Tableau: A Native American Mosaic, (2018)

Tableau: A Native American Mosaic, 2018
Granite Pavement Mosaic, 1992
George Morrison, Grand Portage, MN
Collection City of Minneapolis
Photo: Jerry Mathiason

"George Morrison is one of Minnesota’s most important twentieth century artists and also its most notable and honored Native American artist. His work was featured in the 2004 inaugural exhibition of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC and is in collections worldwide including extensive holdings in the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

This granite mosaic with 200 pieces cut from 14 different colors of stone, is one of his later works – a last big public statement – and a rare outdoor work.

The systematic breaking down of larger areas into smaller sections that create patterns has its roots in Surrealism and automatic drawing, and is a continuous thread in Morrison’s paintings, drawings, prints, wood mosaics, totems and sculptures.

The mosaic employs animal, bird, weather and plant imagery – a beaver, bear, horse, leaves, along with a lightning bolt and suggestions of water and clouds. When approached while walking down the street, the mosaic can be read from all four directions; it has no top or bottom, left or right. You are meant to be within the work, inside it – this was an exciting idea to Morrison."