This endeavor is new for the Maslak McLeod Gallery on many levels. We have never had for resale a single collection in its entirety of this importance, aesthetic clout, or breadth. It contains the major themes of Norval Morrisseau's artistic achievement, in which he reorders the myth of the Anishnabec and places the Woodland Native People in a major position within North America. Each painting is a master use of composition, colour, and unit order. The provenance of this collection is: artist - owner - gallery.
Few artists have the gift or the ability to fulfill the criteria that establishes the reputation of a really great artist, a creator of masterworks. Certain artists speak for a time in history, some speak for a place, others speak for a people, some are natural and magical technicians, others perfect a new way of seeing, which is universal for an entire world. Rare, indeed, is the artist-painter who does all of these.
Norval Morrisseau speaks for the Ojibwa, The Woodland Indian of Canada. He paints their mythological past and their fierce future potential. He paints his people larger than life, spiritually huge. He created a method of depiction that had not previously existed. He based it on the ancient petroglyphs, pictograph language symbols, stained-glass windows of remembered missionary churches, flat and brilliant colours of the brutal North of Canada, as well as his own fertile imagination. He speaks in the universal voice of a master painter for all who will look, investigate and understand. Indeed, Morrisseau paints masterpieces.
The Norval Morrisseau Shaman Artist solo exhibition, the first for an aboriginal artist in the art history of Canada, left the National Gallery in Ottawa and travelled throughout Canada. It was exhibited at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and is now finishing its run in New York City at the American Museum of Indian Art.
This exhibition places Morrisseau among the highest ranking artists of the world. He spoke for a people, for a time, and created a unique style that is unmistakable. MorrisseauÕs work helped bring the world to a new social understanding of indigenous people. He did this while developing an aesthetic that produced an entire new school of art - The Woodland School Ð which is currently in its second generation. No major collection can be considered complete without a painting by Norval Morrisseau.
Maslak McLeod Gallery now has a major collection available that was sought by the National Gallery of Canada but held in family for commercial sale. The pieces are large, striking, museum quality, and important. For further information and detailing on each of the paintings phone or visit the gallery.
Joseph McLeod
Maslak McLeod Gallery
Maslak McLeod Gallery - Norval Morrisseau - The Subway Collection
