The Met to Present Focused Exhibition of George Morrison Works from the Artist’s Early Years in New York

Exhibition Dates: July 17, 2025–May 31, 2026
Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 746 North, The Erving and Joyce Wolf Gallery, The American Wing

(New York, June 17, 2025)—This summer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York, opening July 17, 2025. Born in Chippewa City, a remote Native American village on the shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, George Morrison (Wah-wah-ta-ga-nah-gah-boo and Gwe-ki-ge-nah-gah-boo, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 1919–2000) overcame innumerable challenges—poverty, a life-threatening childhood illness, social isolation, racial and cultural barriers—to become a leader of the American Abstract Expressionist movement, which he collaboratively defined both publicly and behind the scenes.

The exhibition is made possible by The Met’s Fund for Diverse Art Histories and the Barrie A. and Deedee Wigmore Foundation.

“George Morrison’s life and work has inspired generations of artists,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Anchored by works from his time in New York, this meaningful exhibition celebrates Morrison’s creative achievements and explores how his American Indigenous perspective shaped his unique cultural legacy.”

Morrison’s influence on the American Abstract Expressionist movement began in September 1943, when he arrived in New York City by train to study at the Art Students League on a fine arts scholarship. Immersing himself in the city’s vibrant cultural scenes, Morrison studied painting and drawing, contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications, and openly challenged the mainstream art establishment of his generation. He also formed important connections with peer artists including Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Lois Dodd, and Louise Nevelson, among others. Morrison’s deep appreciation for urban life—specifically industrial landscapes, jazz, and literature—shaped his artistic practice and imagery and permanently impacted the trajectory of the New York School.

Technically trained in figure drawing, portraiture, landscape painting, and graphic arts, Morrison shifted to abstract approaches in his New York years, specifically automatism, propelling his unique visual language—a fusion of his interest in the subconscious, Ojibwe aesthetic sensibilities, and ties to his homelands. The artist’s involvement with the rise of Abstract Expressionism enhanced the movement’s broader “American” context by imbuing it with a distinctive Indigenous perspective. Between 1943 and 1970, Morrison lived and worked in New York and regularly exhibited in group shows and solo exhibitions. His work was consistently noted by well-known art critics. A 1953 Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the University of Aix-Marseilles in France—followed by a John Jay Whitney Fellowship the same year—earned him international recognition.

Morrison’s prolific career lasted until 2000, long after his return to Minnesota from New York. It culminated with his famous Horizon Series, a suite of small-scale oil and acrylic paintings that synthesized his technical skill and creative imagination with his love for his home on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, along the north shore of Lake Superior.

Patricia Marroquin Norby (P’ urhépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art in The Met’s American Wing, said: “This celebration of George Morrison’s work at The Met is long overdue. We are thrilled to honor the artist’s major contributions to the New York School with this exhibition and publication. Morrison strongly impacted the development of the American Abstract Expressionist movement as well as the work of his professional colleagues—artists who respected him as a leader and a voice for their generation. This exhibition offers an important opportunity to engage deeply with Morrison’s evolving practice, supported by rarely seen archival materials that reveal the depth and complexity of his artistic journey.”

The exhibition asserts Morrison’s significant contributions to the New York School and explores his urban aesthetic inspirations that were rooted in his love of New York, which he called a “Magical City.” Featuring 35 of his paintings and drawings, including a number of generous loans from the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the exhibition culminates in his Horizon Series. It also features rare archival material that places Morrison at the heart of the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. The exhibition will debut two works recently acquired by The Met: White Painting (1965), the first oil painting by Morrison to enter the Museum’s collection, in 2021, and Construction in Fantasy (1953), a gouache and ink drawing that the artist created in France on the Côte d’Azur, acquired by The Met in 2023.

Credits and Related Content
The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York is curated by Patricia Marroquin Norby (P’ urhépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art in The Met’s American Wing.

The exhibition is accompanied by the summer 2025 issue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, with contributions by historian Dr. Brenda Child (Red Lake Ojibwe), artist Hazel Belvo, and art historian Dr. Laura Joseph (Director of Cultural Affairs, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum).

The Bulletin is made possible by the William Cullen Bryant Fellows of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Metropolitan's quarterly Bulletin program is supported in part by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, established by the cofounder of Reader’s Digest.

The Met will host a variety of exhibition-related programs, to be announced at a later date.

Education programs are made possible by Margot and John Ernst, and Morgan and Ecaterina Aguiar-Lucander.

The exhibition is featured on The Met website as well as on social media.

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June 17, 2025

Image: George Morrison, The Antagonist (detail), 1956. Oil on canvas, 34 1/8 × 50 1/16 in. (86.7 × 127.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Mrs. Helen Meredith Norcross 57.26. © Estate of George Morrison