2 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.23. Untitled Painting No. 60, 1960, oil on canvas, 401/4 × 501/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Weyand Fund Purchase. 94.01.01. Red Painting (Franz Kline Painting), c. 1960, oil on canvas, 47 × 79 in. Collection Gerald and Dorit Paul. Reunion, 1962, oil on canvas, 34 × 34 in. Collection of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. Gift of Samuel Golden. 63.158. Untitled, 1962, oil on canvas, 36 × 72 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

168 Checklist of the Exhibition

Untitled (Black on Mustard Yellow), 1974, ink and pencil on paper, 93/4 × 131/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.27. Cumulated Landscape, 1976, wood, 48 × 120 × 3 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Honeywell, Inc. 2000.01. Untitled, 1976–78, lithograph, 30 × 441/2 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. 79.42.14. Wood Collage Fragment (gold/white), 1977, conte crayon on handmade paper, 251⁄8 × 371/4 in. Collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Museum purchase. 1998.10.1. Red Totem I, 1977, stained redwood panels on plywood form, 1441/4 × 151/4 × 151/4 in. Collection Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The Robert J. Ulrich Works of Art Purchase Fund. 2012.5. Untitled, 1977, ink and pencil on paper, 413⁄8 × 30 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Museum Purchase. 77.17.13. Red Rock Variation. A Memory for Franz Kline Fragment, 1978, collaged paper, 161⁄8 × 35⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Hazel Belvo. 2010.06.02.

Instrument Drawing, 1979, red ink on paper, 105⁄8 × 81⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.25.

Surrealist Drawing, “Erotic” Landscape, 1987, ink on paper, 103/4 × 81/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.36.

Red Totem, 1980, stained cedar, 145 × 20 × 20 in. Heard Museum Collection, Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph by Craig Smith. IAC2231.

Untitled, 1987, lithograph, 255⁄8 × 713⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.03.

Lake Superior Landscape, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 30 × 60 in. Private collection.

Chiringa Form (small #1), 1987, purple heart and padauk wood on marble base, 10 × 8 × 37⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.13.

Witch Tree, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 36 × 30 in. General Mills Art Collection. Propylon: D’Arcangelo Fragment, 1982, collaged paper, 101/4 × 11 in. Collection Bockley Gallery. Brown and Black Textured Squares, 1982, ink on paper, 123⁄8 × 91/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.31.

Cube, 1988, wood, 113/4 × 113/4 × 113/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Sylvia Brown, Dr. Wolfgang Zeman, and Renato and Giorgio Marmont Funds Purchase. 91.14.01. Untitled Totem, 1988, bronze on marble base, 19 × 4 × 4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 94.01.14. Stela, 1988, ink on paper, 103/4 × 81⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota

Witch Tree Variation, 1982, pen and ink on paper,

105⁄8 × 81/4

in.

Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.42.

From the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Sky with Constellations, 1983, ink on paper, 121/4 × 9 3⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.33. 297⁄8 × 221/2

Red Cube, 1983, lithograph, in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. 87.14.1. Phenomena Against the Crimson: Lake Superior Landscape, 1985, acrylic on canvas, 9 × 12 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 87.17.1. Surrealist Landscape, 1985, pen, ink, pencil, and crayon on paper, 131⁄8 × 105⁄8 in. Collection Thomas J. Arneson. Morning Storm, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1986, acrylic on canvas on board, 6 × 11 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 87.17.2. Autumn Dusk, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1986, acrylic on canvas on board, 6 × 11 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Acquisition Fund Purchase. 87.17.3. Untitled (Lake Superior Landscape), 1986, acrylic on canvas, 473/4 × 477⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Katherine G. Ordway Fund Purchase. 94.01.02.

Part of Sky Watch Chart, 1988, ink and pencil on paper, 11 × 81/4 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.44. Yonilinga, 1988, ink and pencil on paper, 113/4 × 81⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Gift of George Morrison. 96.10.45. Untitled (Linga Form), 1988, wood on marble base, 13 × 5 × 5 in. Collection Briand Morrison. Awakening, Time Edge Rising, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 223⁄8 × 30 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.01. Quiet Light Towards Evening, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 221/2 × 30 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.02. Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 221/2 × 301⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.03.

169 Checklist of the Exhibition

Lavender Wind, The Beyond, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1990, acrylic and pastel on paper, 223⁄8 × 301⁄8 in. Collection Minnesota Museum of American Art. Purchased with funds given by Mrs. Arthur Savage, John R. Savage, Mrs. Harold Searles, Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Trenerry, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis N. Zelle. 99.04.02.04.

Untitled, 1995, colored pencil on paper, 17 × 15 in. Collection Hazel Belvo. Untitled, 1995, colored pencil on paper, 15 × 17 in. Collection Hazel Belvo. Untitled, 1995, colored pencil on paper, 105⁄8 × 135⁄8 in. Collection

Faraway Parade. Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, 1990, acrylic on canvas on board, 43/4 × 145⁄8 in. Collection Philip Rickey and Mary Sullivan Rickey. Untitled, 1994, ink and colored pencil on paper, 17 × 19 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

170 Checklist of the Exhibition

Dr. Robert and Frances Leff. Untitled, 1999, wood, 20 × 4 × 4 in. Collection Hazel Belvo.

Notes

Introduction 1. Charleen Touchette, “George Morrison (1919–2000) Standing on the ‘Edge of the World,’” American Indian Art Magazine 27, Winter 2001, 83. 2. Gerald Vizenor, Manifest Manners: Narratives on Post-Indian Survivance (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), vii. 3. Steven Klindt, “Introduction,” Standing in the Northern Lights: George Morrison, A Retrospective (St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of Art, 1990), 13. 4. Clipping from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 7, 1958, box 3, George Morrison Papers, Minnesota Historical Society Archives (hereafter GM/MHS). 5. W. Jackson Rushing, this volume, and George Morrison, as told to Margot Fortunato Galt, Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998), 128. 6. George Morrison, George Morrison: Horizon: Small Painting Series, 1980–1987 (St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of Art, 1987), n. p. 7. John Camp, “Artist Confronts Life, Death,” St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, Sept. 7, 1986, 11A; W. Jackson Rushing, this volume. 8. Many artists in schools across the country—from the Dayton Art Institute to the Rhode Island School of Design and many points between—are indebted to Morrison’s teaching. However, after 1970, his influence on students in Minnesota was very strong, especially with Native American artists (such as Frank Bigbear, Kent Smith, and later, Jim Denomie and Andrea Carlson) searching for new modes of identity and expression in their art, as Rushing suggests in his essay in this volume. 9. This mosaic was originally installed in 1992 in a different location on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. It was moved to its present location outside the Minneapolis Central Library in 2006. 10. George Morrison to Ruth Applehof, director, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Nov. 5, 1996, MMAA archives. Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison 1. Although many Great Lakes indigenous peoples now refer to themselves as either Ojibwe or Anishinabe, many still self-designate, as did Morrison, as Chippewa. He was an enrolled member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. 2. Writing about Anishinabe (Ojibwe or Chippewa) artists, including George Morrison, Gerald Vizenor observed, “Regrettably, the

essentialist notion that traditional culture marks the value of creative art has been used to exclude certain artists. Clearly, racialist representations and the politics of suitable traditions diminish the value of creative art.” See Gerald Vizenor, The Everlasting Sky: Voices of the Anishinabe People (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000), xii. 3. On survivance, a synthesis of survival and resistance, see Gerald Vizenor, Manifest Manners: Narratives on Post-Indian Survivance (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999). 4. Earlier iterations of some portions of this essay were included in the following publications: W. Jackson Rushing, “George Morrison,” in Kristin Makholm, ed., Our Treasures: Highlights from the Minnesota Museum of American Art (St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2011): 64–67, and W. Jackson Rushing, “Modern Spirits: The Legacy of Allan Houser and George Morrison,” in W. Richard West, Jr., et al., Essays on Native Modernism: Complexity and Contradiction in American Indian Art (Washington, D.C., and New York: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, 2006): 53–66. 5. Recalling his days as a boarding school student in Wisconsin, Morrison stated, “I had always worked with my hands—drawing, copying, inventing—and was interested in commercial art. I began reading history and art history, architecture, sculpture and music.” Quoted in Jane B. Katz, ed., This Song Remembers: Self-Portraits of Native Americans in the Arts (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980), 56. 6. George Morrison, as told to Galt, Turning the Feather Around, 50, where he recalls seeing a Picasso exhibition in 1939. However, the records of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts suggest that Morrison was likely thinking of Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, organized by Alfred H. Barr for the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1939), which was on view in Minneapolis Feb. 1–March 2, 1941; Stephanie Kays, e-mail to the author, June 4, 2012. 7. Ibid., 52. 8. Quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 56. 9. For Indian Space, see Ann Eden Gibson, “Painting Outside the Paradigm: Indian Space,” Arts Magazine 57 (Feb. 1983), 98–104; Sandra Kraskin et al., The Indian Space Painters: Native American Sources for American Abstract Art [exh. cat.] (New York: Baruch College Gallery, 1991); and W. Jackson Rushing, Native American Art and the New York Avant-Garde: A History of Cultural Primitivism (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995), 137–56.

171

10. George Morrison, artist statement, Dayton Art Institute (1960), Ryerson Library Pamphlet File, Art Institute of Chicago. 11. Turning the Feather Around, 63. 12. Ibid. 13. Quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 56. 14. Herbert Read, The Grass Roots of Art (New York: Wittenborn, 1947), 21, 18. 15. Ben Wolf, quoted in Turning the Feather Around, 74. The phrase derives, in all likelihood, from Isaiah 51:1 (King James version): “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” 16. J.K.R., “George Morrison Debut,” Art Digest 22 (May 1, 1948), 19. 17. Helen Carlson, quoted in Turning the Feather Around, 81. 18. Turning the Feather Around, 81. 19. “Art Chronicle,” Basler National Zeitung, June 15, 1948, typescript of an English translation, GM/MHS. See this critic’s comments also in Turning the Feather Around, 81. 20. For Starfish (aka Starfish and Whalebone) and Driftwood, see Turning the Feather Around, 67, 81. 21. See, in particular, Arshile Gorky, Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia (c. 1932), ink on paper; Janie C. Lee and Melvin P. Lader, Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings (New York: Harry N. Abrams for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2003), 99. 22. Turning the Feather Around, 59, 63. 23. Robert Rosenblum, Mark Rothko: Notes on Rothko’s Surrealist Years [exh. cat.] (New York: Pace Gallery, 1981): 5–9. Lawrence Alloway, “The Biomorphic ’40s,” Artforum 4 (Sept. 1965): 18–22, reprinted in Topics in American Art Since 1945 (New York: Norton, 1975): 17–25. 24. Alloway, “Biomorphic,” 20. 25. Ibid., 18. 26. Quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 58. 27. Ibid. 28. George Morrison: Gouaches—Oils—Drawings [exh. pamphlet] (New York: Grand Central Moderns, 1950). 29. Sun and River (which was first published as Sun and the River) is in the collection of the Plains Art Museum, where it is described as “a perfect example of his style”; “George Morrison,” Plains Art Museum, http://plainsart.org/collections/george-morrison, accessed Sept. 10, 2010. 30. See the artist’s vertical file at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. 31. Turning the Feather Around, 90. 32. For Matisse’s cut-outs, see especially Henri Matisse, Jazz (New York: George Braziller, 1985). On surrealism and Oceanic art, see Evan Maurer, “Dada and Surrealism,” in William Rubin, ed., “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art, vol. 2 (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984), 546–57 and passim; and Rosalind Krauss, “Giacometti,” 517–19, in ibid. 33. Robert Goldwater, “Judgments of Primitive Art,” which appeared first in Daniel Biebuyck, ed., Tradition and Creativity in Tribal Art (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 24–41, reprinted in

172 Notes to Pages 12–21

the enlarged edition of Robert Goldwater, Primitivism in Modern Art (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1986), 293. 34. Turning the Feather Around, 79. 35. “Peintres Americans de Paris,” Combat: Le Journal de Paris, May 4, 1953, clipping of the original article and a typescript of an English translation, GM/MHS. While Morrison was in France, his work was included in a group show, Four Indians, at the Birmingham Museum of Art (1953), with Helen Boswell (Cherokee), Woody Crumbo (Pottawatomi), and Yeffe Kimball; see “Colorful Indian Art is on Exhibit at Museum,” Birmingham Post Herald, June 3, 1953, clipping in GM/MHS. On Yeffe Kimball’s Indian identity, see Bill Anthes, Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940–1960 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006), 117–41. 36. Turning the Feather Around, 92. 37. For icon and index in art, see Richard Shiff, “Performing an Appearance on the Surface of Abstract Expressionism,” in Michael Auping et al., Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1987), 98. 38. Turning the Feather Around, 94. 39. See ibid., 92, and Colette Roberts, press release (March 1954) from Grand Central Moderns, Tweed Museum Archives. 40. “Center Buys Painting: Grand Portage Proud of Chippewa Tribal Artist,” Minneapolis Star, Feb. 12, 1954, 28. 41. Roberts, press release (March 1954). 42. S. T., quoted in “Season 1953–1954, Member Exhibits,” a press release from Grand Central Moderns, Tweed Museum Archives. 43. For the primitivism of Matta and Wifredo Lam, see Maurer, “Dada and Surrealism,” 582, 585. 44. See Josef Helfenstein, Louise Bourgeois, The Early Work (Urbana–Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum, 2002), 30, 143. 45. Louise Bourgeois, “Artist’s Statement,” Design Quarterly, no. 30, 18 (1954); quoted in ibid., 34. 46. Orazio Fumagalli, quoted in press release from UMD News Service, Nov. 1, 1954, Tweed Museum of Art archives. 47. Earl Fineberg, “Morrison Exhibit Hung in Tweed,” Duluth News-Tribune, Nov. 7, 1954, Tweed Museum of Art archives. 48. Ibid. 49. Turning the Feather Around, 98. 50. Thomas Messer used the term “subject-evoking form” to describes shapes in Will Barnet’s work in the mid-1950s; see Thomas Messer, Will Barnet [exh. cat.] (Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1961), n. p. 51. Ann Eden Gibson, Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997), 59. 52. Turning the Feather Around, 99. 53. On push and pull, see Hans Hofmann, Search for the Real and Other Essays, edited by Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr., rev. ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1967), 44. 54. See Truman T. Lowe, ed., Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser (Washington, D.C., and New York: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in association with the University of Washington Press, 2004).

55. Turning the Feather Around, 101. 56. Ibid., 104, and St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 2, 1958, 3, clipping in GM/MHS. 57. Turning the Feather Around, 98. An earlier version of Plant Variations (watercolor and ink on paper, 1953), now in the collection of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, was exhibited in his 1954 solo show at Grand Central Moderns; for a color reproduction, see Bruce Bernstein et al., Contemporary Masters: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, vol. 1 (Indianapolis, Ind.: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, 1999), 56. 58. John K. Sherman, “George Morrison’s Art Lyrical and Subjective,” Minneapolis Star, Feb. 13, 1959. 59. Turning the Feather Around, 105. 60. Ibid., 117–18. 61. Ibid., 99. 62. Hazel Belvo, quoted in Turning the Feather Around, 113. 63. Morrison, in ibid., 112. 64. Ibid., 111–12. 65. “Recent Oils by George Morrison,” press release, Grand Central Moderns, Nov. 1960, artist’s file, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota. 66. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 100. 67. Ibid., 101. 68. Ibid., 120. 69. See her comments in Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 120. 70. According to Margot Fortunato Galt, because Morrison liked puns, she expects that when he chose the title Ex-Patriot, “all sorts of connotations [were] swirling around in his mind.” See her letter to Lydia L. Wyckoff, July 8, 1997, Philbrook Museum of Art Archives. 71. Later he created Surrealist Landscape. Dubuffet (ink on paper, 1984), shown in George Morrison: Small Paintings & Drawings (1948– 1997) at the Joy Kopps Gallery in Duluth (1998). For a comparison with Dubuffet, see Rob Silberman, “A Long Look at the Art of George Morrison,” Artpaper 10 (Sept. 1990), 17. On CoBrA (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam), see H. H. Arneson, History of Modern Art, 3rd ed. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1986), 446–47, and www.cobramuseum.nl/en/cobra.html. 72. Belvo, quoted in Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 131. 73. See Mary Sue Comfort’s notes of a conversation with George Morrison and Hazel Belvo (1986), e-mail to Kristin Makholm, March 1, 2012, MMAA archives. 74. For Nevelson and the surrealist notion of the marvelous, see Diane Mullin, “Louise Nevelson,” in Kristin Makholm, ed., Our Treasures, 68. 75. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 128. 76. Morrison, quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 58. 77. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 128; on chance elements, see 142. For Gottlieb’s Indian-inspired primitivism and the similarity of his grid structure to indigenous art of the Northwest Coast, see Rushing, Native American Art, 161–68. 78. Morrison, quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 58.

79. Alfred Frankenstein, “Survey of Indian Art at de Young Museum,” San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 1, 1954, GM/MHS. 80. Fourth Invitational Exhibition, Indian Arts and Crafts, Department of the Interior, 1968, Amon Carter Museum Archives. 81. Mitchell A. Wilder to George Morrison, June 10, 1971, Amon Carter Museum Archives. Wilder’s astonishment reflects the fact that it was atypical for the museum to collect the work of a living (abstract) artist. 82. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 145; for Belvo’s comments about the distinct personalities of the collages, see 146. 83. According to Morrison, the relationship of part to whole was based on the repetition of the “main proportions”; ibid., 146. 84. Ibid., 128. 85. Cf. Silberman, “A Long Look,” 17. 86. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 146. 87. Ibid., 161. 88. “Landscape: Wood Collage (1983),” typescript of an object description in the George Morrison Archives, Red Rock, Grand Portage Indian Reservation. 89. Ibid. 90. Philip Larson and George Morrison, George Morrison [exh. cat.] (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1973), n. p., and “Exhibition of George Morrison Drawings to Open April 15,” Walker Art Center, March 16, 1973. 91. Morrison, quoted in George Morrison, 1973, n. p. 92. Ibid. 93. Ibid. 94. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 147. 95. Mike Steele, “George Morrison Weaves Heritage into Landscapes,” Minnesota Tribune, April 22, 1973, Amon Carter Museum Archives. 96. Richard Conn to Martin Friedman, March 23, 1973, Walker Art Center Archives. 97. Martin Friedman to Richard Conn, March 15, 1973, Walker Art Center Archives. 98. Gallery Notes: George Morrison Drawings (1973), Amon Carter Museum Archives. 99. Ibid. 100. Cherie Doyle, Impressions [exh. cat.] (St. Paul: Macalester College, 1978), n. p. 101. George Morrison, quoted in Patrick Houlihan, Invitational Drawing Show [exh. cat.] (Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1977), n. p., Heard Museum Archives. 102. George Morrison, Paper Collages: The Artist Series [exh. cat.] (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1983), n. p., Weisman Museum of Art Archives. 103. Smith, an enrolled Salish, Member, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, Montana, has a distinguished exhibition history, including Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Landscapes of an American Modernist at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe (2012). 104. Morrison, Paper Collages, 1983. 105. George Morrison: Paper Collages [exh. cat.] (Duluth: Tweed Museum of Art, 1984), n. p. On the punning aspect of the paper collages, see Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 178.

173 Notes to Pages 21–33

106. Evan M. Maurer, The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art [exh. cat.] (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1977), 131, 232, 274, 319. 107. My comments about Evan M. Maurer’s motivations are based on a telephone interview with him (March 21, 2012). I am pleased to thank him for his candor and generosity. 108. Ibid. 109. Maurer, Native American Heritage, 131. 110. Ibid. 111. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 155. 112. Morrison, quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 58. 113. Ibid., 58, 60. 114. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 155. 115. Allan M. Gordon, “Confluences,” in Confluences of Tradition and Change/24 American Indian Artists [exh. cat.] (Davis, Calif.: Richard L. Nelson Gallery in cooperation with the C. N. Gorman Museum and the Museum of the Southwest, 1981), 6. 116. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 155. 117. Ibid., 178. 118. Barnett Newman’s painting The Wild (1950), whose dimensions are 9¾ × 15⁄8 inches, was made to demonstrate that “size and scale were distinct properties.” See Ann Temkin, ed., Barnett Newman [exh. cat.] (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002), 188. 119. On the sources and circulation of copper (objects) in the Great Lakes tradition, see David S. Brose, James A. Brown, and David W. Penney, Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1985). 120. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 154. 121. Alain Kirili, “Lingaistics,” Art in America 70 (May 1982): 123. 122. Ibid., 124. 123. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 175. 124. Kirili, “Lingaistics,” 124. 125. Ibid., 123. On Morrison’s awareness of the linga as a “very obviously phallic shape” and its religious function in India, see George Morrison, quoted in “A Time of Visions: Interviews by Larry Abbott” (1998), www.britesites.com/native_artist_interviews/gmorrison.htm, accessed Feb. 3, 2012. 126. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 175. 127. Elman R. Service, Profiles in Ethnology (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), 18. 128. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 175. 129. Cf. Rushing, “Modern Spirits,” in W. Richard West, Jr., et al., ed., Essays on Native Modernism, 62. 130. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 175. 131. George Morrison, quoted in “A Time of Visions.” 132. George Morrison, “Artist’s Statement, Horizon Series” (1987); see also Turning the Feather Around, 175. 133. David W. Penney, “George Morrison,” in Contemporary Masters, 21. 134. See their comments in Turning the Feather Around, 159. 135. Rushing, “Modern Spirits,” 57.

174 Notes to Pages 33–46

136. For Morrison and Belvo’s comments on the Witch Tree, see Turning the Feather Around, 149–50. 137. Turning the Feather Around, 175. 138. George Morrison, “The Artist’s Statement,” in Lyndel King, George Morrison: Entries in an Artist’s Journal (Minneapolis: University Art Gallery, 1983), n. p. 139. These comments on serial painting are taken directly from my essay, “Troubling Abstraction: Robert Houle’s Indigenous Modernism,” in Mark Cheetham, Gerald McMaster, and W. Jackson Rushing, Troubling Abstraction: Robert Houle (Hamilton, Ontario: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, McMaster University, 2007), 29. 140. See his artist statement in Morrison, Horizon, n. p. 141. Ibid. 142. Ibid. 143. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 168, 170. 144. The other name Caribou dreamed for him was “Turning the Feather Around”; see ibid., 167. 145. Mason Riddle, “George Morrison,” Arts Magazine 65 (Oct. 1990): 105. 146. Ibid. 147. Dorothy Field to George Morrison, April 24, 1948, GM/MHS. 148. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 70. 149. Oscar B. Jacobson, Kiowa Indian Art (Nice, France: l’Edition d’Art C. Szwedzicki, 1929); see also Janet C. Berlo, “The Szwedzicki Portfolios of American Indian Art, 1929–1952,” part I, American Indian Art Magazine 34 (Feb. 2009): 37–39. 150. Oscar B. Jacobson to George Morrison, April 14, 1947. 151. Jeanne Snodgrass to George Morrison, July 2, 1964, Jeanne Snodgrass King Collection, Native American Artists Resource Collection, Heard Museum. 152. Jeanne O. Snodgrass, American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory (New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1968), 125. 153. See my comments about Jeanne Snodgrass King in Proceedings: Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century Conference (Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1991), 37–38, and hers on 49–50. 154. Lee Udall to George Morrison, Oct. 26, 1967, GM/MHS; Edna H. Massey to George Morrison, Nov. 29, 1967, GM/MHS. 155. John Vanausdall to Martin Dewitt, May 17, 1999; “George Morrison Named First ‘Master’ Artist,” Indian Trader (June 1999): 13, King Collection; and John Vanausdall “Introduction,” Contemporary Masters, 3. 156. Bruce Bernstein, “Philosophies, Histories, Identities,” Contemporary Masters, 12. 157. Ibid. 158. See my review, “National Museum of the American Indian,” American Craft 65 (Feb.–March 2005): 53–55. 159. W. Richard West, Jr., “The Art of Contradiction,” in Essays on Native Modernism, 8. 160. Rushing, Native American Art, 97–190. 161. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 23, and quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 53.

162. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 29, 24, 37. 163. Quoted in Katz, Song Remembers, 55–56. 164. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 35, 31–32, 45, 56. 165. Ibid., 42. 166. Anthes, Native Moderns, 110. 167. George Morrison, quoted in Gibson, Abstract Expressionism, 64. 168. See ibid., 64 and 215, n. 31. 169. Ibid., 64–65. 170. According to Maurer, except for a reference to red jasper as his totem stone, Morrison never “claimed any special knowledge” about Native spirituality; telephone interview, March 21, 2012. 171. In the wake of the Museum of Modern Art’s primitivism debacle in the mid-1980s and in a critique of the equally, if differently, problematic Magiciens de la Terre exhibition in Paris (1989), Rasheed Araeen wrote that Western humanism had failed to recognize “the modern aspirations of the ‘other.’” See his essay, “Our Bauhaus, Others’ Mudhouse,” Third Text 6 (Spring 1989): 14. 172. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 135. 173. George Morrison to Jim Wilson, Nov. 10, 1969, GM/MHS. 174. Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again (published posthumously in 1940). 175. Maurer, telephone interview, March 21, 2012. 176. Ron Libertus, “Foreword,” in Martin Friedman, Ron Libertus, and Anthony M. Clark, et al., American Indian Art: Form and Tradition (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1972), 6. 177. Ibid. 178. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 141. 179. Ibid., 151. 180. Ibid., 154. 181. Guy and Doris Monthan, “Daybreak Star Center,” American Indian Art Magazine 3 (Summer 1978): 32. 182. He was also the subject in 1976 of a biography for young readers written by one of his best friends from his years on the East Coast: Dragos D. Kostich, George Morrison: The Story of an American Indian (Minneapolis: Dillon Press, 1976); see especially 62, where Morrison’s return to Minnesota in 1970 is discussed in terms of his readiness to satisfy an obligation he owed to his people. Kostich was a scholar of international relations and a former World War II freedom fighter from Yugoslavia, with whom Morrison maintained a warm correspondence over many years; see Morrison’s letters to Kostich and his wife, Jeanne, in the Tweed Museum Archives. 183. Jamake Highwater, The Sweet Grass Lives On: Fifty Contemporary North American Indian Artists (New York: Lippincott & Crowell, 1980), 148–52. 184. Edwin L. Wade and Rennard Strickland, Magic Images: Contemporary Native American Art (Philbrook Art Center and University of Oklahoma Press, 1981), 4. 185. Evan M. Maurer to George Morrison, Nov. 21, 1985; thanks to Beth Bahls at the University of Michigan Museum of Art for locating this letter and the checklist of Morrison drawings.

186. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 99. 187. W. Jackson Rushing, “Contested Ground,” New Art Examiner 19 (Nov. 1991): 26. 188. Ibid., 26–27. 189. Paul Brach, “Essay,” in Nancy H. Liddle and Jaune Quick-toSee Smith, et al., Our Land/Ourselves: American Indian Contemporary Artists (New York: University at Albany, 1990), 5. 190. See Margaret Archuleta and Rennard Strickland, Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century (New York: New Press for The Heard Museum, 1991), 52, 61, 91, 98. 191. George Morrison in Proceedings: Shared Visions, 43. 192. Ibid. 193. Ibid., 59. 194. Ibid., 46. 195. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 183. 196. Ibid., 181. 197. George Morrison, quoted in Sam Olbekson, “Beyond the Horizon: An Interview with Anishinabe Artist George Morrison,” Akwe:kon Journal 10 (Spring 1993): 33–34. 198. Jeffrey Kastner, “Environmental Essence,” Minneapolis StarTribune, March 12, 1992. 199. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 174. 200. Harold Rosenberg, Art and Other Serious Matters (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 191. 201. Morrison, quoted in Olbekson, “Beyond the Horizon,” 30. 202. See his comments in Philip Larson and George Morrison, George Morrison, n. p. 203. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 175. 204. Morrison, quoted in Olbekson, “Beyond the Horizon,” 43. 205. Mark Rothko, “The Romantics Were Prompted,” Possibilities 1 (Winter 1947–1948), reprinted in David Shapiro and Cecile Shapiro, eds., Abstract Expressionism: A Critical Record (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 398. 206. Gerald Vizenor, “George Morrison: Anishinabe Expressionism at Red Rock,” in Lowe, Native Modernism, 45. 207. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 173. 208. Ibid., 154. 209. Anthes, Native Moderns, 90. 210. Peter Spooner, “Patrick DesJarlait,” in Kristin Makholm, ed., Our Treasures, 37. 211. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 150, 149. 212. Marry Abbe, “Distinguished Artist George Morrison Dies,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 18, 2000, Native American Artists Resource Collection, Heard Museum. 213. “George Morrison: His Art Enriched Our Lives,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 19, 2000, George Morrison Archives. 214. Chris Casey, “A Bridge Between Two Cultures, Artist George Morrison Dead At 80,” Duluth News-Tribune, April 18, 2000, Tweed Museum Archives. 215. Andrea Carlson, e-mail to the author, May 29, 2012. On Carlson and northern landscape imagery, see my article, “Andrea Carlson’s Ravenous Vision,” American Indian 9 (Fall 2008): 38.

175 Notes to Pages 46–62

216. Silberman, “A Long Look,” 16–17. 217. J.K.R., “George Morrison Debut,” 19. 218. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 173. Chronology 1. Unless otherwise noted, biographical information comes from the following sources: George Morrison, Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art, ed. Margot Fortunato Galt (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998), Dragos D. Kostich, George Morrison: The Story of an American Indian (Minneapolis, Minn.: Dillon Press, 1976), and the George Morrison Papers, Minnesota Historical Society’s Gale Family Library (hereafter GM/MHS). Where conflicting dates have been given by different sources, facts have been checked against all available primary sources. 2. “George Morrison Wins Art Prizes,” June 6, 1942, unidentified clipping, GM/MHS. 3. Before the church was erected, the Morrison home was used as the site for services. George’s father was less involved with the Catholic Church but was a principal singer at wakes and traditional ceremonies. His mother was a more devout Catholic and raised George as such. 4. Morrison’s Horizon [VHS] (Minneapolis: Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1998). 5. George Morrison, “Remarks, May 8, 1958,” Cook County Historical Society’s Overlook (June 2000), 1, GM/MHS. 6. Morrison, quoted in Bob Ashenmacher, “Through Adversity, Artist Nurtured a Talent,” Accent North News-Tribune & Herald, May 27, 1984, 14, GM/MHS. 7. “Morrison’s Horizon,” VHS (1998). 8. GM/MHS. 9. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 50. 10. Certificate, GM/MHS. 11. ASL catalogue citation courtesy of Pamela N. Koob, The Art Students League, e-mail to W. Jackson Rushing, Nov. 9, 2011. 12. Art News, GM/MHS 13. “Art Student Plans New York Exhibit,” Duluth News-Tribune, June 30, 1946, GM/MHS. 14. Ibid. 15. Edward Alden Jewell, “Review,” New York Times, Dec. 1946, GM/MHS. 16. George Morrison, “Three Blind Juries,” League (Winter 1946): 11, GM/MHS. 17. Lawrence Dame, “Regarding Art,” Boston Sunday Herald, July 6, 1947; GM/MHS. 18. Howard Devree, “Matters of Moment at Midsummer,” New York Times, July 27, 1947, GM/MHS. 19. Peter Hastings, ed., The Annual & Biennial Exhibition Record of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1918–89 (Madison, Conn.: Sound View Press, 1991), 25. 20. “Abstraction Continues to Reign at Whitney,” Art Digest, Dec. 15, 1947, GM/MHS. 21. Alberta Collier, “Exhibit’s Prizes Set New Record,” TimesPicayune (New Orleans), Feb. 15, 1948, GM/MHS. 22. Dorothy Field to George Morrison, April 24, 1948, GM/MHS.

176 Notes to Pages 62–156

23. J.K.R., Art Digest 22 (May 1, 1948): 19, GM/MHS. 24. Typescript of an English translation of an article, “Kunstchronik,” which appeared in the Basler National Zeitung, June 15, 1948, GM/MHS. 25. Earl Fineberg, “East U.S. Mecca for Artists,” Duluth NewsTribune, Dec. 11, 1949, 2, GM/MHS. 26. P. L., “Morrison’s Quarry Colors,” Art Digest (May 1950), GM/ MHS. 27. “George Morrison Wins Paris Scholarship,” Cook County News-Herald, July 17, 1952, 1, GM/MHS. 28. Typescript of an English translation of G. M., “Peintres américains de Paris: à la Galerie Craven,” Combat: Le Journal De Paris, May 4, 1953, GM/MHS. Typescript of an English translation of LouisPaul Favre, “Grand Central Moderne de New-York,” Les arts, July 1953, GM/MHS. 29. Earl Fineberg, “Career Artist,” Duluth News-Tribune, Feb. 28, 1954, 5, GM/MHS. 30. “Colorful Indian Art on Exhibit at Museum,” Birmingham Post Herald, June 3, 1953, GM/MHS. 31. Morrison, quoted in Fineberg, “Career Artist,” 5. 32. “About Art and Artists,” New York Times, May 18, 1954, GM/ MHS. 33. “Center Buys Painting: Grand Portage Proud of Chippewa Tribal Artist,” Minneapolis Star, Feb. 12, 1954, 28. 34. Alexander Fried, “Indian Art at de Young Museum,” San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 5, 1954, GM/MHS. 35. Paintings by George Morrison, exhibition file, Walker Art Center Archives. 36. Hastings, ed., Exhibition Record of the Whitney, 1918–1989, 295. 37. Donald M. Rupp to George Morrison, Sept. 17, 1956, GM/ MHS. 38. Grand Central Moderns, “George Morrison: Paintings (Jan. 25– Feb. 13, 1957),” press release, GM/MHS. 39. George Morrison, “Remarks, May 8, 1958,” in Cook County Historical Society’s Overlook (June 2000): 1. 40. Grand Central Moderns, “George Morrison: Recent Paintings (April 15–May 3, 1958),” press release, GM/MHS. 41. H. M., “George Morrison,” Arts 33 (Feb. 1959), GM/MHS; Stuart Preston, “Art: 50 Painters in Show,” New York Times (Feb. 7, 1959), GM/MHS. 42. George Morrison, artist statement, Dayton Art Institute (1960), Ryerson Library Pamphlet File, Art Institute of Chicago. 43. Betty A. Dietz, “New Yorker, Here to Teach, Sees Art Changing Rapidly,” Dayton Daily News, Feb. 7, 1960, GM/MHS. 44. Grand Central Moderns, Recent Oils by George Morrison (Nov. 26–Dec. 15, 1960), GM/MHS. 45. Sidney Wallach to George Morrison, Dec. 19, 1960, GM/MHS. 46. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 116. 47. George Morrison, “Abstractionism,” in unidentified, undated art journal, GM/MHS. 48. Colette Roberts to George Morrison, April 27, 1962, and Erwin S. Barrie to George Morrison, May 8, 1962, GM/MHS.

49. Katherine Van Tassell, Standing in the Northern Lights: George Morrison, A Retrospective (St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of Art, 1990), 20. 50. George Morrison to Jim Wilson, Nov. 10, 1969, GM/MHS. 51. Morrison, Turning the Feather Around, 137. 52. George Morrison to Jim Hull, May 28, 1970, GM/MHS. 53. Carole Nelson, “Artists Create Home in Former Church,” St. Paul Pioneer Press (March 5, 1972), 1, 6, GM/MHS. 54. GM/MHS. 55. George Morrison, “Ain’t no game like Injuns’—grilling our moral conscience,” Minneapolis Tribune, Feb. 10, 1974, 8–9D. 56. Mike Steele, “Native American Son Brings Artistry Back Home,” Minneapolis Tribune, Dec. 19, 1976, 12D. 57.Ibid.,1D, 12D. 58. Kathryn C. Johnson, “George Morrison: An American Classic,” Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 63 (1976–1977): 84–89. 59. Quoted in Robert San, “Indian Artist Enjoyed Cuban Arts Tour, but Saw Political Use,” Minnesota Daily, Oct. 25, 1979, 8. 60. Richard Hill to George Morrison, Sept. 11, 1979, GM/MHS. 61. Judy Vick, “Vision of Art Vs. Reality of Marriage: Artists Hazel Belvo and George Morrison Share Their Creativity And Their Lives,” Twin Cities Magazine, Oct. 1980, 81. 62. George Morrison to Dragos and Jeanne Kostich, Dec. 1981, Tweed Museum Archives. 63. Fran Addington, “Location of Sam Gilliam Exhibit Makes Powerful Statement of Its Own,” Minneapolis Tribune, Nov. 14, 1982, 2G. 64. Judith Raunig-Graham, “George Morrison,” Report, University of Minnesota publication for faculty and staff, June 1983), 7. 65. Elizabeth Erickson, “An Interview with George Morrison,” Artpaper (Summer 1987): 28.

66. George Morrison, Horizon: Small Painting Series, 1980–87, Tweed exhibition announcement, Tweed Museum Archives. 67. George Morrison to Dragos and Jeanne Kostich, 1990, Tweed Museum Archives. 68. “How an Original American has become an American Original,” advertisement for the exhibition Standing in the Northern Lights: George Morrison, A Retrospective, at the Minnesota Museum of Art, 1990. Minneapolis Star-Tribune, GM/MHS. 69. George Morrison in Proceedings: Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century Conference (Phoenix: The Heard Museum, 1991), 43. 70. Hazel Belvo to George Morrison, April 8, 1994, GM/MHS. 71. Mary Abbe, “Around Town,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, May 1, 1995, 1E. 72. Judy Arginteanu, “Turning toward the Horizon,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 20, 1998, 1B, 2B. 73. George Morrison to Dragos and Jeanne Kostich, Dec. 23, 1998, Tweed Museum Archives. 74. Transcript, George Morrison interview with Fred Wasser, weekend All Things Considered, NPR, Dec. 2, 1998, Heard Museum Archives. 75. Arginteanu, “Turning toward the Horizon,” 1B. 76. George Morrison to Dragos and Jeanne Kostich, Aug. 19, 1999, Tweed Museum Archives. 77. Mary Abbe, “State Artist George Morrison Dies,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune April 18, 2000, A1, A9. 78. Mason Riddle, “An appreciation of George Morrison, a brilliant local artist who hung out with Jackson Pollock, who taught at Cornell and RISD, and who happened to be Native,” TC Daily Planet, Jan. 30, 2010, www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/01/28/visual-arts-appreciationgeorge-morrison-brilliant-local-artist-who-hung-out-jackson.

177 Notes to Pages 157–65

Select Bibliography

Note: Archival materials were examined at the following institutions: Art Institute of Chicago; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; the Heard Museum, Phoenix; the Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota–Duluth; University of Michigan Museum of Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota; the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul; and George Morrison’s personal archives at Red Rock on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation.

Abbe, Mary. “Distinguished Artist George Morrison Dies.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 18, 2000. Alloway, Lawrence. “The Biomorphic 40’s.” Artforum 4 (Sept. 1965): 18–22. Anthes, Bill. Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940–1960. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2006. Araeen, Rasheed. “Our Bauhaus, Others’ Mudhouse.” Third Text 6 (Spring 1989): 14. Archuleta, Margaret, and Rennard Strickland. Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century. New York: New Press for the Heard Museum, 1991. Arginteanu, Judy. “Turning toward the Horizon.” St. Paul Pioneer Press, Jan. 20, 1998, 1B–2B. Arneson, H. H. History of Modern Art. 3rd ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1986. Auping, Michael, et al. Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1987. Berlo, Janet B. “The Szwedzicki Portfolios of American Indian Art, 1929–1952.” Part 1. American Indian Art Magazine 34 (Feb. 2009): 37–39. Bernstein, Bruce, et al. Contemporary Masters: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. Vol. 1. Indianapolis, Ind.: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, 1999. Brose, David S., James A. Brown, and David W. Penney. Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1985. Camp, John. “Artist Confronts Life, Death.” St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch, Sept. 7, 1986, 11A.

Casey, Chris. “A Bridge Between Two Cultures: Artist George Morrison Dead At 80.” Duluth News-Tribune, April 18, 2000. Doyle, Cherie. Impressions. St. Paul: Macalester College, 1978. Exhibition catalogue. Erickson, Elizabeth. “An Interview with George Morrison.” Artpaper (Summer 1978): 28. Fineberg, Earl. “Morrison Exhibit Hung in Tweed.” Duluth NewsTribune, Nov. 7, 1954. Frankenstein, Alfred. “Survey of Indian Art at de Young Museum” San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 1, 1954. Friedman, Martin, Ron Libertus, and Anthony M. Clark, et al. American Indian Art: Form and Tradition. Minneapolis, Minn.: Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1972. “George Morrison: His Art Enriched Our Lives.” Minneapolis StarTribune, April 19, 2000. “George Morrison Named First ‘Master’ Artist.” Indian Trader, June 1999, 13. Gibson, Ann Eden. Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997. ———. “Painting Outside the Paradigm: Indian Space.” Arts Magazine 57 (Feb. 1983): 98–104. Goldwater, Robert. Primitivism in Modern Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1986. Gordon, Allan M. “Confluences.” In Confluences of Tradition and Change/24 American Indian Artists, , 6. Davis, Calif.: Richard L. Nelson Gallery, in cooperation with the C.N. Gorman Museum and the Museum of the Southwest, 1981. Exhibition catalogue. “Grand Portage Proud of Chippewa Tribal Artist.” Minneapolis Star, Feb. 12, 1954, 28. Helfenstein, Josef. Louise Bourgeois: The Early Work. Urbana– Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum, 2002. Highwater, Jamake. The Sweet Grass Lives On: Fifty Contemporary North American Indian Artists. New York: Lippincott & Crowell, 1980. Hofmann, Hans. Search for the Real and Other Essays. Rev. ed. Edited by Sara T. Weeks and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1967. Houlihan, Patrick. Invitational Drawing Show. Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1977. Exhibition catalogue. Jacobson, Oscar B. Kiowa Indian Art. Nice, France: l’Edition d’Art C. Szwedzicki, 1929.

179

J.K.R. “George Morrison Debut.” Art Digest 22 (May 1, 1948): 19. Kastner, Jeffrey. “Environmental Essence.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, March 12, 1992. Katz, Jane B., ed. This Song Remembers: Self-Portraits of Native Americans in the Arts. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. King, Lyndel. George Morrison: Entries in an Artist’s Journal. Minneapolis, Minn.: University Art Gallery, 1983. Exhibition catalogue. Kirili, Alain. “Lingaistics.” Art in America 70 (May 1982): 123. Kostich, Dragos D. George Morrison: The Story of an American Indian. Minneapolis, Minn.: Dillon Press, 1976. Kraskin, Sandra, et al. The Indian Space Painters: Native American Sources for American Abstract Art. New York: Baruch College Gallery, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. Larson, Philip, and George Morrison. George Morrison. Minneapolis, Minn.: The Walker Art Center, 1973. Exhibition catalogue. Lee, Janie C., and Melvin P. Lader. Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings. New York: Harry N. Abrams for the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2003. Exhibition catalogue. Liddle, Nancy H., and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, et al., Our Land/ Ourselves: American Indian Contemporary Artists. New York: University at Albany, 1990. Exhibition catalogue. Lowe, Truman T., ed. Native Modernism: The Art of George Morrison and Allan Houser. Washington, D.C., and New York: Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in association with the University of Washington Press, 2004. Exhibition catalogue. Makholm, Kristin, ed. Our Treasures: Highlights from the Minnesota Museum of American Art. St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 2011. Exhibition catalogue. Matisse, Henri. Jazz. New York: George Braziller, 1985. Maurer, Evan M. The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1977. Exhibition catalogue. Messer, Thomas. Will Barnet. Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1961. Exhibition catalogue. Monthan, Guy, and Doris Monthan. “Daybreak Star Center.” American Indian Art Magazine 3 (Summer 1978): 32. Morrison, George, as told to Margot Fortunato Galt. Turning the Feather Around: My Life in Art. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998. ———. George Morrison: Horizon: Small Painting Series, 1980–1987. St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of American Art, 1987. Exhibition catalogue. ———. Paper Collages: The Artist Series Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1983. Exhibition catalogue. ———. Paper Collages. Duluth, Minn.: Tweed Museum of Art, 1984. Exhibition catalogue. Olbekson, Sam. “Beyond the Horizon: An Interview with Anishinabe Artist George Morrison.” Akwe:kon Journal 10 (Spring 1993): 33–34. Proceedings: Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century Conference. Phoenix: Heard Museum, 1991.

180 Select Bibliography

Read, Herbert. The Grass Roots of Art. New York: Wittenborn, 1947. Riddle, Mason. “George Morrison.” Arts Magazine 65 (Oct. 1990): 105. Rosenberg, Harold. Art and Other Serious Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. Rosenblum, Robert. Mark Rothko: Notes on Rothko’s Surrealist Years. New York: Pace Gallery, 1981. Exhibition catalogue. Rothko, Mark. “The Romantics Were Prompted.” Possibilities 1 (Winter 1947–1948), reprinted in David Shapiro and Cecile Shapiro, eds., Abstract Expressionism: A Critical Record, 398. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Rubin, William, ed. “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art. vol. 2. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984. Exhibition catalogue. Rushing, W. Jackson. “Contested Ground.” New Art Examiner 19 (Nov. 1991): 26. ———. “National Museum of the American Indian.” American Craft 65 (Feb.–March 2005): 53–55. ———. Native American Art and the New York Avant-Garde: A History of Cultural Primitivism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995. ———. “Troubling Abstraction: Robert Houle’s Indigenous Modernism.” In Troubling Abstraction: Robert Houle, edited by Mark Cheetham, Gerald McMaster, and W. Jackson Rushing. Hamilton, Ontario: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, McMaster University, 2007. Exhibition catalogue. Service, Elman R. Profiles in Ethnology. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. Sherman, John K. “George Morrison’s Art Lyrical and Subjective.” Minneapolis Star, Feb. 13, 1959. Silberman, Rob. “A Long Look at the Art of George Morrison:” Artpaper 10 (Sept. 1990): 16–17. Snodgrass, Jeanne O. American Indian Painters: A Biographical Directory. New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1968. Steele, Mike. “George Morrison Weaves Heritage Into Landscapes.” Minnesota Tribune, April 22, 1973. Temkin, Ann, ed. Barnett Newman. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002. Exhibition catalogue. Touchette, Charleen. “George Morrison (1919–2000): Standing on the ‘Edge of the World.’” American Indian Art Magazine 27 (Winter 2001): 83. Van Tassell, Katherine. Standing in the Northern Lights. St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of Art, 1990. Exhibition catalogue. Vizenor, Gerald. The Everlasting Sky: Voices of the Anishinabe People. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000. ———. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999. Wade, Edwin L., and Rennard Strickland. Magic Images: Contemporary Native American Art. Philbrook Art Center and University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. Exhibition catalogue. West, W. Richard, Jr., et al. Essays on Native Modernism: Complexity and Contradiction in American Indian Art. Washington, D.C., and New York: National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, 2006.

Contributors

Netha Anita Cloeter earned an M.A. in art history at the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. from Valparaiso University. She has delivered conference papers and written for Artfocus, published by the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, where she was a 2011–2012 fellow in curation and art criticism. Kristin Makholm is executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul. She earned her Ph.D. in art history from the University of Minnesota and has held curatorial and research positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, where she organized exhibitions on Latin American art, the prints of Roy Lichtenstein, nineteenth-century German prints and drawings, and the art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. From 2004 to 2009 Makholm was director of exhibitions and galleries at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her publications include German Expressionist Prints: The Marcia and Granvil Specks Collection (2003), Paradigm Shift: Kinji Akagawa at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2009), and numerous essays on Minnesota artists for catalogues published by the Jerome Foundation. W. Jackson Rushing III is Eugene B. Adkins Presidential Professor of Art History and Mary Lou Milner Carver Chair in Native American Art at the University of Oklahoma. He earned his Ph.D. in art history from the University of Texas at Austin. A former fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he has written extensively about modern and contemporary art, including Native American Art and the New York Avant-Garde (1995), Native American Art in the Twentieth Century (1999), and Allan Houser: American Master (2004). His co-authored volume, Modern By Tradition (1995), received the Southwest Book Award for 1996. Rushing’s essays and art criticism have appeared in Art on Paper, Art Journal, American Craft, American Indian Art Magazine, Flash Art, Sculpture Magazine, and Third Text. Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) earned an MFA from Pratt Institute. A painter whose art has been exhibited internationally in dozens of solo shows, she also has work in the permanent collection of numerous institutions, including the Denver Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, the National Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, where she will have a retrospective exhibition in 2015. A professor emeritus at Cornell University, she received the Lee Krasner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2011) and the Distinguished Artist Award in the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art (2003). She is represented by the June Kelly Gallery in New York City.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Modern spirit : the art of George Morrison / W. Jackson Rushing III and Kristin Makholm ; foreword by Kay WalkingStick. — First [edition]. pages cm “Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison is organized by the Minnesota Museum of American Art and Arts Midwest, in cooperation with Plains Art Museum.” Issued in connection with an exhibition held June 16–Sept. 1, 2013, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota, and at four other institutions at later dates. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8061-4392-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8061-4393-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Morrison, George, 1919-2000—Exhibitions. I. Makholm, Kristin. Journey toward George Morrison, Minnesota artist. II. Rushing, W. Jackson. Modern spirit. III. Morrison, George, 1919–2000. Works. Selections. IV. Plains Art Museum (Fargo, N.D.) N6537.M656A4 2013 759.13—dc23 2013001555

Copyedited by Melanie Mallon Design and composition by Julie Rushing Set in Frutiger LT Std and Serifa Std Image prepress by University of Oklahoma Printing Services Jacket design by Tony Roberts Printed and bound by Four Colour Imports, Ltd.