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Benjamin Chee Chee, like Norval Morrisseau, is important as a Native Artist for the complete joy of the visual impact of his created images; yet on a different level he, too, was an innovator. Chee Chee worked, not on the vision of the myths of his Woodland People, but on the visual impact of the line. With the single stroke of a line and little more, he could create the fierce motion of the woodpecker shooting into the green mass of a tree, with three simple lines he could create the impact of the Mother-Canada Goose with her three children. He was a master of the simple line. So much so, that an entire body of artists, from Thunderbay right across the Prairies to the Rockies, employ his technique of direct importance of the line to the meaning of design. The visual impact of one of his silk-prints or originals remains with the viewer forever. Once, having seen a Chee Chee, you could not mistake his work for any other artist.
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Maslak McLeod Gallery - Benjamin Chee Chee, originals, prints
