The truth behind 'Open Letter to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society'

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~ Revised on November 11th, 2010 / June 29th, 2013

Post originally published more than 5.5 years ago on December 2nd, 2007-









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"Norval Morrisseau Collage" - compiled by Spirit Walker

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Dear Committee members of the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society,

My name is Spirit Walker ( my personal name can be available by contacting me at spiritwalker2008@gmail.com ). I am the BLOG Master of the NORVAL MORRISSEAU BLOG that addresses different issues of the Art of Norval Morrisseau. I have recently confronted Mr. Bryant Ross, who is the gallery director of Coghlan Art Studio/Gallery, by asking him indirectly how could he make such statements that all the paintings for sale on eBay are fakes? He has replied to me with quoted comment below:
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"Hi, my name is Bryant Ross and I am the director of Coghlan Art Studio and Gallery. I am the individual you refer to. My warning on E-bay is not meant to scare anyone. It is meant to inform the public about the status of the Morrisseau paintings on E-bay. I am doing this at the request of the artist himself. Out of all the paintings that I have displayed on my web site you had no trouble picking out the 2 fakes. I bought these 2 paintings from a dealer from Winnipeg. When Morrisseau told me that they were not his I realized that I had been ripped off and I took them off the market. I have since donated them at my own expense to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society to use as example of the fake paintings. It has never been stated that all the galleries in Canada have fake paintings. But there are many fakes in the marketplace. You seem to think that the motivation in this is money. The fact is that Norval Morrisseau does not want his legacy to include these fake paintings."

I have a special request for your organization that many of the readers of this BLOG would like to read about. Can you please verify that you have received these two paintings from Mr. Ross as he stated in his correspondence directed to me. These two paintings that he considers fake are at the top left corner and at the bottom right corner of my posting titled "Norval Morrisseau Collage" compiled by myself (click on image above to enlage it for closer examination). I presented these two paintings in question for the public to see how they compare with other paintings that are in my opinion original works of Norval Morrisseau.

Thank you,

Spirit Walker
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Note: Committee members of NMHS as of December 2nd, 2007 were as follows: -

* Viviane Gray - Indian and Inuit Art Centre, Dept. of Indian Affairs & Northern Development;
* Lee Ann Martin - Curator of Contemporary Canadian Aboriginal Art, Museum of Civilization (NOT A MEMBER ANYMORE);
* Elizabeth McLuhan - Dept. of History, University of Winnipeg;
* Dr. Ruth Philips - Professor of Art History;
* Greg Hill - Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada;
* Richard H. Baker - Barrister and Solicitor.

~ For a list of the current NMHS committee members click HERE.


> To learn more about the story which preceded the the 'Open Letter to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society' click HERE.


The paintings in this posting are authentic works of © Norval Morrisseau/

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BLOG MASTER'S COMMENTS:

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"Water Spirits", 1979 - Acrylic on canvas, 54" x 46"

/Click on image for a high resulution Enlargement/

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* Bottom right in 'Norval Morrisseau Collage'-

/www.coghlanart.com original file name: nm72.jpg/

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"Upper and Lower Worlds", 1978 - Acrylic on canvas, 34" x 80"

/Click on image for a high resulution Enlargement/

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* Top left in 'Norval Morrisseau Collage'

/www.coghlanart.com original file name: nm73.jpg/

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These two original Norval Morrisseau paintings were posted at Coghlan Art Virtual Gallery in May of 2005. As per Mr. Bryant Ross' statement "These paintings were guaranteed to be original and authentic and were obtained from the artist or authenticated by him." (click HERE).

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>>> The open letter to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society has NEVER BEEN ANSWERED. I hope that other readers of this blog have more luck when they are addressing NORVAL MORRISSEAU HERITAGE SOCIETY via norvalmorrisseauheritage@gmail.com.
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Actually, the answer on the above question is known and their reply is not really necessary. Mr. Bryant Ross, director of Coghlan Art Studio & Gallery, DIDN'T TELL THE TRUTH when stated that "he donated these two paintings at his own expense to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society to use them as example of the fake paintings". As per his own admission on April 13th, 2008 he contradicted himself by exposing his deceitful nature:

"... I am some what confused. Is Spirit Walker saying these paintings are real or not. If he thinks they are real, then what does it matter what I have done with them. If he thinks they are not real then why does he think so many in this style are real.-These two paintings. Titled “Water Spirits” and “Upper and Lower Worlds” are FAKE. I can call them what they are because I own them. These paintings were put up for auction around the time that I became aware of their status. “Water Spirits” was pulled from the auction because of this and “Upper and lower Worlds” was returned by the buyer for a full refund. I then gave them to Morrisseau and Vadas to be forwarded to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society. The society did not have storage space for them so Morrisseau kept them. After he passed on they were returned to me. I still have them and will be using them in a forensic analysis of Morrisseau’s work. My hope is that forensic study can shed some light on what is happening here. This process will take considerable time to complete so do not except any instant information. I will make these findings public when I have them. This is at my own expense and is being done by an un-biased third party..."

/Click HERE to view comment of Mr. Bryant Ross in its entirety or click HERE for its screen capture but I strongly advise to read the post Morrisseau History Detective Stories (Part I) with all of its pertaining comments./

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Note: A Winnipeg art dealer mentioned in original post above was Mr. Antony (Tony) Martinenko who acquired above presented art pieces from Mr. Rolf Schneider of Thunder Bay, Ontario and sold them through Coghlan Art Studio & Gallery, Aldergrove, BC (Director, Mr. Bryant Ross).
 

* Many paintings presented on this blog were acquired from Mr. Rolf Schneider's Private Collection including paintings that come with Certificates of Authenticity signed by the artist and forensically authenticated for signatures on canvas versos (click HERE).
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>> An anonymous commented for this post (published 2 days before Norval Morrisseau's passing) as follows:

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"Bryant Ross claims to have donated the 2 supposedly fake paintings to the NMHS. Am I missing something or did I see at least one if not both of them up for auction just after they came off his website?? Does anybody else remember these pieces - I think they were then up for auction on one of the Live ebay auctions from a seller out west - the one with the fish didn't sell if I recall - Am I missing something or has the untouchable Bryant Ross been caught selling what he considers fakes to the unsuspecting public??? Someone please correct me if I am wrong." 07 December, 2007 15:39

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> Even Ritchie 'Stardreamer' Sinclair gave to one of these paintings a compliment: "And a beautiful Morrisseau it is - so embued with Vision!" 24 December, 2007 01:58 only to label it at a later date as an "Inferior Counterfeit Morrisseau" at his defamatory website www.morrisseau.com (click HERE or HERE).

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IMPORTANT NOTES: This painting titled "Water Spirts" which, as per comment above, was supposed to be forensically analyzed at Mr. Ross' "own expense and is being done by an un-biased third party", was actually defaced on January 27, 2010 by Mr. Bryant Ross of Coghlan Art Studio & Gallery in Aldergrove, BC (click HERE). This act of cultural genocide was reported by Ms. Katie Mercer ( "The Province" reporter) in her "Portrait of a scandal" article which content was in full support by Kinsman Robinson Galleries as posted on their twitter at http://twitter.com/KinsmanRobinson (click HERE to view a twit which surfaced on the day of Ms. Katie Mercer's print/online article or click HERE for this twit's screen capture).

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* This online article "Portrait of a scandal" has been deleted by "The Province" editors and as of August 2010 it is not available for viewing anymore (click HERE for a screen capture of this online article). Printed version of this article, in which an important statement from the 'National Art Gallery of Canada' was taken out of context to support Katie Mercer's newspaper article, will be presented on the NORVAL MORRISSEAU BLOG very soon.

> Click HERE for detailed analysis of this genuine Norval Morrisseau painting's destruction by Mr. Bryant Ross.
 

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CLOSING STATEMENT: Why are they silent? Is their silence approval for what has been happening in Canadian courtrooms and in the Norval Morrisseau Art Market?

If they truly care in "protecting the integrity of Norval Morrisseau's art" they would need to speak up. Their inactions "continue to hurt the legacy" of the man they are supposed to protect. 

Actually they have already "lost all credibility" in the eyes of those whose "art collections and livelihoods" are being "devalued and destroyed."

Ugo Matulić a.k.a. Spirit Walker
/spiritwalker2008@gmail.com/

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>>> Reference posts:
- The story which preceded the 'Open Letter to the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society'... & - Blasphemy (Part II).

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