Norval Morrisseau 1931 - 2007

Purchased directly from the artist by Faith Sinclair, Toronto

Private Collection, Toronto

Lister Sinclair and Jack Pollock, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, Toronto, 1979, p. 114, reproduced in colour

This work is in excellent condition with no apparent issues under UV. There are some creases in the exposed brown paper around the edges of the work, a dime-sized discolouration in the lower left corner, and three small water markes along the lower edge of the paper, left of centre and in the extreme lower left corner, visible in the catalogue reproduction. It has not been examined out of the frame.
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Morrisseau, who popularized the Woodland School style of art, was instrumental in the recognition of First Nations art in the late 20th Century in Canada.  He incorporates the lore and legends of the stories told by his Ojibway elders into a visual image and orginated the pictographic style now used by three generations of aboriginal artists.

In his pictures, simple images, heavily outlined in black and with an "X-ray" image of the inside of their bodies, leap from the canvas.  We find birds of all kinds, serpents, bears and beaver. They are flat images, skeletal and economical in their design and execution. They are combined with a unique sense of space and their composition appears to be effortless and flowing.

Nature's Balance, a painting from 1975, is described as follows:

An abstract composition embodying the creatures of the sky, the earth and the water.  The strong lines of communication form a link among these three regions, suggesting the inherent interdependence of all living things and the environmental interaction necessary for their survival.

Morrisseau received the Order of Canada in 1978, and was the first First Nations artist to have a major retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada.