George Morrison at the age of nine years old is sent to the Hayward Indian Boarding School run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Hayward Wisconsin.³

George Morrison attends Grand Marais High School where he learns about the industrial arts. Morrison also learns how to use various work tools and play music. He excels in carpentry and he receives growing recognition in his home town for his craftsmanship, and he is regularly called upon to design posters for events and functions.⁴

George Morrison is awarded the Lucy Gilbert Prize, from the Minneapolis Art Institute.

George Morrison exhibits a portrait at the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, Saint Paul, Minnesota and is awarded the 3rd place Ribbon Prize.

George Morrison graduates from the Minneapolis School of Art with a BFA and receives the prestigious Ethel Morrison Van Derlip scholarship to continue his studies. 

Morrison moves to New York and enrolls at the Art Students League (ASL) from 1943 to 1946. 

He lives in an apartment in Greenwich Village, and hangs out at the renowned Cedar Bar or P.J. Carney’s Pub, developing artistic friendships with Cicely Aikman, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Marcia Marcus, and Willem de Kooning.

“When I approached New York at night, it looked like a magical city-bridges and all of Manhattan lit up like a magical place. Always impressive. I still get the same charge when I approach it.”

George Morrison exhibits as part of the Pyramid Group at Ashby Gallery, with Helen De Mott, Cicely Aikman, Howard Mitcham and others. The Pyramid Group was a New York City-based artists organization founded for the purpose of providing exhibition opportunities for young artists.

George Morrison exhibits in the Critics’ Show, at Grand Central Moderns Gallery, New York, he wins 4th Prize, and his painting Still Life (1944) receives positive reviews, enhancing his artistic reputation.

George Morrison: Paintings exhibition takes place at Grand Central Moderns Gallery, New York, NY.

George Morrison exhibits in the 1948 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (Nov 13–Jan 2).

The International Business Machines, Corp, acquires George Morrison’s Shell and Starfish, 1945.

George Morrison: Gouaches-Oils-Drawings, takes place at Grand Central Moderns Gallery, New York, NY (May 2–Jun15).

“My definition of abstraction: no longer recognizable; completely devoid of any kind of reference to realism or naturalism. In the trend of the times, people were going away from figurative work and toward so-called Abstract Expressionism. I happened to be in New York at a good time. The trend helped veer my own imagery toward abstraction.”

George Morrison receives a Fulbright Scholarship, and travels to France, to attend the University of Aix-Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, 1952–53.

A year later he exhibits at Galerie Jeanne Bucher, and in a group show at Galerie Craven, Paris. He receives positive recognition in the French press, with a notable honorable mention from Belgian art critic and painter Michel Seuphor.

The solo exhibition George Morrison is held at Grand Central Moderns Gallery, New York, NY (Mar 6–26). 

The exhibition Painting of George Morrison takes place at the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth. 

He participates in the group exhibition Contemporary American Indian Painting, M. H. DeYoung Memorial Museum, San Francisco California (Nov 25, 1954–Jan 2). 

Morrison participates in the Fourth Biennial Exhibition of Paintings and Prints from the Midwest, at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. He is awarded the Walker Art Center Purchase Prize.

Morrison’s artworks are included in the Museum of Modern Art Lending Service (from 1954 onwards).

The solo exhibition Paintings by George Morrison takes place at Shorter College, Rome Georgia (Nov 20–Dec 14).

Morrison participates in the 1956 Annual Exhibition, Sculpture, Watercolors, Drawings, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, (Apr 18–Jun 10).  The exhibition includes the artists Ruth Asawa, Alexander Calder, Adolph Gottlieb, Alexander Archipenko, Sue Fuller, and David Smith.

George Morrison is honored by the town of Grand Marais, and is presented with a Distinguished Citizen Award by the Cook County Historical Society. A dinner and special exhibition of his paintings is held as part of the proceedings.

Morrison begins a professorship teaching painting at Dayton Art Institute, Dayton Ohio 1960-61.

His solo exhibition RECENT OILS by GEORGE MORRISON which features The Red Feathers series, is held at Grand Central Moderns Gallery, New York, NY (Nov 26–Dec 15). George Morrison Show takes place at the Dayton Art Institute, Dayton Ohio (Jun 7–Jul 10).

The solo exhibition George Morrison Show takes place at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (Aug 2–6).

Morrison exhibits in a group show at the Museum of Rhode Island School of Design, and he wins First Prize, in the Rhode Island Arts Festival, Providence.

Morrison participates in the Invitational Exhibit of Indian Arts and Crafts, held at the Center for Arts of Indian America, Washington DC (Nov 17–Dec 13) and he receives the Grand Award.

Morrison returns to Minnesota and takes a dual appointment at the University of Minnesota teaching Studio Art and American Indian Studies.

The American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota is the oldest such program in the country with autonomous departmental status. The department continues to be home to a number of renowned Native scholars, who have included Roger Buffalohead, Timothy Dunnigan, Ron Libertus and Brenda Child, whose contributions have helped develop and establish the department as a leader in the field of American Indian Studies.

The George Morrison: Drawings, traveling exhibition opens at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN (Apr 15–May 27) and then travels to the Heard Museum, Phoenix AZ (Jun 23–Aug 5), followed by Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christie, Texas (Sep 9–Oct 8).

Morrison participates in the Ojibwe Art Expo Annuals, Bemidji, Minnesota.

Morrison’s public artwork Turning the Feather Around: A Mural for the Indian, 1974–1975. 

Morrison created a wood construction, 94 feet long and 17 feet high, made from Western Red Cedar in 1974–75. The artwork forms the exterior façade of The American Indian Center in Minneapolis. Morrison is commissioned by his friend Ron Libertus for this project. 

“My design for the facade was taken from a feather. I think all Indians have connections to birds and their feathers, using them in symbolic ways. My sources were varied, inspired by chevron shapes. When you look at my design, with its geometric form, it isn’t a realistic rendering of a feather, but it derives from the feather.”

Morrison serves as a Trustee for the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, from 1977–1983.

Morrison is the subject of a book titled GEORGE MORRISON: The Story of an American Indian, by Dragoš Kostich, published by Dillon Press, Minneapolis.

Morrison exhibits in The Native American Heritage: A Survey of North American Indian Art, at the Art Institute of Chicago (Jul 16–Oct 30).

Morrison is invited to visit Cuba on a cultural exchange program with the exhibition “E1Autentico Pueblo,” Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba.

Morrison’s solo exhibition Wood Collage Impressions opens at the Carl N. Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis, CA (Mar 16–Apr 13).

In the late 1970s Morrison, Hazel and Briand build and establish their home and Red Rock studio on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation.

“We looked all around here for a place to live; the idea was to retire up here. We looked all around on the reservation shores, found this place, and called it Red Rock because of the kind of rock, jasper, that’s around here. It’s part of my magic.”

Morrison participates in Magic Images: Contemporary Native American Art, ’81, at the Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa Oklahoma (Aug 2–Sept 6).

Morrison participates in group exhibitions at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Kuopio Museum, Kuopio, Museum of the Southwest, Texas, Dayton Art Institute, Ohio and in the Santa Fe Arts Festival.

Morrison retires from the University of Minnesota and moves back to Grand Portage. 

Retirement honor: Drawing Retrospective, “Entries in an Artist’s Journal,” University Museum of Art, University of Minnesota; and George Morrison: Paper Collages, The President’s Office, Morrill Hall, University of Minnesota

“Retiring from twenty-five years of teaching I now want to devote my full life and time to creative work – at a home/studio near where I was born, on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota.

In reviewing my past, I feel that I had a rich and varied artistic life: success in gaining scholarships for travel and study; the opportunity to reap the experiences, influences and rewards of 20 years in a major art city, New York; success and accomplishment with one-man, group and invitational exhibitions across this country and abroad; represented  in some major collections; and connection with good schools.” George Morrison, 1983 ¹³

Morrison’s solo exhibition HORIZON: Small Painting Series, 1980–1987, opens at the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth (Jul 10–Jul 19), then travels to  Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul Minnesota (Nov 14–Jan 17).

Morrison’s solo exhibition Standing in the Northern Lights: George Morrison, a Retrospective, opens at The Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul (May 6–Jun 24); the exhibit travels on to the Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota-Duluth (Jul 28–Sep 9); then to the Plains Art Museum, Moorhead Minnesota (Sep 28–Nov 25).

Morrison exhibits in Frank BigBear, George Morrison, Daniel Soderlind, held at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Mar 2–Apr 14).

George Morrison’s public artwork Tableau, A Native American Mosaic is installed on the Nicollet Mall, downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

The sidewalk installation consists of 200 pieces of stone in 14 different colors. The mosaic is made up of geometric and bio-morphic shapes that form Native American motifs such as plant, floral, animal, figure, snake, and bird images. ¹⁵

Morrison’s solo exhibition, Drawings and Small Sculpture, opens at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Morrison is part of the Jaune Quick-to-See Smith curated exhibit We The Human Beings: 27 Contemporary Native American Artists. The exhibition also includes the artwork of Marty Avrett,  Margarete Bagshaw-Tindel, Michael Brown, Ron Carraher, Jeffrey Chapman, Corwin Clairmont, Jesse Cooday, Darnella Davis, Joe Feddersen, Harry Fonseca, Ted Garner,  Carm Little Turtle, George Longfish, Truman Lowe, Mario Martinez, Larry McNeil, Leatrice Mikkelsen, Ernie Pepion, Jolene Rickard, Beverly Singer, Duane Slick, Jeffrey M. Thomas, Kay Walkingstick, Ernest M. Whiteman, Jim Yellowhawk, Phil Young.

The traveling exhibit opens at The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster Ohio (Aug 26–Oct 19, 1992), then travels on to the following institutions: Carlsten Art Gallery, Stevens Point Wisconsin (Nov 15–Dec 15 1992); The Riffe Gallery, Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts, Columbus Ohio (Jan 23-Mar 13, 1993); Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, Indianapolis Indiana (Apr 7–Jun 27, 1993); The Museum at Hartwick College, Oneonta New York (Sept 1999–Oct 27, 1993); Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois, Champaign Illinois (Nov 19, 1993-Jan 99999, 1994); Roland Gibson Gallery, Potsdam College of the State University of New York, Potsdam New York (Feb 25–Mar 25, 1994). ¹⁶

George Morrison is honored when he exhibits in Twentieth Century American Sculpture at the White House: Honoring Native America Exhibit VI, curated by Margaret Archuleta, Washington DC. ¹⁷

Morrison participates in the Inaugural Exhibit: Contemporary Native American Fine Art, held in the Crossroads Gallery, at the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (Feb 28).  

He receives the Inaugural Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art Master Artist, Indianapolis Indiana, awarded in November 1999.

Morrison is included alongside artists Rick Bartow, Joe Feddersen, Fred Kabotie, Helen Hardin, Norman Akers, Andrew Van Tsinajinnie, Patrick Robert Desjarlait, Carl Sweezy, Faye Heavyshield, and Truman Lowe in So Fine! Masterworks of Fine Art from the Heard Museum, at the Heard Museum, Phoenix Arizona (Nov 2, 2002–Mar 9, 2003). The exhibition is curated by  Ann E. Marshall and Guest Curator Kay WalkingStick.

The exhibition George Morrison Works on Paper: 1944-99, opens at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Mar 18–Apr 22).

The exhibition George Morrison Drawings: 1980s and 1990s, opens at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Apr 11–May 16).

The exhibition New York School opens at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (May 14–Jun 11).

The exhibition Drawing at the Horizon opens at the Duluth Art Institute, Duluth Minnesota (Nov 14, 2014–Feb 8, 2015).

The exhibition Beauty Speaks for Us, curated by Ann Marshall and guest curators, Carol Ann Mackay and Janis Lyon, opens at the Heard Museum Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona (Feb 10–Mar 31).

George Morrison in Focus, curated by Robert Cozzolino and Jill Ahlberg Yohe, opens at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota, (Oct 21, 2017– July 1, 2018).

The traveling exhibition The Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s–1970s, curated by Manuela Well-Off-Man, Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, and Lara Evans, opens at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Fe New Mexico (July 28, 2017–July 7, 2019), The exhibit travels on to Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit Massachusetts (March 1–May 21, 2022); Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado (July 29, 2022–January 7, 2023); Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania (February 26–May 21, 2023); Saint Louis Art Museum (June 25–September 4, 2023); Schingoethe Center, Aurora University, Illinois (October 2, 2023–January 7, 2024); Arkansas Arts Center, Arkansas (February 14–May 12, 2024).

The exhibition George Morrison opens at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Sep 12–Oct 19).

The exhibition Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting, opens at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY (Nov 16, 2019–Jan 2, 2022).

United States Postal Service commemorative Forever Stamps.

In April 2022, George Morrison is honored, celebrated, and commemorated with a set of five United States Postal Service Forever Stamps showcasing his work.

“As a painter and a professor of art, I know that great work works in every scale. Seeing those works of George’s that are going to be on the stamps are just as powerful in a small image as they are in life, because his work is so powerful it can work at any scale.” Hazel Belvo

The exhibition George Morrison: Traversal, opens at Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Nov 12–Dec 31).

The exhibition Smoke in Our Hair: Native Memory and Unsettled Time, opens at the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers New York (Feb 14–Aug 31).

The exhibition The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York, opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (Jul 17–May 31). The exhibition is curated by Patricia Marroquin Norby, Associate Curator of Native American Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s American Wing, and is Morrison’s first solo show in New York in 65 years.

The exhibition Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation, opens at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit Michigan (Sep 28–Apr 5).

The exhibition An Indigenous Present, curated by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter, opens at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Boston, Massachusetts (Oct 9, 2025–Mar 8, 2026).