Norval Morrisseau: Man Changing into Thunderbird

by Armand Garnet Ruffo

Norval Morrisseau (1932–2007), Ojibway shaman-artist, drew his first sketches at age six in the sand on the shores of Lake Nipigon, and his first paintings were in cheap watercolour on birch bark and moose hide. By the end of his tumultuous life, the prolific self-taught artist was sought by collectors, imitated by forgers and received the Order of Canada among other accolades. Critics, art historians and curators alike consider him one of the most innovative artists of the twentieth century and arguably Canada’s greatest painter. Morrisseau was a controversial figure too, eliciting everything from resentment to outright condemnation. Living on booze, flat broke and exhausted, he often traded art for a drink, to the frustration of his agents. Despite immense talent and success, his alcoholism plunged his wife and children into poverty and he spent years bouncing between skid row and jail. In  Norval Man Changing Into Thunderbird , Ruffo draws upon years of extensive research, including interviews with Morrisseau himself, to recollect the artist’s life in all its triumphs and his first solo and breakthrough exhibition at the Pollock Gallery in Toronto; his legendary “Garden Party” where he and his agent Jack Pollock flew a coterie of critics and patrons from Toronto to remote Beardmore for an afternoon tea party. Here too is Morrisseau’s heart-wrenching battle with alcoholism, then Parkinson’s disease, and exultant “Shaman’s Return” to national status in the Canadian art scene and his solo show at The National Gallery of Canada. Armand Garnet Ruffo draws upon his own Ojibway heritage and experiences to provide insight into Morrisseau’s life and iconography in this brilliantly creative evocation of the art and life of Norval Morrisseau, a life indelibly tied to art.

Genres: Indigenous, Art, Biography, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2014

Reviews

[Emmett Grogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armand Garnet Ruffo has done an incredible job, compressing the full scope of Morrisseau's life and work into one volume of biography. I was worried that the book would gloss over certain periods of Morrisseau's life, or peter out at the end, but the author struck the exact right balance between being comprehensive, yet not getting too bogged down with the details of such a complicated life.

Calling an artist "complicated" is usually a euphemism for "pain in the ass".

For me, saying an artist had a complicated life is a high compliment: as they made art, they lived a life of vastly different experiences from the average person, in pursuit of immortality for their craft. Norval Morrisseau was a "complicated" man, and he lived a complicated life, but the paintings he left behind are genius.

"Man Changing into Thunderbird" has convinced me that Norval Morrisseau was the most interesting Canadian of the 20th century (forget Pierre Trudeau, or any of the other "great Canadian lives" that spring to mind): Norval Morrisseau rounded ALL the bases, on his way home.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think this book should have won any award.
The writing is repetitive and juvenile at times.
At one point Norval has a fever "hotter than a Jesuit at the stake."
That made me cringe.
Norval's biography is a litany of drunken stupor and artistic production.
I found it hard to like the man but his art is stunning and full of wonder.
I give the book about 4/10.

[John Jantunen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was kind of blindsided by Man Changing Into Thunderbird, in a most delirious way. Truly, it was one of the most engaging pieces of prose I've read in a good long while and one of the most incisive explorations of the artistic process I've ever read. What was so impressive about it was that Armand was really able to put the reader in the moment which I gather from the book was Norval's genius when producing his art. In doing so, Armand managed to create a genuine work of art himself by seemingly channelling the spirit of another artist, a rare feat indeed and one that, in my experience, is unparalleled.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This portrait of Norval Morrisseau by Armand Garnet Ruffo shows us a man obsessed with three things: alcohol, transmission and transformation.

Alcohol is a problem too familiar to need comment except to note that Morrisseau brought the same extraordinary intensity to this form of self-destruction as he did to his creative work. Fortunately, his physical resilience and restorative energy permitted him to return again and again to his painting. In once sense, painting was his life and his salvation. He had to control his drinking if he was to paint. In another sense, painting was simply the vehicle through which he pursued his two other obsessions: transmission and transformation.

Morrisseau set it as his life goal to learn and transmit the culture of his people: “For my people, not now but in the future”. He was an Anishinaabe from Lake Nipigon raised primarily by his grandparents with a bitter four year period at a residential school. His people he referred to as “The Great Ojibway” and with a dedication that characterized his entire life he set about learning the stories, beliefs and images of that culture and then finding a way to transmit what he learned. He published Legends of My People: The Great Ojibway and produced thousands of paintings thereby bringing to the attention of Canada, and then the world, a way of being that was disappearing. It is too early to tell if Morrisseau truly succeeded in his goal: a transmission must be received and fully understood for the activity to be complete. Only the future will reveal what people do with his efforts generations from now. But as Ruffo makes clear in this book, Morrisseau did what he could. And it is an achievement that deserves our ongoing attention.

The third obsession of Norval Morrisseau was transformation: from child to man to artist to artist/shaman. The complexity of the transformations are not as simple as that sequence suggests because nothing human ever is and Norval Morrisseau was human with an intensity and breadth that is rare. Ruffo shows us those many transformations with a context and clarity that masks the enormous challenge the author faced in presenting a wealth of inspiring and dispiriting detail. The paintings are one thing to describe: Man Changing into Thunderbird. The human is something else.

This is a smooth, lucid, difficult read. The challenges faced by Norval Morrisseau to create a life as an artist/shaman were huge. And he made them even greater by his relationship with alcohol. He was not an easy man to be with: a fact that Ruffo makes very clear. But Morrisseau had an intensity that attracted and fascinated people, enabling him to garner help when most needed. And that same intensity also enabled him to return again and again to his goal of becoming an artist/shaman and a transmitter of the culture of his people.

Gratitude is due Armand Garnet Ruffo for undertaking this task and producing such a fine book.

[Barry Mutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Armand Ruffo is a poet. He skillfully elevates Norval Morrisseau's life to occupy a position on a pedestal well above a world that physically destroyed him. Morrisseau is an artist. He is also an Ojibway shaman. His art is spiritual and springs from the land and the culture that Norval Morrisseau was born into. Through the words of Armand Ruffo a reader can experience a world that is timeless and begin to comprehend the creative mind of Morrisseau. Ruffo raises a man ravaged by the street to the Shamanic level he deserves. This is a 5 star book and should belong in the library of anyone interested in art and spirituality.

[Melinda Worfolk]

Read this as part of a project I'm collaborating on re: literature and medicine. I don't know much about the man himself, but I am very drawn to NM's art. This was a complex portrait of a complex man.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dreamy and insightful exploration of this highly unusual and controversial public figure, one of Canada's most accomplished and famous artists.

[Armand Ruffo]

Finalist for a 2015 Governor General's Award

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography about one of Canada's better known artists. Norval was a complicated man. In spite of his lifestyle, so unlike today's idea of a decent life I never lost sympathy for him or interest in his story. The story leaves the reader full of, 'what ifs', what if he was not alcoholic, what if he had not gone out to school, etc. Maybe it is as Norval seemed to believe, it is all as it should be. There are no answers in this book, only questions. A story well told. Armand G. Ruffo did a wonderful job.