George Morrison

George Morrison (1919 – April 17, 2000) was an American landscape painter and sculptor. His Indian name was Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo (Standing In the Northern Lights).

A Chippewa born on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation near Chippewa City, Cook County, Minnesota, he graduated from Grand Marais High School in 1938 and then the Minnesota School of Art, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, in 1943.

Having been chosen to receive the Van Derlip Traveling Scholarship, Morrison studied at the Art Students League from 1943 -1946 in New York City, where he became part of a circle of abstract expressionists.

In 1952 after receiving a Fulbright scholarship he studied in Paris and Antibes.

He lived in Duluth, Minnesota for year and then moved back to New York City in 1954 where he became acquainted with prominent American expressionists: Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock.

He then taught at Cornell University and Penn State. From 1963-1970 Morrison taught at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Beginning in 1970 he taught American Indian studies and art at the University of Minnesota until he retired in 1983.

During the mid-1970s, he and his wife moved near Grand Portage, Minnesota on Lake Superior, which they named Red Rock.This became their home and studio. He and Belvo divorced in 1991 but remained friends. Morrison suffered some life-threatening illnesses but kept on working until he died at Red Rock in April 2000.

He is well known for wood collage sculptures and for the landscape paintings he preferred.