New England Landscape

between 1965 and 1967

George Morrison Ojibwa, Native American, 1919 - 2000

On View

Native American, Level 1, South Wing

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About the Artwork

The coastline near Provincetown, Rhode Island, where George Morrison summered at an artist colony during the 1960s, reminded him of his childhood on the Grand Portage Reservation on the northern shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. The memory prompted Morrison to resume a favorite pastime from his youth—beachcombing—but now he assembled the weathered, water-washed driftwood that he collected into oblong abstract assemblages. New England Landscape is one of the first known examples of a concept that Morrison continued to explore throughout his career. With their varied colors and surfaces, the fragments of wood resemble geological striations, but the overall effect is of the essential triad of earth, water, and sky. Morrison believed that each piece of wood carried a distinct history, and although in later works he cut and even weathered the wood himself, in this early work the components are pristine, incorporated just as he found them.

From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)

Title New England Landscape

Artwork Date between 1965 and 1967

Artist George Morrison

Life Dates Native American

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Native American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Ojibwa

Medium Wood

Dimensions Overall: 48 × 120 × 2 5/8 inches (121.9 × 304.8 × 6.7 cm) weight : 200 Lbs

Classification Sculpture

Department Indigenous Americas

Credit Museum Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2006.108

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Provenance

possibly (Todd Bockley, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA);
Leonard Whiting (London, England);
2006-present, purchased 2006 by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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