The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 8, 2026

Gouache on horizontally oriented paper outlines the intersecting geometric shapes of an abstract composition. Muted ochre yellow, charcoal, and various grays contrast with off-white sections. Semicircles, circular arcs, and rectangular blocks stack and intersect across the field. Thicker paint creates opaque surfaces, while thinner layers reveal textures beneath. A dark gray border frames the central painting, and small text is inscribed in the bottom corner on our left.

Structural Forms

1953

George Morrison

(Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, 1919–2000)
America
gouache
Matted: 59.7 x 74.9 cm (23 1/2 x 29 1/2 in.); Frame: 61.6 x 76.8 x 3.8 cm (24 1/4 x 30 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.); Sheet: 50.2 x 66.2 cm (19 3/4 x 26 1/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2024.144
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

George Morrison described drawings such as this one as featuring “mosaic-like shapes . . . to suggest organic and structural forms in nature.”

Description

This drawing relates to Ojibwe artist George Morrison’s desire to combine his Native heritage with his ongoing interest in abstraction. The artist began his career in New York during the 1940s, when abstract expressionism dominated the art world. In 1952, Morrison traveled to France and, there, developed a signature style featuring layers of color and geometric forms to suggest his native landscape. He saw the tones and repeated forms in the drawing as suggestive of the bodies of water that had defined his life, from Lake Superior in Minnesota to the Atlantic in New York and the Mediterranean Sea in France.
  • ?–?
    George Morrison [1919–2000] (the artist), given to Beverly Roman
    ?–?
    Beverly Roman
    ?–2024
    (David Zwirner, Los Angeles, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    December 9, 2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • still/emerging: Native American Works on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-June 7, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=Structural Forms|url=false|author=George Morrison|year=1953|access-date=08 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.144