“I am an Indian,” Norval Morrisseau declared when a journalist asked him who he really was.
The occasion was the first exhibition at a Toronto gallery in 1962 by the 32-year-old unknown Anishinaabe painter—at which every work was sold.
The exhibition marked the beginning of an extraordinary career. Morrisseau would continue to sell everything he produced, have his work included in the collections of most major Canadian museums, see one of his images reproduced on a Canada Post stamp, decorate a pavilion at Expo 67, exhibit at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, receive the Order of Canada, publish a book on Ojibwa legends, be commissioned to paint a cover for Time magazine, become the subject of numerous books and documentaries on his art, and be the first aboriginal artist to have a solo show at the National Gallery of Canada.
He was once considered to be Canada’s premier artist, certainly its most celebrated, if not notorious...
Lewis DeSoto is the author of two novels and a biography of Emily Carr. His first novel, A Blade of Grass (HarperCollins, 2004), was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and was an international bestseller.
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