As Morrisseau’s popularity grew, so did the criticism. Now showing works all across Canada, into the northeastern United States, and with his first European exhibit to open in 1969, critics, gallerists, and art fans didn’t know what to make of his work. Was it modern? How could it be contemporary if it was from an Indigenous self-taught artist from Canada? The word that kept coming up over and over again was still primitive. Morrisseau’s work was anything but primitive.
It wasn’t until the 1969 exhibition in the south of France, where his works were exhibited in areas that hailed artists like Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, that Morrisseau’s work was finally taken seriously. Posters for the exhibit marketed the artist as “The Picasso of the North,” leading to some long-deserved recognition as an artist and establishing his international reputation.
Mishomis
For the years that followed, Norval Morrisseau continued to paint and confound galleries and museums across Canada. Furthermore, it was obvious that a new generation of artists was inspired and influenced by Morrisseau. In the 1980s, his contemporary work was being purchased, for the first time ever for an Indigenous artist, by modern art museums. In 1984, a show called Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers took place in Ontario.
As the years passed, Morrisseau continued to struggle with alcoholism, tuberculosis, and Parkinson’s disease. He wasn’t making as much of his colorful, flowing, and eye-popping artwork anymore. By the early 2000’s, some contemporary artists had never seen his work in museum collections, often they were not on display. His career culminated in 2006 when the National Gallery of Canada mounted an retrospective of Morrisseau’s career. It was the first time that a contemporary Indigenous artist had an exhibit there. Thankfully, it also renewed interest in Morrisseau’s art, with a cemented understanding of his work within the history of Canadian art.
The following year, Norval Morrisseau, Copper Thunderbird, “The Picasso of the North,” died due to complications his Parkinson’s. Now, he is forever known as Mishomis, the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art.