Benjamin Chee Chee
Benjamin Chee Chee (1934-1977) - Artist Biography
Ojibwa artist Benjamin Chee Chee was born in the Spring of 1944 in Temagami, Ontario. At birth his name was registered as Kenneth Thomas Chee Chee. His father died when he was two months old. Left alone, his mother struggled to meet his physical and emotional needs, and eventually left him and the family behind. One reason behind Chee Chee’s drive for success as a painter was his ambition to be reunited with his mother.
By the late 1960s Norval Morrisseau's success and fame inspired Benjamin to pick up a paintbrush. At the time he was living in Montreal and it was there that he developed his minimalist style of fluid lines depicting birds and animals in graceful motion. In 1973, Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy and Alex Janvier had their ground breaking group show, Treaty Numbers 23, 287 and 1171 in Winnipeg and suddenly the Canadian art world was on the lookout for more First Nation's talent.
Chee Chee's first exhibition was later in 1973 at the University of Ottawa. While Benjamin Chee was influenced by his predecessors, he insisted that he was "an Ojibway artist", not "just an Indian artist". He also rebuffed the idea that his images were symbolic. He spoke of the birds and animals in his paintings as being "creatures of the present".
After finding his mother and achieving success as an artist, Chee Chee died by suicide in an Ottawa jail in 1977. He was buried in Notre Dame Cemetery in Ottawa, Ontario. Chee Chee's work has been exhibited posthumously throughout Canada..
Posthumous Exhibitions:
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
1982 Glebe Community Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
1977 Marion Scott Galleries, Vancouver, British Columbia
Links to Tradition, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (travelling)
Early Exhibitions:
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
Selected Collections:
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, 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
Artist Specialization: Chee Chee has been mentioned in Canada's Parliament & House of Commons by MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette in a tribute to the artist about his influence. Ouellette said "Let us also recognize one of the finest artists of Canada, Benjamin Chee Chee. He always refused to be an indigenous artist; he was a proud Anishnabeg. He drew simple lines, usually acrylic on paper. Highly influential in his time, he said he did not paint the past but the present, the living of today. We can see his works, like the flock of four geese. They represent the four directions of the unborn, the youth, the adults and the elders all moving in the same direction. Even though he died in tragedy and is buried in Ottawa, far from his land and people, he still inspires today."
