Norval Morrisseau
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Norval Morrisseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, is an Aboriginal Canadian artist.
He was born March 14, 1932 on the Sand Point Ojibwa reserve near Beardmore, Ontario. Some sources quote him as saying that he was born in Fort William, now Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the same date in 1931.
He developed his own techniques and artistic vocabulary which 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. He is acknowledged to have initiated the Woodland School of native art, where images similar to the petroglyphs of the Great Lakes region were now captured in paintings and prints.
Jack Pollock, a Toronto art dealer, helped expose Morrisseau's art to a wider audience in the 1960s.
One of Morrisseau's early commissions was for a large mural in the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, a revolutionary exhibit voicing the dissatisfaction of the First Nations People of Canada with their social and political situation.
The cover art for the Bruce Cockburn album, Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, is a painting by Norval Morrisseau.
He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1978.