George Morrison (artist)

George Morrison (1919 – April 17, 2000) was an American landscape painter and sculptor. His Indian name was Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing In the Northern Lights).

1919 born, Chippewa City, MN

1934-38 attended Grand Marais High School

1943-46 attended Art Students League, New York,NY

1952-53 attended University of Aix-Marseilles, An-en-Provence, France, under Fulbright Scholarship

1953 awarded John Hay Whitney Fellowship

1963 appointed Assistant Professor of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

1969 awarded degrees of Honorary Master of Fine Arts, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, MN

1970 appointed visiting professor of Studio Arts and American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

1983 retired, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

A Chippewa born on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation near Chippewa City, Cook County, Minnesota, he graduated from Grand Marais High School in 1938 and then the Minnesota School of Art, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, in 1943.

Having been chosen to receive the Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship, Morrison studied at the Art Students League from 1943 -1946 in New York City, where he became part of a circle of abstract expressionists.

In 1952 after receiving a Fulbright scholarship he studied in Paris and Antibes.

He lived in Duluth, Minnesota for year and then moved back to New York City in 1954 where he became acquainted with prominent American expressionists: Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock.

He then taught in Minneapolis, Duluth, Dayton, Ohio, Ithaca (Cornell University), Pennsylvania (Penn State), and New York City.

From 1963-1970 Morrison taught at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Beginning in 1970 he taught American Indian studies and art at the University of Minnesota until he retired in 1983.

He lived in a renovated church in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his son Briand and his wife, Hazel Belvo, another Minnesota artist, who taught at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Saint Paul Academy and is known for her series of pieces based on the Witch Tree.

During the mid-1970s, they acquired land near Grand Portage, Minnesota on Lake Superior, which they named Red Rock. This became their home and studio. He and Belvo divorced in 1991 but remained friends. Morrison suffered some life-threatening illnesses but kept on working until he died at Red Rock in April 2000.

He is well known for wood collage sculptures and for the landscape paintings he preferred.

Title:Untitled [sepia version]Date created:1987Artists/Makers:George Morrison, Minnesota Chippewa [Grand Portage, Minnesota], 1919-2000Series:Horizons seriesEdition:23/35Place:Minnesota; USA (inferred)Format/Object name:PrintMedia/Materials:Paper, inkTechniques:Lithographed, woodcut/woodblock printedCollection History/Provenance:Formerly in the collection of Terrence D. Curley; donated to NMAI in 2001 in memory of Olga M. Waisanen (1927-1995).Dimensions:189.3 x 65 cmCatalog number:25/9064

• 1948-1960: Grand Central Moderns Gallery - New York City, NY
• 1949: Hart Gallery - Duluth, MN
• 1950: Ed Weiner Gallery - Provincetown, MA
• 1954: University of Minnesota - Duluth, MN
• 1955: Shorter College - Rome, GA
• 1957: University of Georgia - Athens, GA
• 1960: Dayton Art Institute - Dayton, OH
• 1961: State College of Iowa (now known as the University of Northern Iowa) - Cedar Falls, IA
• 1962: Cornell University - Ithaca, NY; Antioch College - Yellow Springs, OH
• 1967: Academy of Fine Arts - Lynchburg, VA
• 1973-1974: George Morrison: Drawings, traveling exhibition: Walker Art Center - Minneapolis, MN; Heard Museum - Phoenix, AZ; Art Museum of South Texas - Corpus Christi, TX; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (now known as the Amon Carter Museum of American Art) - Fort Worth, TX
• 1976: Minneapolis Institute of Arts - Minneapolis, MN; Bethel College - Saint Paul, MN
• 1978: Macalester College - Saint Paul, MN; University of Wisconsin–Stout - Menomonie, WI; Carl N. Gorman Museum, University of California - Davis, CA
• 1983: University of Minnesota - University Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN
• 1984: “George Morrison: Paper Collages,” Tweed Museum of Art - University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN;
• 1987-1988: “Horizon: Small Painting Series 1980-87,” Minnesota Museum of American Art - St. Paul, MN
• 1990: “Standing in the Northern Lights: George Morrison, A retrospective,” circ., Tweed Museum of Art - University of Minnesota, Duluth and the Minnesota Museum of Art, St Paul, MN.
• 1998: "Morrison's Horizon," Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program, Minneapolis, MN
• 2010: "From the Minnesota Museum of American Art", Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 2013–2014: Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison, traveling solo retrospective curated by the Minnesota Museum of American Art - Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND; National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center; Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art; Heard Museum; Minnesota History Center