Saturday, October 24, 2009

Morriseau Speaks Through His Art


Norval Morriseau was one of a small group of native artists who pioneered a unique native style of painting in Canada. His works featured solid colours, hard lines, and separated areas. This picture, lacks perspective and variety of tonal values. It speaks in a flat language for acceptance for what it is. There are no shades to the realities Morriseau gives us in this work. It has an impressionistic reality of its own, like a huge transfer lifted off a rock petroglyph, then compacted and interwoven.

I find that his art, creates more questions than answers. But then again, I am not native.

It is open ended. Is the snake and the penis one and the same along the trail along the bottom of the picture?

Is there an intentional heirarchy in the work, with the central person being dominant?

Are there symbols and meanings in birds, and snakes that are known only to native shaman?

Or, is the unity and interconnection what its all about and if it is, what really matters beyond this? And if there are only questions and no answers, then is that the answer? Is it an existential statement that it simply exists. No more, no less?

Blog readers are welcome to participate in this discussion posting.

2 comments:

  1. I am grasping the inter-connectedness notion a little bit and totem animals being sentient mythical beings as well as being smarter than we know...those blastid crows/ravens are animal geenyuses...with memories and attitudes. So I guess this is part of what Ol Norval knew and that his world view was infused with the weight of thousands of years of his people living among animals that had a far greater significance for them than we are familiar with. I have no idea what the Norv was up to but it does look good and I'll work on getting a better understanding or at least pay a little attention.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find it interesting how much this artist's style resembles classic Mayan painting in codexes and wall murals throughout Southern Mexico and Central America!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for posting your comments.
ATTENTION SPAMMERS: Comments with links to other websites, will not be accepted.

A message for anonymous posters: Comments will be accepted provided they are thoughtful and articulate.

Reciprocating comments between posters will not be accepted. Sorry - I have no intention of giving readers the opportunity to engage in flame wars. It won't happen.

Fredericks-Artworks Blog, copying policy


The Canadian Copyright act, section 29 reports on fairdealing, that it is not an infringement to reproduce someone else's work for research, study, criticism, review or to report. Which pretty much sums up what this site is about. All content sources, be they artists, printed references, and website url's are respectfully identified on this site. http://http//www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/rsc-1985-c-c-42/latest/rsc-1985-c-c-42.html

Mission Statement
A Portrait of the Visual Arts in Canada, is intended to celebrate the richness of Canada's visual arts, and to promote the arts in Canada.

Statement of Intent
I make every effort to credit the sources of information used in this blog and to obtain the permission and cooperation of all the works presented by living artists. I try, as much as possible to use works from public sources eg. national and provincial collections, of deceased artists. If for any reason, any artist disapproves of anything written about them or their work the artist is encouraged to request withdrawal of the content.