Norval Morrisseau
Canadian, c. 1931–2007
Astral Plain Scouts, 1976
acrylic on canvas
176 x 137 cm
Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Gift of Dr. Louis Cogan
2000-144
Categories:
Painting, Canadian Modern (1910-1979)
Norval Morrisseau’s iconography can be traced to Ojibwa shamanic scrolls, rock pictographs, and petroglyphs from the Great Lakes region. Astral Plain Scouts demonstrates Morrisseau’s attempt to use an ancient mystical concept to negotiate truths found in both his traditional Midewiwin religion and Christianity. In the 1960s he was exposed to the Eckankar spiritual movement. Morrisseau found significance in the idea of an astral plane, a transitory realm of existence between earth and the divine, posited by various branches of religious mysticism, through which the soul travels after death and which can be accessed through meditation and dreaming. The notion of using painting to explore spiritual concepts had been popularized by earlier artists like Lawren Harris and Jock Macdonald.
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