The Magical City
George Morrison’s New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
July 17, 2025 – May 31, 2026
The Antagonist (detail), 1956
Oil on canvas, 34 1/8 × 50 1/16 in.
(86.7 × 127.2 cm)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;
Gift of Mrs. Helen Meredith Norcross 57.26
© Estate of George Morrison
The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York. Born in Chippewa City, a remote Native American village on the shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota, George Morrison (Wah-wah-ta-ga-nah-gah-boo and Gwe-ki-ge-nah-gah-boo, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 1919–2000) overcame innumerable challenges—poverty, a life-threatening childhood illness, social isolation, racial and cultural barriers—to become a leader of the American Abstract Expressionist movement, which he collaboratively defined both publicly and behind the scenes.
“George Morrison’s life and work has inspired generations of artists,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO. “Anchored by works from his time in New York, this meaningful exhibition celebrates Morrison’s creative achievements and explores how his American Indigenous perspective shaped his unique cultural legacy.”
George Morrison’s influence on the American Abstract Expressionist movement began in September 1943, when he arrived in New York City by train to study at the Art Students League on a fine arts scholarship. Immersing himself in the city’s vibrant cultural scenes, Morrison studied painting and drawing, contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications, and openly challenged the mainstream art establishment of his generation. He also formed important connections with peer artists including Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Lois Dodd, and Louise Nevelson, among others. Morrison’s deep appreciation for urban life—specifically industrial landscapes, jazz, and literature—shaped his artistic practice and imagery and permanently impacted the trajectory of the New York School.
Technically trained in figure drawing, portraiture, landscape painting, and graphic arts, George Morrison shifted to abstract approaches in his New York years, specifically automatism, propelling his unique visual language—a fusion of his interest in the subconscious, Ojibwe aesthetic sensibilities, and ties to his homelands. The artist’s involvement with the rise of Abstract Expressionism enhanced the movement’s broader “American” context by imbuing it with a distinctive Indigenous perspective. Between 1943 and 1970, George Morrison lived and worked in New York and regularly exhibited in group shows and solo exhibitions. His work was consistently noted by well-known art critics. A 1953 Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the University of Aix-Marseilles in France—followed by a John Jay Whitney Fellowship the same year—earned him international recognition.
Morrison’s prolific career lasted until 2000, long after his return to Minnesota from New York. It culminated with his famous Horizon Series, a suite of small-scale oil and acrylic paintings that synthesized his technical skill and creative imagination with his love for his home on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, along the north shore of Lake Superior.
Patricia Marroquin Norby (P’ urhépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art in The Met’s American Wing, said: “This celebration of George Morrison’s work at The Met is long overdue. We are thrilled to honor the artist’s major contributions to the New York School with this exhibition and publication. Morrison strongly impacted the development of the American Abstract Expressionist movement as well as the work of his professional colleagues—artists who respected him as a leader and a voice for their generation. This exhibition offers an important opportunity to engage deeply with Morrison’s evolving practice, supported by rarely seen archival materials that reveal the depth and complexity of his artistic journey.”
The exhibition asserts Morrison’s significant contributions to the New York School and explores his urban aesthetic inspirations that were rooted in his love of New York, which he called a “Magical City.” Featuring 35 of his paintings and drawings, including a number of generous loans from the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the exhibition culminates in his Horizon Series. It also features rare archival material that places George Morrison at the heart of the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. The exhibition debuts two works recently acquired by The Met: White Painting (1965), the first oil painting by George Morrison to enter the Museum’s collection, in 2021, and Construction in Fantasy (1953), a gouache and ink drawing that the artist created in France on the Côte d’Azur, acquired by The Met in 2023.
The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York is curated by Patricia Marroquin Norby (P’ urhépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art in The Met’s American Wing.
The exhibition is accompanied by the summer 2025 issue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, with contributions by historian Dr. Brenda Child (Red Lake Ojibwe), artist Hazel Belvo, and art historian Dr. Laura Joseph (Director of Cultural Affairs, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum).
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 746 North,
The Erving and Joyce Wolf Gallery, The American Wing
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
