Additional Images

Provenance:

Gallery Gevik, Toronto, ON;
Private collection, Ontario

Note:

In her text on the occasion of Odjig’s retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Bonnie Devine notes that that the artist’s techniques “derive from a lifelong habit of observation and her childhood years of sketching with her grandfather” as well as from her meticulous observation of the great works of Western culture, gleaned from books or studied in galleries and museums.

Devine argues that Odjig’s genius lies in “her ability to transcend the intellectual boundaries of an affected style, be it derived from Aboriginal or European tradition, and develop a personal, direct relationship to line and colour,” which begins to become evident in her work from the 1970s onwards. Though influences like Surrealism or Cubism can be noted, for Devine, “it is instead the rich pictorial tradition and carefully preserved metaphysical structure of the Anishnaabeg that inform and underpin her style. Visual art as a vehicle for communicating the abstract has been a key component in the pedagogical methodologies of the Anishinaabeg and indeed of Aboriginal cultures worldwide since ancient times.”

Related Works:
Bonnie Devine, From Resistance to Renewal: The Fine Art of Daphne Odjig. Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition. (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2007), 25.