Norval Morrisseau (March 14, 1932 – December 4, 2007), also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Indigenous Canadian

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. He is widely regarded as the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. Known as the "

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

of the North," Morrisseau created works depicting the legends of his people, the cultural and political tensions between native Canadian and European traditions, his existential struggles, and his deep

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

and

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

. His style is characterized by thick black outlines and bright colors. He founded the Woodlands School of Canadian art and was a prominent member of the " Indian Group of Seven."

Biography

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

, Morrisseau was born March 14, 1932, on the Sand Point

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

reserve near Beardmore, Ontario. His full name is Jean-Baptiste Norman Henry Morrisseau, but he signs his work using the

Cree syllabics Cree syllabics are the versions of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write Cree language, Cree dialects, including the original syllabics system created for Cree and Ojibwe language, Ojibwe. There are two main varieties of syllabics for Cre ...

writing ᐅᓵᐚᐱᐦᑯᐱᓀᐦᓯ (''Ozaawaabiko-binesi'', unpointed: ᐅᓴᐘᐱᑯᐱᓀᓯ, "Copper/Brass hunderird"), as his pen-name for his Anishnaabe name ᒥᐢᒁᐱᐦᐠ ᐊᓂᒥᐦᑮ (''Miskwaabik Animikii'', unpointed: ᒥᐢᑿᐱᐠ ᐊᓂᒥᑭ, "Copper Thunderbird"). In accordance with Anishnaabe tradition, he was raised by his maternal grandparents with little connection to his actual parents. His grandfather, Moses Potan Nanakonagos, a traditional Medicine Man and Knowledge Keeper, taught him the traditions and legends of his people. His grandmother, Véronique Nanakonagos, was a devout

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and from her he learned the tenets of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. The contrast between these two religious traditions became an important factor in his intellectual and artistic development. At the age of six, Morrisseau was sent to a Catholic residential school, St. Joseph's Indian Residential School in Fort William, Ontario. There, he and other students were educated in the European tradition, native culture was suppressed, and the use of native language was forbidden. After two years he returned home and started attending a local community school in Beardmore. Morrisseau left the school when he was ten, preferring to learn from elders rather than continuing his formal education. He spent much of his time listening to elders, drawing, fishing, hunting, picking berries, and trapping. At the age of 19, he became very sick. He was taken to a doctor but his health kept deteriorating. Fearing for his life, his mother called a medicine-woman who performed a renaming ceremony: she gave him the new name ''Copper Thunderbird''. According to Anishnaabe tradition, giving a powerful name to a dying person can give them new energy and save their lives. Morrisseau recovered after the ceremony and from then on always signed his works with his new name. When he started painting, he was discouraged from sharing traditional stories and images outside of the First Nation, but he decided to break this taboo. Morrisseau contracted tuberculosis in 1956 and was sent to Fort William Sanatorium to recover. There he met his future wife Harriet Kakegamic with whom he had seven children, Victoria, Michael, Peter, David, Lisa, Eugene, and Christian. After being invited by Ontario Provincial Police Constable, Robert Sheppard, to meet the artist, the anthropologist Selwyn Dewdney became an early advocate of Morrisseau's and was very interested in Morrisseau's deep knowledge of native culture and myth. Dewdney was the first to take his art to a wider public. Jack Pollock, a

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

art dealer, helped expose Morrisseau's art to a wider audience in the 1960s. The two initially met in 1962 while Pollock was teaching a painting workshop in Beardmore.Dear M - Letters From a Gentleman of Excess by Jack Pollock (1989) As Pollock did not drive, Susan Ross whom Morrisseau had met in 1961 Susan Ross "Painting is a Way of Life"- A Retrospective Exhibition, Thunder Bay Art Gallery June 3 – July 17, 1994 page 15 and Sheila Burnford drove Pollock to visit Morrisseau at his home to view more of his works. Struck by the genius of Morrisseau's art, he immediately organized an exhibition of his work at his Toronto gallery. One of Morrisseau's early commissions was for a large mural in the Indians of Canada Pavilion at

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

, a revolutionary exhibit voicing the dissatisfaction of the

First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...

People of Canada with their social and political situation. In 1972, Morrisseau was caught in a hotel fire in Vancouver and suffered serious burns. On that occasion, he had a vision of Jesus encouraging him to be a role model through his art. He converted to the apostolic faith and started introducing Christian themes in his art. A year later he was arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour and was incarcerated for his own protection. He was assigned an extra cell as a studio and was allowed to attend a nearby church. Morrisseau joined the Eckankar movement in 1976 and gave up drinking. He connected Eckankar's emphasis on soul travel through the astral planes to his traditional Ojibway teachings. Morrisseau was the founder of a Canadian-originated school of art called Woodland or sometimes Legend or Medicine painting. His work was influential on a group of younger Ojibwe and Cree artists, such as Blake Debassige, Benjamin Chee Chee, and Leland Bell. His influence on the Woodland school of artists was recognized in 1984 by the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

exhibit ''Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers''. He spent his youth in remote isolation in

northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...

, near Thunder Bay, where his artistic style developed without the usual influences of other artists' imagery. As the sole originator of his "Woodland" style he became an inspiration to three generations of artists. In 1978, Morrisseau was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. As Morrisseau's health began to decline as a result of Parkinson's disease and a stroke in 1994, he was cared for by his adopted family of Gabe and Michelle Vadas. In 2005 and 2006, the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

in Ottawa organized a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

of his work. This was the first time that the Gallery dedicated a solo exposition to a native artist. In the final months of his life, the artist used a wheelchair and lived in a residence in

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. "The Harbour City" was previously known as the "Hub City", which was attributed to its original layout design with streets radiating fr ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He was unable to paint due to his poor health. He died of

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...

—complications arising from Parkinson's disease on December 4, 2007, in Toronto General Hospital. He was buried after a private ceremony in Northern Ontario next to the grave of his former wife, Harriet, on Anishinaabe land. The National Arts Centre, urban ink co-production, ''Copper Thunderbird'', premiered on the

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) is a group of Television in Canada, Canadian Specialty channel, specialty television channels based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The channels broadcast programming produced by or highlighting Indigenous p ...

(APTN) on Monday, February 4, 2008. Norval Morrisseau was honoured with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award during the NAAF Awards show in 2008.

Style

Morrisseau was a self-taught artist. He developed his own techniques and artistic vocabulary that captured ancient legends and images that came to him in visions or dreams. He was originally criticized by the native community because his images disclosed traditional spiritual knowledge. Initially he painted on any material that he could find, especially birchbark, and also moose hide. Dewdney encouraged him to use earth-tone colors and traditional material, which he thought were appropriate to Morrisseau's native style. The subjects of his art in the early period were myths and traditions of the Anishnaabe people. He is acknowledged to have initiated the Woodland School of native art, where images similar to the

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s of the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

region were now captured in paintings and prints. Morrisseau was also inspired by sacred Anishinaabe birch bark scroll images. His later style changed: he used more standard material and the colors became progressively brighter, eventually obtaining a neon-like brilliance. The themes also moved from traditional myth to depicting his own personal struggles. He also produced art depicting Christian subjects: during his

incarceration Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

, he attended a local church where he was struck by the beauty of the images on

stained-glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows. Some of his paintings, like ''Indian Jesus Christ'', imitate that style and represent characters from the Bible with native features. After he joined the new age religion Eckankar in 1976, he started representing on canvas its mystical beliefs. Morrisseau, who was

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, also produced erotic works featuring sexuality between male figures and between male and female figures. Most of these works are now held in private collections. Other works explored Indigenous conceptions of gender fluidity, such as his massive work ''Androgyny'' (1983), which was formerly exhibited at Rideau Hall. The cover art for the

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to folk- and jazz-influenced rock to soundscapes accompanying spoken stories. His lyrics reflect interests in spirit ...

album '' Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws'' is a painting by Norval Morrisseau. Two of Morrisseau's paintings from the mid-1970s appear in

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

's 1980 film '' The Shining'' including ''The Great Earth Mother'' (1976), and ''Flock of Loons'' (1975).

Fakes and forgeries

The prevalence of fakes and forgeries was of deep concern to Morrisseau, particularly during his later years, and he actively sought to remove these from the marketplace. In 2005, Morrisseau established the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society (NMHS). The Society is currently compiling a database of Norval Morrisseau paintings to discredit many prevalent Morrisseau forgeries. This committee, not affiliated with any commercial gallery or art dealer, comprises highly respected members of the academic, legal and Aboriginal communities working on a volunteer basis. It is charged with creating a complete catalogue raisonné of Norval Morrisseau artwork. The NMHS is currently researching Morrisseau art, provenance and materials and techniques in order to complete the task assigned to them by the artist. The NMHS continue their work and in 2008, were in

Red Lake, Ontario Red Lake is a municipality with town status in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, located northwest of Thunder Bay and less than from the Manitoba border. The municipality consists of six small communities ( ...

, to research additional information and art by the artist. The Art Dealers Association of Canada (ADAC) issued the following directive in the Winter 2007 newsletter to their membership: "The Art Dealers Association of Canada is enacting a rule and regulation that no certificates of authenticity will be issued by any members of

ADAC The ADAC, officially the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (), is Europe's largest automobile association. The ADAC is the largest wikt:Verein, ''verein'' (club) in Germany, with around 21 million members. Its headquarters are located i ...

with respect to any works or purported works by Norval Morrisseau and that the Norval Morrisseau Heritage Society is the sole authority for the authentication of works by Norval Morrisseau." ADAC also revoked the membership of a dealer who failed to comply with this directive. Morrisseau also engaged in more direct intervention, identifying fake and forged works available for sale, particularly those purported to be painted by him in the so-called "70s style". He wrote to galleries and made sworn declarations identifying items being sold as "fakes and imitations". More than ten sworn declarations were directed to at least seven dealers and galleries during 1993–2007, requesting that fake and forged works be removed or destroyed. These dealers were the Artworld of Sherway, Gallery Sunami, Maslak McLeod Gallery, Bearclaw Gallery, Gary Bruce Thacky (AKA Gary Lamont of Thunder Bay, Ontario) and Randy Potter Estate Auctions. Building on Morrisseau's efforts, for the last 20 years, the battle to stop the proliferation of fakes has waged. Lawyers, doctors, Morrisseau's friends, apprentice and estate, as well as leading native art scholars, government workers and many others, including musician Kevin Hearn of the

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies (BNL) is a Canadian Rock music, rock band which was formed in 1988 in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their Barenaked Ladies (EP), self-titled 1991 cassette becoming th ...

, have tried to help in Morrisseau's battle by exposing the existence of a fraud ring manufacturing fake Morrisseau paintings. The 2019 documentary film '' There Are No Fakes'', directed by Jamie Kastner, helped to bring this issue into the public view. Recently in 2019, after hearing testimony from people inside the fraud ring itself, the Ontario Superior and Appeal courts recognized the existence of that fraud. The courts also found that the Maslak-McLeod Gallery, a vendor of works attributed to Morrisseau, had acted fraudulently.: "The (previous lower court) trial judge erred in failing to find that the Gallery's provision of a valid provenance statement was a term of the purchase and a warranty, not mere puffery," the new appeal decision states. Mr. McLeod's assertion that the painting was genuine was only matched by his elusiveness in demonstrating that fact, which can only be explained as deliberate," said the appeal panel. "With respect to the provenance statement, Mr. McLeod made a false representation, either knowing that it was false and without an honest belief in its truth, or he made the statement recklessly without caring whether it was true or false, with the intent that Mr. Hearn would rely upon it, which he did, to his personal loss." Gallery owner Joseph McLeod is no longer alive; McLeod's estate has been ordered to pay Hearn $50,000 for breach of contract and breach of the Sale of Goods Act, plus punitive damages of $10,000." The debate concerning the authenticity of the "70s paintings" commonly found in the marketplace, continues with ongoing litigation. Law enforcement have launched an active investigation into the Norval Morrisseau art fraud as confirmed by the National Post: "However, police in Thunder Bay say they have now launched a criminal investigation into a possible art fraud ring involving Morrisseau paintings. Spokesman Scott Paradis said Friday investigators are "not prepared to speak about potential suspects or persons of interest." "The criminal investigation is one of several major developments to take place after what's shown in the film, which ends with the outcome of the lawsuit." On March 3, 2023, the Thunder Bay Police and Ontario Provincial Police announced they had pressed charges against 8 people and seized over 1000 paintings in the forgery cases. Police described it as "the biggest art fraud in world history." On December 4, 2023, the 16th anniversary of Norval Morrisseau's death in 2007, additional details of the investigation and the art fraud ring emerged with the guilty plea of Gary Lamont, 1 of the 8 people charged in the Norval Morrisseau art forgery case. Lamont pleaded guilty to 2 of 5 charges in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Thunder Bay, Ontario, defrauding the public of an amount exceeding $5,000 and forgery (making false documents, mainly artwork), with the three remaining counts expected to be withdrawn. Lamont was sentenced to 5 years in prison on fraud charges. The joint operation, between the OPP and the Thunder Bay Police Service, called Project Totton, took years and laid 40 charges against Lamont and 7 other still alleged forgers operating in Thunder Bay and Southern Ontario. Police estimated the total number of forgeries at between 4,500 and 6,000, worth tens of millions of dollars, and described the crime as one of the biggest cases of art fraud anywhere in the world. The forgery lasted from 2002 until 2015, according to the charges, while the public defrauding extended from 2002 through to 2019. Police said the eight accused were part of three distinct, yet intertwined groups that created the fraudulent artwork. The first group was launched in 1996 and operated in Thunder Bay like an assembly line. Another group started in 2002, and third group began operating in southern Ontario in 2008. The three groups traded paintings back and forth, and two of the accused were involved in the distribution of paintings by all three groups. The fraud also included creating fake certificates of authenticity, police said. Others charged in the case are David John Voss, Diane Marie Champagne, Linda Joy Tkachyk and Benjamin Paul Morrisseau (the artist's nephew), all of Thunder Bay. Also charged are Jeffrey Gordon Cowan of Niagara-on-the-Lake, James White of Essa Township and David P. Bremner of Locust Hill.

Solo exhibitions

* 1961 Hughes Gallery, London, Ontario * 1962, 1963, 1964 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1965 Hart House Gallery at University of Toronto * 1965 Galerie Godard Lefort, Montreal * 1966 Musée du Québec (now renamed Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec), Quebec City * 1966 Galerie Cartier (Co-sponsored by Pollock Gallery), Montreal * 1968 Art Gallery of Newport (Sponsored by Galerie Cartier), Newport, Rhode Island * 1969 Galerie St-Paul, St-Paul de Vence, France * 1972 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1974 Canadian Guild of Crafts, Toronto * 1974 The Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver * 1974 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1975 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1975 Shayne Gallery, Montreal * 1976 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1976 Gallery 115, Winnipeg * 1977 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1977 Graphic Gallery, Vancouver * 1978 Wells Gallery, Ottawa * 1978 First Canadian Place (sponsored by the Pollock Gallery), Toronto * 1979 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1979 The Gallery Stratford, Stratford, Ontario * 1979 Shayne Gallery, Montreal * 1979 The McMichael Canadian Collection (Artist in residence), Kleinburg, Ontario * 1979 Cardigan/Milne Gallery, Winnipeg * 1980 Canadian Galleries, Edmonton * 1980 Lynnwood Arts Centre, Simcoe, Ontario * 1980 Bayard Gallery, New York * 1981 Pollock Gallery, Toronto * 1981 Anthony's Gallery, Toronto * 1981 Anthony's Gallery, Vancouver * 1981 Thunder Bay National Exhibition Centre, Thunder Bay, Ontario * 1981 Nexus Art Gallery, Toronto * 1982 Moore Gallery, Hamilton, Ontario * 1982 Masters Gallery, Calgary * 1982 Robertson Gallery, Ottawa * 1982 The New Man Gallery, London, Ontario * 1982 Nexus Art Gallery, Toronto * 1982 Legacy Art Gallery, Toronto * 1982 Scarborough Public Gallery, Scarborough, Ontario * 1984 Ontario Place, Toronto * 1984 Ontario North Now, Kenora, Ontario * 1985 Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan * 1986 First Canadian Place (joint exhibition with Brian Marion), Toronto * 1986 Manulife Centre, Edmonton * 1987 Gulf Canada Gallery, Edmonton * 1988 Sinclair Centre, Vancouver * 1989 The Art Emporium, Vancouver * 1990 Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto * 1991 Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto * 1991 Wallack Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario * 1992 Jenkins Showler Galleries, White Rock, British Columbia * 1994 Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto * 1997 Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto * 1999 Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto * 1999 The Drawing Centre, New York * 2001 Art Gallery of South Western Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba * 2001 Canada House Gallery, Banff, Alberta * 2001 Drawing Center, New York * 2002 Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario * 2006 Steffich Fine Art, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia * 2006 National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa * 2006 Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario * 2006 McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario * 2006 Kinsman Robinson Galleries, Toronto * 2007 Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico * 2007 The George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, New York

References

External links

Morrisseau Art Consulting, Inc.

Norval Morrisseau Legal

Boston Globe Obituary: Norval Morrisseau, was native artist of Canada

Canadian Encyclopedia

Life and Work by Carmen Robertson (Art Canada Institute)

There Are No Fakes: A Documentary by Jamie Kastner

at the

, Ottawa, Ontario
Nancy Robinson Villarroel fonds
at the

, Ottawa, Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrisseau, Norval 1932 births 2007 deaths Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Canada Neurological disease deaths in Ontario Members of the Order of Canada Ojibwe male artists Ojibwe artists People from Thunder Bay District First Nations painters Artists from Ontario Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 20th-century First Nations painters 20th-century Canadian painters Woodlands style Indspire Awards Canadian LGBTQ painters LGBTQ First Nations people Canadian male painters 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century First Nations artists