A Style all our own: canadian woodland artists
September 27, 2024 — May 25, 2025
In the early 1960s, young Indigenous artists from the Great Lakes region created a unique style of painting known as the Woodland School of Art. Early members of this prolific art community included Norval Morrisseau, Carl Ray, Roy Thomas, Sam Ash, Jackson Beardy, and Daphne Odjig. Perhaps the best-known of the group is Norval Morrisseau, who is often referred to as the “Father of the Woodland School.”
Woodland artists are often noted for the stylistic outline of figures and the infusion of First Nations myths, stories, and symbolism. Morrisseau’s original conception of Woodland style drew upon his immediate geography north of Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada. Yet, his work and influence quickly made its way south to the United States, where it crosspollinated with artists from The Six Nations (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora) as well.
During the mid-1970s, Bernie Rink (Director of the Osterlin Library at Northwestern Michigan College) organized an exhibition of contemporary Woodland artists for the campus and community. Following the exhibition, Mr. Rink acquired 97 artworks from Great Grassland Graphics for the NMC art collection. With the construction of the Dennos Museum Center in 1991, the entire Woodland collection of prints—along with the original Inuit art collection—was formally transferred to the museum for care and display.
This current exhibition features almost half of the entire Woodland print collection originally exhibited and purchased by NMC in the mid-1970s.
Image (detail): Jackson Beardy, Flock. c. 1973, Serigraph print on paper. From the DMC Permanent Art Collection.
