Speaker Series | Carmen Robertson: "Navigating the Gallery Scene: Anishinaabe Artist Norval Morrisseau and Art Dealers in Montreal and Toronto from 1962-1969"

Navigating the Gallery Scene: Anishinaabe Artist Norval Morrisseau and Art Dealers in Montreal and Toronto from 1962-1969

Carmen Robertson
(Scots Lakota), Tier I Canada Research Chair in North American art and material culture, Carleton University
https://carleton.ca/arthistory/people/carmen-robertson

When Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau first entered the mainstream art scene in 1962, he had little understanding of the art market in Canada. Marketing contemporary Indigenous art works at that time required new methods and approaches. Focusing on two art dealers in Toronto and Montreal, Jack Pollock and Herbert T. Schwarz, this presentation examines art negotiations through an analysis of correspondence and documents. Focusing on the unorthodox ways dealers negotiated with Morrisseau, Robertson introduces how the artist actively engaged in the “game” as he broke rules and pushed boundaries to promote his art and advance Indigenous arts in Canada and beyond.