George Morrison

Ojibwe (Grand Portage) · artists

George Morrison (1919–2000), whose Ojibwe name was Wah Wah Teh Go Nay Ga Bo ("Standing in the Northern Lights"), was a groundbreaking Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa artist from Minnesota. He was one of the first Native American artists to achieve recognition in the mainstream abstract expressionist movement, studying alongside de Kooning and exhibiting in New York galleries alongside his contemporaries. His horizon-line paintings — vast, luminous abstractions inspired by Lake Superior — bridged Indigenous connections to land with modernist form. Morrison taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the University of Minnesota, mentoring generations of artists. His work hangs in major museums including the Whitney and the Smithsonian.