The Magical City: George Morrison's New York

In September 1943, George Morrison (Grand Portage Chippewa, 1919–2000) boarded a train from Minneapolis to New York, carrying one suitcase and his art supplies. He arrived in the city two weeks before his twenty-fourth birthday at a transformative moment in American art history. The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York celebrates the life and work of an artist whose story provide a unique viewpoint on one of the most well-recognized modern art movements. Delving into Morrison’s pivotal role in the development of Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Associate Curator of Native American Art Patricia Marroquin Norby examines the origins of the avant-garde and formal art criticism in New York during and after World War II. Contributions by Hazel Belvo, Brenda J. Child, and Laura Wertheim Joseph highlight the ways in which Morrison’s unique visual language merged his experiences in New York and his ancestral ties to Anishinaabe homelands and waterways. In tracing Morrison's career, this sumptuous edition of the Bulletin illustrates how he drew upon Native American and Indigenous aesthetic expressions and philosophies to challenge political, social, and ideological barriers and establish a truly “American” visual and material language.