Daphne Odjig
Encyclopedia
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
, LL.D. (b. September 11, 1919), is an influential Canadian First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
artist of Odawa
Odawa people
The Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...
-Potawatomi
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
-English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
heritage. Her many awards include the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
and the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...
. Her painting is often characterized as Woodlands Style
Woodlands Style
The Woodland School Of Art, also named Woodlands style, Woodlands School, or Anishnabe painting, is a genre of painting among First Nations and Native American artists from the Great Lakes area - including northern Ontario and southwestern Manitoba...
. Daphne Odjig was the driving force behind the Indian Group of Seven
Indian Group of Seven
The Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation, better known as the Indian Group of Seven, was a group of professional Indian artist from Canada, founded in November 1973....
.
Biography
Daphne was born in Wikwemikong, the principal village on the Manitoulin IslandManitoulin Island
Manitoulin Island is a Canadian island in Lake Huron, in the province of Ontario. It is the largest island in a freshwater lake in the world. In addition to the historic Anishinaabe and European settlement of the island, archeological discoveries at Sheguiandah have demonstrated Paleo-Indian and...
Unceded Indian Reserve, to parents Dominic and Joyce. She is the eldest of four children with siblings Stanley, Winnie and Donald. She is descended on her father's side from the great Potawatomi
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
Chief Black Partridge. Her mother (née Peacy) met and married Dominic in England where he was serving during the war.
Daphne's first and perhaps biggest artistic influence was her paternal grandfather Jonas with whom the young family lived. “My grandfather played a great role in my life – he nurtured my creative spirit – he was the first one I ever drew with...he was my first mentor". Daphne was also influenced by her mother who did embroidery
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
work and her father who liked to draw war scenes and his officers from the First World War. Daphne asserts: “Art was always a part of our lives”.
Art career
Odjig moved to Toronto for a formal art education. She went on to continue her art education in Sweden. She fused together elements of aboriginal pictographs and First Nations arts with European techniques and styles of the 20th century. Her breakthrough into the art work happened in the 1960s when she received critical acclaim for her pen and ink drawings of CreeCree
The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...
people from northern Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
.
She explored erotic themes in some of her paintings which is rare in First Nations art work. In 1974, Odjig illustrated Tales from the Smokehouse, a collection of traditional First Nations erotica written by Herbert T. Schwarz. That same year, she opened the first Canadian gallery exclusively representing First Nations art in Winnipeg.
In 1973, Odjig became a founding member of the Professional Native Indian Artists Association, along with Alex Janvier
Alex Janvier
Alex Janvier, AOE is a Native Canadian artist. As a member of the commonly referred to “Indian Group of Seven”, Janvier is a pioneer of contemporary Canadian aboriginal art in Canada.- History :...
and Norval Morrisseau
Norval Morrisseau
Norval Morrisseau, CM , also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Aboriginal Canadian artist. Known as the "Picasso of the North", Morrisseau created works depicting the legends of his people, the cultural and political tensions between native Canadian and European traditions, his existential...
.
Honors, commissions, and collections
Her work is included in such public collections as Canada CouncilCanada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
's Art Bank, the National Museum of Man
Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada's national museum of human history and the most popular and most-visited museum in Canada....
in Ottawa, the Tom Thompson Gallery, the McMichael Canadian Collection, the Sequoyah Research Center
Sequoyah Research Center
The Seqouyah National Research Center , located in Little Rock, Arkansas, is home of the American Native Press Archives . ANPA is one of the largest repositories of Native American publications in the world. The Center is also home to the J.W...
and the Government of Israel. She has been commissioned to create art by Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan, the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, and El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...
, the Israeli airline.
Odjig has been the subject of many books, listed below, and has been the subject of three documentaries. She has been the recipient of a wide range of honors, including an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Laurentian University
Laurentian University
Laurentian University , was incorporated on March 28, 1960, is a mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada....
in 1982, and an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1985, the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
in 1986, a Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada in 1992, an Honorary Doctorate of Education from Nipissing University
Nipissing University
Nipissing University is a public liberal arts university located in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, on a site overlooking Lake Nipissing. The university's unique character is defined by its location in Northern Ontario, and a large and highly respected faculty of education...
in 1997, and a Native Aboriginal Achievement Awards in 1998. She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1989. In 2007, Odjig received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Canada Post
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation, known more simply as Canada Post , is the Canadian crown corporation which functions as the country's primary postal operator...
featured three of her paintings on Canadian postage stamps in February 2011.
Exhibits
Odjig has traveled extensively and has exhibited in Canada, the United States, Belgium, and Japan. She has had over 30 solo exhibitions and been part of over 50 group exhibits during her career.The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition featured work from over forty years of Odjig's career. The exhibit was organized by the Art Gallery of Sudbury
Art Gallery of Sudbury
The Art Gallery of Sudbury is an art gallery in Sudbury, Ontario.Established in 1967 by the city's chamber of commerce, the gallery is located in the historic arts and crafts movement Belrock Mansion of William J. Bell, an early lumber baron in the city and philanthropist...
and the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
. It was shown in Sudbury, the Kamloops Art Gallery, and, in October 2009 through 2010, was shown at the National Gallery of Canada. The only United States venue for the show was the Institute of American Indian Arts
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts is a college focused on Native American art. It is situated in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is congressionally chartered, and was created by an executive order of former American President John F. Kennedy in 1962...
Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. Accompanying the retrospective was a catalog written by Ojibway curator Bonnie Devine
Bonnie Devine
Bonnie Devine is an Ojibway installation artist, performance artist, sculptor, curator, and writer from Toronto, Ontario. She is currently the Interim Director of the Aboriginal Visual Cultural Program and Associate Professor in the faculties of Art and Liberal Studies at the Ontario College of Art...
with additional text by Robert Houle and Duke Redbird.