Significant Magazine/Newspaper articles (Part I)

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~ Time Magazine
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Norval Morrisseau in front of "Self-Portrait, Devoured by His Own Passions"
~ Photography by Tom Moore
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Fierce Clarity and Sophistication
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Time Magazine /Canadian Edition/
~ Published August 25th, 1975
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When he arrived in Toronto for his first one-man show 13 years ago, Ojibway Artist Norval Morrisseau met with publoic sussess and private anguish. Gallery goers who packed into the tiny Pollock Gallery snapped up all 43 of his works in 24 hours, but recalls Morrisseau, "they thought I was a bush Indian, a sauvage. " Tormented by a host of personal doubts and a serious problem with liquor ("my idea of a social drink is 40 ounces"), Morrisseau nearly floundered in the years that followed. Last week, as he opened his fifth, and best, show at the Pollock, there was evidence that he has developed new inner strengths both as a painter and as a man.
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Works by Morrisseau are now in 32 public collections in Canada, and the 29 paintings on view in Toronto are expected to sell $46,000, or ten times the yield of his first show. The National Film Board has completed a documentary, The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau. More than than 40 young Indian artists, inspired by Morrisseau's work, have followed his path away from traditional Indian artifact decora­tion to formal painting.
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As an artist, storyteller and mystic, Morrisseau has spent his life struggling to combine the Ojibway legends that he learned from his grandfather with the stern Catholicism impressed on him by his grandmother. The result is an art of fierce clarity and increasing sophistication. Fearful of a taboo against revealing ancient legends out­side the tribe, he did his first drawings on the sand of beaches near his hometown of Beardmore in northwestern Ontario so the water could wash them away. Then, in a dream, he was assured that he would be protected by the Thunderbird, an Ojibway demigod. He moved to more solid materials, using housepaint on brown building paper, and birch bark. "He even brought in some work done on hides," recalls Jack Pollock. "Migod, they stank." Now Morrisseau uses the ac­coutrements of the conventional painter - best quality artists' board, stretched canvas and acrylic paints - as he dis­covers and explores different ways in which he is able to set out his personal visions.
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"Artist and His Four Wives", 43"x131", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau
~ this art piece was painted in 30 minutes after artist's visionary experience ~
/Click on image to Enlarge/
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The content of Morrisseau's cur­rent works is often more personally revealing than he cares to discuss. The major piece (priced at $6,000) is the Artist and His Four Wives, based on a vision ("clear as a TV picture") that came to Morrisseau as he agonized over a breakup with his wife, Harriet, mother of his seven children. Rejecting the self-image of a wandering husband, he projected himself as a 16th century brave, surrounded by others willing to fill void in his personal life.
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"Self-Portrait, Devoured by His Own Passions", 68"x57",
© 1974 Norval Morrisseau /Click on image to Enlarge/
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In Self-Portrait, Devoured by His Own Pas­sions, painted in Vancouver last summer, he deals with moralistic Chris­tian guilt over yielding to the pleasures of the world, including masturbation, depicted as an arm that becomes a snake attacking his heart. Spirit Enclosed by a Serpent shows a transparent soul, surrounded by vibrant reds, the color of passion, and green snakes, again attacking.
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--Silver Cross. Many of Morrisseau's works have the qualities of stained glass. Black wavy lines of power pro­vide the outlines which are filled in with vivid colors. From his earlier, simpler style, based on specific legends or situations, Morrisseau has moved to more flowing and self-confident works. Dressed in a fringed leather jacket, sewn by a current girl friend, and wearing a heavy silver cross purchased from a church goods supply house, he no longer resembles the shy youth with brush cut and windbreaker who came out of the woods in the early '60s.
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"Nature's Balance", 73"x48", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau
/Click on image to Enlarge/
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"I now believe in peaceful coexistence with myself," as he stood in front of his Nature's Balance, a vibrant interplay of birds, fishes and snakes. "If I had the money and was buying Indian art, this is what I would have on my wall."
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Jon Anderson
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• Click HERE & HERE to view pages 10 & 11 of Time Magazine's printed version of the article "Fierce Clarity and Sophistication" /August 25th, 1975/
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>>> Reference posts:
- Jack Pollock about Norval Morrisseau,
- Recommended readings (Part I),
- Paintings from the Norval Morrisseau's first public exhibition at The Pollock Gallery (Part I), - ~Painting once exibited in the Pollock Gallery .... offered for sale in the outskirts of the GTA~, - The Great Copper Thunderbird's belonging... (Part I),
- "Artist and His Four Wives", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau &
- "Nature's Balance", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau.

~ The paintings in this post: "Artist and His Four Wives", acrylic on canvas, 43"x131", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau (page 117); "Self-Portrait, Devoured by His Own Passions, acrylic on canvas, 68"x57", © 1974 Norval Morrisseau (page 113) & "Nature's Balance", acrylic on kraft paper, 73"x48", © 1975 Norval Morrisseau (page 114). All paintings appeared in "The Art of Norval Morrisseau" /Sinclair, Lister, Jack Pollock, and Norval Morrisseau/ -Toronto, Ontario: Methuen, 1979; ISBN: 0-458-93820-3/