More than just stamps--speaking with Briand Morrison about George Morrison's artwork

As WTIP Community Radio announced earlier this month, the U.S. Postal Service is honoring the late George Morrison with a special stamp issue in 2022. To learn more about how this came about, WTIP’s Rhonda Silence reached out to George Morrison’s son, Briand Morrison, for a conversation about the stamp series and about his father’s art.  
 

Many people know Briand Morrison as an amazing artist, with music as his medium. As the son of the acclaimed Ojibwe painter and sculptor George Morrison, he is also the caretaker of his father’s legacy. 
 

That means he was involved with the special Postal Service stamp series celebrating American culture and history. The process to recognize George Morrison began about two years ago, when the Postal Service first reached out to the Minnesota Museum of American Art. The museum referred the Postal Service to Briand and the bureaucratic process began. 
 

Once that was complete, the selection of the artwork began. Briand explains there were other paintings he would have liked to see in the special edition stamps, but there was no way to make those images work on the small tableau of stamps. So he gave the postal service stamp team authorization to select the images, which Briand said are a good representation of his father’s art. 
 

Briand told WTIP he appreciates that the stamps are paintings that span a long period, from 1949 to 1995. “It gives a good idea of his styles through the years,” said Briand. “And that was really what I wanted, to show pieces that were unmistakably ‘George.’”
 

Briand said he is also grateful for the opportunity for his father’s work to be on a stamp as it increases awareness of Native American art, and gives strength to young artists. He said George Morrison was not always accepted in some art circles because he wasn’t “Indian” enough. 
 

“He kind of went against the grain,” explained Briand, “He did his own thing, and you know when you’re an artist, you get used to just holding fast. He had a lot of integrity.” 
 

Because of George Morrison’s dedication to creating art his way, he is considered the founder of Native modernism art.
 

Asked if George Morrison would be pleased to be honored with a stamp, Briand said his father would be “happy and delighted to be a part of this” A little known fact about the artist was that he was an informal stamp collector himself. 
 

In this interview, WTIP’s Rhonda Silence learns more from Briand Morrison about stamps and about George Morrison’s art philosophy and his legacy. 

About the paintings
The pane of 20 stamps showcases five of George Morrison’s abstract landscapes:

Sun and River (1949), watercolor and crayon on paper. Part of the collection of the Plains Art Museum

Phenomena Against the Crimson: Lake Superior Landscape (1985), acrylic and pastel on canvas. Part of the collection of the Minnesota Museum of American Art. 

Lake Superior Landscape (1981), acrylic on canvas. Part of the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art

Spirit Path, New Day, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape (1990), acrylic and pastel on paper. Part of the collection of the Minnesota Museum of Art

Untitled (1995) color pencil on paper. Part of a private collection