Benjamin Chee Chee

A n I n t r o d u c t i o n t o
C o n t e m p o r a r y N a t i v e A r t i s t s i n C a n a d a

B e n j a m i n C h e e C h e e

b. 1944, Bear Island, Temagami Reserve, Ontario
d. 1977
First Nations Affiliation: Ojibwa

During his brief four-year career, Benjamin Chee Chee rose to national prominence with strong and elegant reinterpretations of the structural minimalism common in traditional Ojibwa art and the Woodland School with which he was associated. Both Chee Chee’s large abstract paintings and smaller, more representational line drawings aimed in part to invoke the essence of neguk, or Canadian geese, and remain as testament after his untimely death to the power of Anishnabe visual economy.

R E C E N T E X H I B I T I O N S

1991	Benjamin Chee Chee: The Black Geese Portfolio, and Other Works. Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Ontario
1983	Contemporary Indian Art at Rideau Hall. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
1982	Glebe Community Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
1977	Marion Scott Galleries, Vancouver, British Columbia Links to Tradition. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (travelling)
1976	Evans Gallery, Toronto, Ontario The Sea Chest, Halifax, Nova Scotia Inukshuk Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario
1974	Doma II Art Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario Canadian Indian Art '74. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario
1973	University of Ottawa, Ontario

S E L E C T E D C O L L E C T I O N S

Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Québec
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg, Ontario
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario
Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford, Ontario

S E L E C T E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Angus, Murray. "Monument marks grave of artist." Windspeaker 15, no. 4 (August 1997): 8, 24.

Burnham, Clint. Review of The Benjamin Chee Chee elegies by Patrick White. Books In Canada 22, no. 5 (Summer 1993): 59-60.

Canadian Museum of Civilization, ed. In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art. Hull, Québec: The Museum, 1993.

Cardinal-Schubert, Joane. "In the red." In Borrowed Power: Essays on Cultural Appropriation, eds. Bruce Ziff and Pratima V. Rao, 122-133. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997.

Cardinal-Schubert, Joane. Time for Dialogue: Contemporary Artists. Calgary, Alberta: Aboriginal Awareness Society, 1992.

Clark, Janet and Robert Houle, eds. Benjamin Chee Chee: The Black Geese Portfolio, and Other Works. Thunder Bay, Ontario: Thunder Bay Art Gallery, 1991.

Dempsey, Ian. Review o f The Benjamin Chee Chee elegies by Patrick White. Canadian Materials 21, no. 1 (January 1993): 14.

"Excerpt From The Benjamin Chee Chee Elegies." Cross Canada Writers Quarterly 11, no. 2 (June 1989): 11.

"Excerpt From The Benjamin Chee Chee Elegies." Cross Canada Writers Quarterly 10, no. 3 (1988): 8.

McLuhan, Elizabeth, ed. Benjamin Chee Chee: Paintings and Prints in the Collection of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. Thunder Bay, Ontario: The Gallery, 1984.

Menitove, Marcy, ed. The Permanent Collection: Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ontario: The Gallery, 1986.

Review of The Benjamin Chee Chee elegies by Patrick White. Dalhousie Review 73, no. 3 (1993): 402-404.

Southcott, Mary E. The Sound of the Drum: The Sacred Art of the Anishnabec. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1984.

White, Patrick. The Benjamin Chee Chee elegies. Burnstown, Ontario: General Store Pub. House, 1992.

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