George Morrison

Landscape

Ojibwe artist George Morrison first conceptualized his signature “wood paintings” in 1965 while spending time at beaches in Provincetown, Massachusetts. There, he became interested in driftwood found along the Cape Cod shorelines.1 Upon returning to his home state of Minnesota from teaching on the east coast, Morrison began to gather the material from Lake Superior. In 1975, he created a series of abstract artworks made from dried driftwood. The diagonal, horizontal, and vertical arrangements of the wooden pieces in Landscape evoke the constant movements of water. His geometric approach to landscape was influenced by studying Cubism in France in the 1950s. Established at the beginning of the twentieth-century, Cubist art broke down landscapes into basic forms and shapes. Morrison applies this technique instead of representing the landscape through traditional perspective and modeling. Rather, Morrison’s painting captures the essence of an environment by incorporating physical elements from it.