Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

Of Coast Salish origin, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun is well known for expressing his political views about the environment and the treatment of First Nations people through his art. The ovoid is a central motif in Haida art, used repeatedly in their stylized depictions of form. Yuxweluptun is reclaiming this motif in his own terms, removing it from its traditional context and taking it into the post-modern world, incorporating elements of Minimalism and Colour Field painting. However, politics are never far from Yuxweluptun's consciousness. In 2009, the National Gallery of Canada held an exhibition of Yuxweluptun's Ovoid series. In the exhibition catalogue, he included a "Manifesto of Ovoidism", in which he stated that he considered that his ovoids were the basis of "a philosophy to think about such things as land claims, Aboriginal rights, self determination and self government, social conditions and environmentalism, Native reason and Native philosoph...to express Native 'modernalities' and to intellectualise place, space and Native reason." Furthermore, In the Morning features a simplistic palette of black, red and white, colours commonly found in Haida imagery.