In 1967, after receiving the commission for a mural at Expo 67 in Montreal, which the artist ultimately abandoned rather than censor, Morrisseau met the writer and art dealer Herbert Schwarz. Schwarz organized Morrisseau’s first international exhibition, which culminated at Paul Galerie in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France in 1969. It was for this French exhibition that Schwarz marketed Morrisseau as the “Picasso of the North.” In the same year, Morrisseau executed the present work, The History of Mankind, which depicts ⁠— to our eyes ⁠— an embryo in the womb. The imagery is enigmatic but possesses an unmistakable vitality. In the interior of the circular womb, we note the use of Morrisseau’s divided circles, which represent the dualities of man, as well as a six-point sun element. Curved, tapered shafts surround the womb. Similar but monochromatic shapes are found in paintings such as Water Spirit from 1974 [1], but here they clearly take on special meaning, especially since they seem so bird-like. The resulting image is one that conveys a sense of stored energy suddenly and dramatically released, even as its meaning remains a mystery.

1. Sinclair & Pollock, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, (Toronto: Methuen Publications, 1979), p. 109.