George Morrison (artist)

George Morrison
Shoulder-high portrait of a man in his seventies, with gray hair, wearing glasses a striped shirt and a vest made of patchwork suitings
Born 1919
Chippewa City, Cook County, Minnesota
Died 2000 (aged 80–81)
Red Rock, near Grand Marais, Minnesota
Occupation Abstract Expressionist Painter and Sculptor
Spouse(s) Hazel Belvo
Children Briand

George Morrison (1919 – April 17, 2000) was an American landscape painter and sculptor. His Indian name was Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing In the Northern Lights).[1]

He is well known for wood collage sculptures and for the landscape paintings he preferred.

Early life and education

Morrison is of Chippewa ancestry. He was born in 1919 on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation near Chippewa City, Cook County, Minnesota. He attended Grand Marais High School, graduating in 1938, and then the Minnesota School of Art, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, graduating in 1943.[1]

Having been chosen to receive the Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship, Morrison studied at the Art Students League from 1943 to 1946 in New York City, where he became part of a circle of abstract expressionists.

In 1952 after receiving a Fulbright scholarship he studied in Paris and Antibes,[1] and at the University of Aix-Marseilles. In 1953 he was awarded a John Hay Whitney Fellowship.

Later life

He lived in Duluth, Minnesota for years and then moved back to New York City in 1954 where he became acquainted with prominent American expressionists: Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock.[1]

He then taught in Minneapolis, Duluth, Dayton, Ohio, Ithaca (Cornell University), Pennsylvania (Penn State), and New York City.[1]

From 1963-1970 Morrison taught at the Rhode Island School of Design.[1]

In 1969 he was awarded an Honorary Master of Fine Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Beginning in 1970 he taught American Indian studies and art at the University of Minnesota until he retired in 1983.[1]

Personal life

He lived in a renovated church in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his son Briand and his wife, Hazel Belvo,[1] another Minnesota artist, who taught at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Saint Paul Academy and is known for her series of pieces based on the Witch Tree.

During the mid-1970s, they acquired land near Grand Portage, Minnesota on Lake Superior, which they named Red Rock.[1] This became their home and studio.[1] He and Belvo divorced in 1991 but remained friends. Morrison suffered some life-threatening illnesses but kept on working until he died at Red Rock in April 2000.[1]

Selected solo exhibitions

Title:Untitled [sepia version]Date created:1987Artists/Makers:George Morrison, Minnesota Chippewa [Grand Portage, Minnesota], 1919-2000Series:Horizons seriesEdition:23/35Place:Minnesota; USA (inferred)Format/Object name:PrintMedia/Materials:Paper, inkTechniques:Lithographed, woodcut/woodblock printedCollection History/Provenance:Formerly in the collection of Terrence D. Curley; donated to NMAI in 2001 in memory of Olga M. Waisanen (1927-1995).Dimensions:189.3 x 65 cmCatalog number:25/9064

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Riddle, Mason (January 30, 2010). "An appreciation of George Morrison, a brilliant local artist who hung out with Jackson Pollock, who taught at Cornell and RISD, and who happened to be Native". Twin Cities Daily Planet. Retrieved January 30, 2010.

References

  • H. H. Arnason, History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. 3rd ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1986.
  • Joseph Bruchac, The Heye Center Opens in Manhattan with Three Exhibitions of Native Arts, (Smithsonian v25 n7 p. 40–49 Oct 1994) ISSN 0037-7333 OCLC 93642777
  • William Rubin, "Arshile Gorky, Surrealism and the New American Painting," In Henry Geldzahler, New York painting and sculpture: 1940–1970, (New York, Dutton 1969.) OCLC 45703 pp. 372–402
  • W. Jackson Rushing, Native American art and the New York avant-garde : a history of cultural primitivism, (Austin : University of Texas Press, 1995.) ISBN 0-292-75547-3, ISBN 978-0-292-75547-5
  • Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4
  • Smithsonian Institution Research Information System; Archival, Manuscript and Photographic Collections, George Morrison

Further reading

  • W. Jackson Rushing III, Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2013. ISBN 978-0-806-14393-4.
  • George Morrison in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
  • Minneapolis Institute of Arts (n.d.). "works of George Morrison". Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  • Ask ART (2004). "George Morrison". Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  • Archuleta, Margaret, The Heard Museum, The White House (n.d.). "Twentieth Century American Sculpture - Exhibit VI: Red Totem (1980)". Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  • The Minnesota Museum of American Art (n.d.). "Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison". Retrieved 2013-10-09.
  • Art and Life of George Morrison: A "Beyond The Book" Special. PBS. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
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