George Morrison
1919–2000
Introduction
George Morrison (September 30, 1919 – April 17, 2000) was an Ojibwe abstract painter and sculptor from Minnesota. His Ojibwe name was Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing In the Northern Lights). Morrison's work is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States.
Between the 1940s through the 1960s, he worked and exhibited alongside Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Jackson Pollock, among other contemporary American artists in New York City. Between 1970 and 1983, George Morrison taught studio art and Native American studies at the University of Minnesota. After retiring from teaching in 1983, he lived and worked at his home and studio in Grand Portage Indian Reservation by Lake Superior until his death in 2000.
Much of Morrison's non-figurative painting reflects the artist's sustained interest in landscape influenced by Indigenous visual cultures. In 2020, he became the first Native American artist to be included in the New York School collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Wikidata identifier
Q5542637
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 13, 2025.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, collagist, lithographer, painter, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500127175
Names
George Morrison, Gway Ke Ga Nay Ga Bo, Wah Wah Teh Ga Nay Ga Bo
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 13, 2025.
