Dr. Cinader’s Morrisseau Paintings

The Cinader collection at the ROM has two significant components. The first consists of fourteen paintings by Morrisseau which span a period from c1961 to 1979 plus original silk screen prints. The second component results from his engagement with young Anishinaabe artists from Manitoulin Island and other northern Ontario communities as a mentor, patron, and sometime marketing agent. Together with the artworks, the museum received an archive of research notes, catalogues from exhibitions he curated, correspondence with Indigenous artists and others, lecture notes and draft texts, slides, art publications, and ephemera including newspaper reviews and invitations to gallery openings. The archive contains only brief references to Cinader’s association with Morrisseau. One letter, from Morrisseau’s partner and agent, Michael Zebryk, relayed Morrisseau’s response to a short write-up on his life that Cinader had sent for approval. Morrisseau “would appreciate very much if you illuminated [sic] the part on his mother being an alcoholic and his experience in jail. The rest sounds OK.” Other letters indicate his desire to meet Morrisseau that were unsuccessful because of the artist’s ill health or the difficulty of pinning down his movements. These brief references do not account for other occasions on which they may have met. Among the ephemera in Cinader’s files there are notices of gallery events, one for a special preview to meet the artist on August 27, 1977 at Pollock Gallery’s exhibition of new paintings of Man Changing into Thunderbird by Norval Morrisseau. Cinader may have found the invitation irresistible.

In 1986 Dr. Cinader curated The Birchbark Sings, an exhibition for Ontario North Galleries at Ontario Place in Toronto, that explored the uses of birch bark for utilitarian purposes and for spiritual and aesthetic expressions. An image of an owl painted on birchbark was one of three Morrisseau pieces in the exhibition (FIG 8) along with additional paintings on birchbark by twelve young Anishinaabe artists. A collection of porcupine quilled and sweetgrass boxes represented ‘crafted art pieces,’ to use Tom Hill’s term, that have relevance to Anishinaabe cultural narratives. Two of the best examples, made by Victoria Osawimak and Maime Migwans, incorporate culturally significant images of eagle and shamans created by artists James Simon and Carl Beam, respectively.

Dr. Cinader’s remarks on the use of colour in several paintings in several paintings in his collection suggest a particular interest in then current research on Morrisseau’s artistic development. His notes describe the 1961 painting Serpent Legend (FIG 9) as “a peak achievement of the first period in Morrisseau’s work. Its colours of black, white and brown relate it to the sacred birch bark scrolls of the Mide ceremonies.” Other colour categories illustrate a period of’ ‘muted browns, ochre and white’ which was followed by the adoption of the ‘multicolours of stained glass’. Cinader loaned Serpent Legend to the 1984 Art Gallery of Ontario exhibition Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers.

He describes Chief (1969) as the "first known work where the multicolours of stained glass replace muted browns, ochres and whites of his early work," and Suckling Children, Mother, Loons (1972) as “a master work of the palette that saw its beginning with the Chief in 1969.” The colours in Woman Suckling Bear (1970), a west coast theme, “represent a return to his earliest paintings in multicolours,” while Indian and Mother Nature (1970) “marks the beginning of a period in which Morrisseau used strong, luminous colours.” The Unity of Man and Animals (1974) “belongs to a series in which new and bold uses of colour are being made and which followed his recovery from serious burns, suffered in Vancouver.” These comments stand in contrast to earlier works like Serpent Legend (1961) that use a limited and subdued range of colours. Cinader describes this early painting as “a peak achievement of the first period in Morrisseau’s work. Its colours of black, white and brown relate it to the sacred birch bark scrolls of the Mide ceremonies.” He lent it to the 1984 Art Gallery of Ontario exhibition Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers. McLuhan refers to the painting in her catalogue essay as an illustration of Morrisseau’s successful adaptation of pictography to a painterly mode.

The Native Sons: Reclaiming indigenous culture and identity

In 1977 Anishinaabe artist Richard Bedwash wrote to Cinader from the Correctional Centre at Guelph in southern Ontario: “we have a group here at the centre called the Native Sons and [a] few of the Boys are artists.” The purpose of the Native Sons is described in a booklet illustrated and issued by Guelph inmates. “The group known as the Native Sons began in the Guelph Correctional Centre in July of 1976. It was initiated by a small group of native inmates who came together for one evening a week with the desire of learning more about their cultural and spiritual heritage. As they continued to meet, their group steadily grew until it encompassed nearly all the native inmates of the institution…. The Native Sons have been able to grow and function effectively in Guelph Correctional Centre without becoming the source of any tension, conflict, or division. In fact, they have gained the respect of the other inmates, the staff, and the administration.”

The time and place were auspicious for establishing the Native Sons group and related programs. The Prison Arts Foundation, created in 1969, promoted creativity as a path for rehabilitation. By 1976 the Guelph Centre already had an ‘open studio’ art program that provided incarcerated individuals with opportunities for creative expression. The Native Sons’ concern with Indigenous culture and identity resonated with the concurrent interest in Morrisseau’s new art elsewhere in Ontario. Sanctioned by the Correctional Centre and supported by outside organizations, Native Sons programs ranged from art, crafts, and Indigenous history and traditions to participation in sweat lodges and other religious ceremonies led by spiritual leaders. Buttons featuring the Native Sons Crest and copies of Native Sons, a small book of poems and drawings by inmates, were sold to raise funds for these programs. The Native Sons programs shared aspects of the Manitoulin summer art programs, within the limits imposed by incarceration. Fred Taylor, another member of the group in the 1970s, expressed the group’s ethos of mutual support, stating simply—“We were there to help each other.” Morrisseau, who had himself spent time in a correctional centre, supported Native Sons and designed a cover for one of its publications.

Bedwash (1937–2007) had been an apprentice with Morrisseau, and at the time of his incarceration his work was represented by the Canvas Gallery in Hamilton. His letters to Dr. Cinader and Selwyn Dewdney, in 1976 and 1977 respectively, tell something of the experience of artists in the Native Sons group. He asked Cinader for patterns, books, booklets or catalogues “to give Group members some ideas of what our Native artists are starting to Create.” In a letter to Dewdney Bedwash admitted he had a lot more to learn, including how to pick colours. He asked for "some samples that would give me some ideas" and noted “I would have a lot of time to study out here as I am doing time here at Guelph Correctional Centre.” Dewdney replied to Richard Bedwash:

As an old art teacher myself the best advice I can give you is to follow the example of Norval Morrisseau. That is just paint what comes into your mind when you think of the stories you’ve heard when you were young or memories of how things were when you were a boy. As you keep trying to turn these memories into pictures you will find that your paintings will have more power, and the forms you paint will become clearer. Just keep painting… and… painting. Lots of luck!”

The Triple K Cooperative Incorporated

Silk screen prints account for a small part of the Cinader collection. The best documented print in the Cinader collection, thanks to information provided by John Vincett who had known Morrisseau from Red Lake days, is based on a colourful self portrait that Norval Morrisseau painted in 1973. Morrisseau depicted himself wearing an elaborate headdress, an image described by Vincett as a sort of “appropriated chieftainship” or perhaps a shaman totem. The self portrait was screened as a linen wall hanging at the Triple K Cooperative print shop in Red Lake a few months later. (FIG 13) John Vincett recalls that Morrisseau was working daily in the print shop in the early 1970s. Intrigued by the screen cutting process, Morrisseau often interrupted his painting to check on the progress of the work.

The Triple K Cooperative print business was operated at Red Lake by Morrisseau’s brothers-in-law Joshim, Henry, and Goyce Kakegamic from late 1973 to the early 1980s. A history of the Triple K describes it as "an initiative to support and promote the growing artistic talents of Indigenous artists in Northwestern Ontario," the Kakegamics, Morrisseau, Saul Williams, Barry Peters and Paddy Peters. In the first year of operations the print shop produced unlimited edition prints, switching to printing original limited-editions in the second year. "Original" in this context meant that the prints were made from drawings designed specifically for the silk-screen process by the artist, who then was involved at every stage of the process and made all artistic decisions. The artist and printers worked together on technical details. As the Triple K’s brochure stated: "Given the Co-Op’s commitment to this standard, we feel that our prints are artistically, technically, and aesthetically distinct from limited editions reproduced from paintings."

Triple K organized a series of successful exhibitions, locally and in urban centres to introduce the business and Indigenous artists of northwestern Ontario, and to attract buyers for prints. It also hired an agent, Roy Maxwell, who had extensive knowledge of the Canadian art market. With his help Triple K prints were distributed across Canada to approximately fifty galleries. The wide distribution was a particularly important opportunity for newer and younger artists in isolated communities to gain recognition and sell their art. In 1975, faced with copyright issues, Triple K hired a copyright lawyer to develop a standard contract covering copyright, reproduction, artistic control, distribution, and royalties to be signed by artists and the Co-Op President. The Morrisseau self portrait print was the subject of a legal dispute over copyright infringement between Triple K and the Department of Indian Affairs. The government claimed Morrisseau had given permission to use the image on greeting cards, a claim that Morrisseau denied. When the Triple K print shop closed in the early 1980s, 180 editions of prints had been printed in just under a decade.

The self portrait by Norval Morrisseau was reproduced on linen, burlap, Kraft paper, and fine art paper. Because the painting on which it was based was richly coloured, especially the headdress, multiple screens were required to create a print. Wall hangings were technically challenging to print and were not considered products that would generate enough funds to cover materials, labour, and royalty payments as well as return any real profit. Given the difficulty of producing prints, John Vincett suggests that there were never more than 100 copies of Self Portrait produced on burlap or paper. Self Portrait was also printed as a limited edition of seventy-five as a fine art print on white paper, each of which was signed by Morrisseau. According to Vincett, the original painting remained in the print shop for several months, which was unusual given the number of visitors, tourists and locals who came to purchase Morrisseau works. An image of the original painting appears in a letter in the Cinader files from the Iroqrafts Crafts and Arts store at Ohsweken, Six Nations dated August 5, 1976. In the letter the owner of Iroqrafts offered six Morrisseau paintings including the Self Portrait for sale to collectors of Indigenous art. Cinader did not take the opportunity to add it to his collection.

Dr. Cinader’s Canadian Indian Renaissance

The period of Dr. Cinder’ active collecting coincided both with a time of increasing public interest in Indigenous art and Morrisseau’s expanding influence on a younger generation of Anishnaabe artists. The last major exhibition he curated was Manitoulin Island—The Third Layer, at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery in 1987. In the exhibition catalogue Cinader extolled Manitoulin as one of Canada’s significant creative centres, and Manitoulin artists as “acknowledged masters of Canadian art’ whether influenced by Morrisseau or following a different path." Cinader’s understanding of the historical importance of contemporary Indigenous art was summed up in his use of the phrase, ‘The Canadian Indian Renaissance.’ For Cinader, the notion of a Renaissance referred to a transformation of Native art that resulted from artists’ success in balancing integration into mainstream Canadian culture with the preservation and adaptation of ancient values. As he wrote in 1977:

Many alternatives have been explored artistically to solve the dilemma between preservation of a magnificent past and the search for a place in the technological and social reality of modern Canada. Artists have attempted to state and to resolve the conflict between affirmation of traditional values and the apparent irrelevance of tribal Indian culture and language to the young generation of Natives who still strive for success and acceptance in the wider Canadian society.