Dozens of family members and friends from Minnesota gathered on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday evening to celebrate a historic milestone: Ojibwe artist George Morrison's first solo exhibition at one of the world's most prestigious art institutions. The gathering marked a significant moment in art history, as Morrison's work officially joined the permanent collection of the most visited museum in the United States.
At sunset, Briand Morrison stood with four generations of his family on the museum's iconic steps, with relatives who had traveled from as far as Sweden to attend the celebration. Behind them, a giant banner stretched between the stone columns reading "The Magical City: George Morrison's New York," featuring an image of an abstract painting glowing in shades of red, caramel, and teal. "I think he'd be happy, just so, so happy," said Briand Morrison, son of the late artist who died in 2000. "I think he would have been truly satisfied. It was his dream to come to New York, he told that to me, because this is where the art was."
George Morrison, a member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, was born in 1919 in Chippewa City on Minnesota's North Shore. His artistic journey began at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, which awarded him a scholarship in 1943 to study at the Art Students League of New York. Morrison would live and create art in New York on and off during the following decades, becoming an integral part of the city's vibrant art scene during a pivotal period in American art history.
The exhibition represents the first major institutional exploration of Morrison's formative years in New York, when he worked alongside and influenced some of the most celebrated names in modern art. "It's the first major exhibition to really probe George Morrison's early years in New York, this formative time period in his production," explains Syvia Yount, who oversees the American Wing at the Met. "To be done by a major New York institution. It feels very significant and very momentous in a lot of ways."
After the Met closed to the public Tuesday evening, approximately sixty guests moved from the museum steps into the American Wing for a private reception. The Charles Engelhard Court, with its soaring glass-roofed hall, filled with the sounds of live jazz music—a favorite of the artist—as guests roamed freely to the nearby gallery housing the Morrison exhibition. The Minnesota delegation included notable figures from the art world: Todd Bockley from the Minneapolis Bockley Gallery that represents the George Morrison Estate, Howard Oransky from the University of Minnesota's Katherine E. Nash Gallery, April McCormick from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Kate Beane from the Minnesota Museum of American Art, which served as the single biggest lender of artwork to the exhibition.
Artist Hazel Belvo, Morrison's lifelong friend, former wife, and fellow Minnesota painter, attended the celebration and reflected on seeing familiar works in this prestigious new context. Standing before "The Red Painting (Franz Kline Painting)" from around 1960, Belvo shared a personal connection to the piece: "I love seeing the Red Painting because it belonged to me. When I first saw it, it was hanging above Franz Kline's bed." Belvo, now a professor emeritus at MCAD, lived with Morrison in New York, where their son Briand was born.
Many attendees emphasized how the exhibition serves as a long-overdue correction to art history. While Morrison has been acclaimed in Native American and Minnesota art circles and is collected in museums nationwide, this exhibition places him in the broader context of American modernism. The show presents Morrison alongside his contemporaries and friends including Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Louise Nevelson, positioning him as an artist who helped shape the Modernist and Abstract Expressionist movements during World War II, when the art world's center shifted from Europe to New York.
Curator Patricia Marroquin Norby, the Met's first full-time associate curator of Native American Art, deserves much of the credit for bringing this exhibition to fruition. Though unable to attend the reception, Marroquin Norby spoke by phone from her home in Wisconsin about the exhibition's significance. "What's interesting to me is that so many people have said, 'Why haven't I heard about this artist?' And it's kind of shocking, because I'm from the Midwest," she explained. "Morrison is so beloved by Native American art communities, by his own Grand Portage community, by the Ojibwe community in general, and he's highly celebrated here in the Midwest."
Marroquin Norby, who earned her doctorate from the University of Minnesota and serves on the board of the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul, helped assemble one of the largest collections of George Morrison's work ever shown. "I think that when people think of the American Abstract Expressionist movement, they think of Jackson Pollock, they think of Franz Kline, they think of Willem de Kooning. These were George Morrison's contemporaries, and they were looking to George," she noted. "They had a very high respect for him and his influence on the movement."
The exhibition's impact extends beyond temporary recognition, as Yount emphasized the permanent significance of the Met's acquisition of Morrison's works. "That is probably the most significant outcome of this project, because it's a permanent addition, right? It's a very important moment for us," she said. The acquisition represents a crucial step in ensuring Morrison's legacy within one of the world's most important art institutions.
April McCormick from the Grand Portage Band highlighted Morrison's broader cultural impact: "He inspires a lot of artists, whether you're Anishinaabe or any other nationality, and he left an incredible mark on contemporary abstract art, and also represents who he is as an Anishinaabe person." This dual significance—as both a groundbreaking modernist and a proud Indigenous artist—makes Morrison's recognition particularly meaningful.
Belvo praised Morrison's artistic integrity throughout his career, describing him as "an honest artist" who "was not derivative of anyone." Standing in the gallery before the 1948 still life "Whalebone," painted in vivid reds, blues, yellows, and whites, she reflected on his unique vision: "The artist who produces honest work is not borrowing it from someone else, is not mannered from another place, [they have] a history of their own."
The evening culminated with Briand Morrison addressing the crowd in the Charles Engelhard Court, surrounded by guests in ribbon skirts and formal attire amid the museum's marble and bronze sculptures. He shared intimate memories of growing up with these paintings, some of which had hung over his childhood bed, expressing his pride that they now hang in the Met for a global audience to appreciate. "It's so wonderful to see people loving my dad when they love his work," he told the gathering, his voice carrying both emotion and satisfaction at seeing his father's long-held dream finally realized, eighty years after Morrison first walked New York's streets with his sketchbooks in hand.
