"St. Rose Herself, My Spiritual Wife", © 1971 Norval Morrisseau

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>>> 'The Globe and Mail' article featuring painting titled 'St. Rose Herself, My Spiritual Wife' which is offered for sale in the outskirts of the GTA
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~ St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852)
Also Known as: The Lady of Mercy; Woman Who Prays Always
------------------~ Feast: November 18
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"St. Rose Herself, My Spiritual Wife", 40"x26"
acrylic on artboard, © 1971 Norval Morrisseau /Click on image to Enlarge/
~ Acquired directly from Shayne Gallery, Montreal, QC by the current owner in 1975; Earlier in 1975 "St. Rose Herself, My Spiritual Wife" was also exhibited at Jack Pollock's gallery (Pollock Gallery), Toronto, ON.
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>>> Currently availabe for purchase at the Old Downtown Gallery, Orangeville, ON (see also 'Woodland Art Rising' website) / 800-903-8626 or 519-942-2010 & info@olddowntowngallery.com /.
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New Morrisseau works show he's settled inner conflict

The Globe and Mail, 1975

Norval Morrisseau whose posi­tion as a major modern Cana­dian painter is secure at the relatively early age of 44, appears to have resolved a long-standing cultural and spiritual conflict, to arrive at a new horizon - with his vision, serenity and balance in­tact.

The nature of Morrisseau's conflict, often visible as disturb­ance and struggle in the artist's work from 1962 until last year, was the surface opposition of Christianity and the religion of the artist's Ojibway ancestors.

The evidence of 24 new paint­ings by Morrisseau, now on display at the Pollock Gallery on Dundas Street West, indicates he may have finally touched that point in his own creative centre where the two spiritual rivers meet in harmony.

Morrisseau's story-telling power, his love for and depiction of Indian myth and legend and his unique balance of color, line and .space are all present in the new acrylics on paper and can­vas, but a unifying element has appeared. It embraces the Chris­tian and pre-Christian elements of the mystical content in his painting to synthesize a calmer and gentler reality.

The themes Morrisseau has chosen for most of the new works are indicative of the internal bal­ancing that has taken place.
They include:
- Self-Portrait: The Higher Power Within;
- St. Rose Herself, My Spirit­ual Wife (see the image above);
- Nature's Balance;
- My Religion - Wise Wife. Har­riet - Not Spiritual.

Nowhere is the new Morrisseau more evident than in the self-portrait. It is a full-size profile figure, strongly painted in the blocks of color and line charac­teristic of all Morrisseau work. Uncharacteristic is the pure, clean fire burning within the head. The hand of the figure is upraised and linked to the new power source, symbolizing the unity of spirit and function.

This sense of unity, which per­haps resolves, at least at the ar­tistic level, conflicts between the two cultures in which Morrisseau must live, is also evident in Na­ture's Balance and Nature's Em­bryo, a related work.

In these, Morrisseau returns to the fish, bird and animal forms of his earlier work, but the forms are less tortured. They seem to seek liberation. In earlier work they succumbed like victims, submitting without understand­ing to the traps and hazards of their environments. The new paintings have hope; the old were charged with nostalgia and resistance to change.

Morrisseau. whose name in translation from the Ojibway means Copper Thunderbird estimates that his ancestry makes him about one-fourth French, but he considers himself 100 per cent Ojibway by choice, tradition and training.

His development as an artist, which was painful and difficult, is not related to his Grade Four education in the white man's schools. After the usual employ­ment difficulties an Indian en­counters in Northern Ontario Morrisseau was forced against his will to enter a sanitarium for treatment of tuberculosis. He be­lieved, and perhaps still does be­lieve, that Indian medicine would be more effective. Who can say if it was science or Indian medicine that helped him recover in just 10 months.

It was while Morrisseau was in the sanitarium that he dreamed with absolute certainty of a new destiny for himself. He has been compelled ever since to express through painting the ancient lore of his people.

At first, Shamans and tradi­tionalists fought his ambitions, warning that trouble would result if he broke taboos and revealed his people's spiritual secrets. But Morrisseau’s dream - which he describes as "decisive, a sure sign of protection in the bright blue of day and the dark blue of night” - had more authority.

Since he began showing his work in 1961, a school of Indian artists, all accomplished and rec­ognized, has formed about him.

Morrisseau himself has begun to rely increasingly on his direct visionary experience as source material for his art. His visions, which tell him he has lived seven previous lives, are neither drug nor alcohol-induced. He does not use stimulants or depressants. But they're so real he sometimes tries to hold on to a handful of square gold coins or human hair when returning from a visionary experience to a normal state.

One of the largest paintings in his current show - Portrait of the Artist and His Four Wives - was executed in 30 minutes, immediately after such an experience. He painted precisely what he saw in his vision, including one young and particularly beautiful wife in tears. She was crying and pleading for him to stay with her, among the Assiniboin Indi­ans of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Her clothes are sewn with porcupine quills and moose hair.

Morrisseau says he has painted the truth - and the year was 1500.
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by James Purdie
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>>> Reference posts:
- French & American History Through the Art of Norval Morrisseau (Part I),
~Painting once exibited in the Pollock Gallery currently offered for sale in the outskirts of the GTA~,
- "Nature's Balance", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau,
- "Artist and His Four Wives", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau,
- The Art of Norval Morrisseau in Galleries and Museums Around the World (Part III),
- "The Beaver" article about Norval Morrisseau (Part I).
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* The painting: "St. Rose Herself, My Spiritual Wife", 40"x26", acrylic on artboard, © 1971 Norval Morrisseau; Acquired directly from Shayne Gallery, Montreal, QC by the current owner in 1975; Earlier in 1975 "St. Rose Herself, My Spiritual Wife" was also exhibited at Jack Pollock's gallery (Pollock Gallery), Toronto, ON.
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>>> Currently availabe for purchase at the Old Downtown Gallery, Orangeville, ON (see also 'Woodland Art Rising' website) / 800-903-8626 or 519-942-2010 & info@olddowntowngallery.com /.
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