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..
