Breaking Down the Walls by Norval Morrisseau

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"Morrisseau Breakthrough", Illustration by Spirit Walker


"It takes a long time to break down walls. If the results of the European arrival in North America are to be understood, it must be in terms of the clash between opposing cultures - one, oral and intuitive; the other, literate and mechanical. The visual arts alone have allowed some limited communication. First, native sensibilities had to adjust to the very notion of art. There is no word in any Indian language that means "art"; native painting always had other significance, either religious or decorative. Morrisseau's revolution changed all that. He made Indian art possible not by ignoring the shamans, but by becoming one himself. A gift from the Thunderbird - his own, even greater, magic." [1]

Christopher Hume
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-[1] - closing statement for an article "The new age of Indian art", published in Maclean's Magazine on January 22, 1979 (p. 24-28); written by Christoper Hume 


* The photograph of Norval Morrisseau used in the above illustration was taken at the opening of his first art exhibition at the Pollock Gallery in Toronto, 1962.