Norval (Copper Thunderbird) Morrisseau

(Anishinaabe, 1932-2007)

Shaman Thunderbird Apprentice, c. 1997

acrylic on paper

signed in Cree syllabics (along lower right edge)

30 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches.

This lot is located in Denver.

This lot is accompanied by an attestation of authenticity signed by Ritchie Stardreamer Sinclair and dated May 9, 2025.

Provenance:

The Artist.

Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Acquired directly from the above, c. 1997.

Lot Note:

Norval Morrisseau is widely considered a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. His early works, often executed on found or discarded materials such as birch bark, emulated ancient pictographs. As he became acquainted with the techniques of European modern art, starting in the 1950s, Morrisseau’s style progressively incorporated a bright palette of deeply saturated colors and modernist draftsmanship with stylized, heavily contoured forms. Shaman Thunderbird Apprentice is an exceptional example of Morrisseau’s late, mature output.

Throughout his career, Morrisseau’s pictorial vocabulary remained his own, a savvy and controlled combination of legends, dream-like imagery and bold, graphic lines and motifs reminiscent of Fauvism and even contemporaneous Pop Art. Here, the figure of the shaman as spiritual mediator holds profound significance for the artist at a personal level. As a young man, Morrisseau was given the name Copper Thunderbird by a Medicine Woman in the hopes that it would heal the grave illness afflicting him. He has ever since credited the name for saving his life, and signed his work accordingly, in Cree syllabic. At its core, Morrisseau’s work remains deeply rooted in personal experience and cultural heritage, invoking rituals and legends that have fashioned and carried his people from time immemorial.

Shaman Thunderbird Apprentice, c. 1997