Red Lake Woodland Arts Festival: A Tribute to Norval Morrisseau and the Woodland Artists in 22 DAYS!

July 4th-6th, 2008
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Honouring Benjamin Chee Chee (1944 - 1977)
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Freedom, © Benjamin Chee Chee

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"MY WORKS ARE NOT INFLUENCED BY INVENTIONS OF MYTHOLOGY BUT HONOUR THE TOTEMS OF THE PRESENT"

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"GAAWII ZHAAGNAASHII DBAAJMOOWINING NDA NDINZIINAN WA MZINBIIMAA. MAAMPII GO NONGO EYAAJIK GDOODEMNAANIK NDA MNAAJAAK MZINBIIGWAA"

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BENJAMIN CHEE CHEE

MARCH 26. 1944

MARCH 14. 1977

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/Insription on the Benjamin Chee Chee's tombstone at Notre Dame Cemetery, Ottawa, Ontario/

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Born on Temagami Reserve in Ontario in 1944. Benjamin Chee Chee largely taught himself to paint and draw. His father died when he was two months old and his mother was absent for most of his life. Benjamin spent his life looking for his mother hoping to be reunited with her. It is believed this life ambition fueled his desire to succeed as an artist. He met her in the last year of his life. Most of his later art involved a mother with her young.

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Benjamin Chee Chee was a very unique Ojibway artist. Unlike other young Woodland artists he chose not to follow the style of the Woodland Art Movement founder Norval Morrisseau. He was an innovator that adopted a minimalistic graphics style and used elegant flowing lines against a white clean background to create powerful art. He was a master of the simple line.

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Chee Chee's artistic career was very brief. In four short years he had risen to national prominence. Unfortunately, at the peak of his success as an artist, Benjamin Chee Chee committed suicide by hanging himself in an Ottawa jail cell. He was only 32.

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"On March 11, 1977 Chee Chee delivered the 18 paintings he had promised his agent, a collection now known as "the Black Geese Portfolio". He then went to Jimmy's Restaurant on Bank Street, a tavern he frequented. Police were called to find a window had been broken and Chee Chee "boisterous and intoxicated." He was placed under arrest and secured at 6:50 P.M. in police cell no. 10, which was a bare cell for uncooperative prisoners. Mintues later Chee Chee was found hanging from the bars of his cell. He had hung himself with a noose fashioned from his shirt. He died in hospital three days later."

- excerpt from Chee Chee A Study of Aboriginal Suicide written by Al Evans, published by McGill-Queen's University Press 2004.

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For more information about the Red Lake Woodland Arts Festival go to: www.redlakemuseum.com.

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* The painting in this posting: "Freedom", 20"x28", © 1977 Benjamin Chee Chee /Private Collection/