Clothesline VI, 1982

Apr 14

Arthur Shilling (1941-1986)

Arthur Shilling was born into a family of thirteen children on Rama Reserve in Orillia, Ontario. He grew up watching his father carve totem poles and began drawing at a young age. Of his childhood fascination with art, Shilling wrote in his book The Ojibway Dream, posthumously published in 1986, “As a boy, I would explore the fields, excited and terrified. I could smell the grass, hear the birds. Maybe it was the colours, the green grass that turned my curiosity. Seeing colour made me forget being afraid. I wandered further and further away following the colours.”1

Several attacks of rheumatic fever at a young age caused damage to Shilling’s heart that would cause lifelong health issues. Like many Indigenous children, Shilling was placed in a residential school and at the age of eight, he began attending the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. Despite the oppressive conditions, Shilling’s artistic talents flourished, and he went on to receive a scholarship to Ontario College of Art.

In the 1960s, Indigenous artists such as Norval Morrisseau brought about the resurgence of the quintessential First Nations style of art, depicting Indigenous legends with bold colour- blocked shapes. Though greatly inspired by Morrisseau’s success, Shilling’s art style was distinctly his own.2 Melding European expressionist influences with his own Ojibwe worldview, Shilling’s art reflected the lives and landscapes of his home on the Rama Reserve with great vibrancy and emotion.3

In Clothesline IV, four young women hang blankets, a simple act of love and care for themselves and their families. Looking at the blankets hanging under cold grey trees, one can almost smell the fresh chill of clean linens. Across many cultures with cold climates, it is traditional practice to lay blankets out to air, letting the crisp winter air and sunlight refresh and naturally disinfect the fibres. For many First Nations communities, clothing and textiles are the manifestation of skills, creativity, and traditional knowledge handed down from past generations.

We would be remiss to talk about blankets and Indigenous peoples in Canada without bringing up the dark legacy of colonization and the role that smallpox infected blankets played in the suffering and death of many Indigenous people. Scholars contest that the Hudson’s Bay Company blankets were likely not intentionally infected with the smallpox virus. Regardless, the deadly effects of these blankets and the immense suffering that they inflicted on Indigenous communities cannot be contested.4

Today, many Indigenous communities and artists have reclaimed the blanket as a symbol of resilience and reclamation. An example of this is the Witness Blanket Project, an emotional and deeply moving demonstration of the ongoing effects of Residential Schools and role that these institutions played in the attempted erasure of Indigenous peoples and culture in Canada. The Witness stories throughout this blanket reflect on the tragedies of the past and assert the ways that the past continues to shape the struggles of the present. Much like Shilling’s own work, they also look to the future with optimism and hope for the continuing resilience and flourishing of Indigenous peoples and communities.5

Dynamic and profoundly sincere, Shilling’s work conveys the beauty and strength of his people, without overlooking the hardships they have overcome and the struggles they continue to face. Some of Shilling’s most striking paintings are his “people pictures”, a term which he preferred over “portraits”.6 We see Shilling’s hope for his people’s future, especially in the faces of the children and young people he painted.

In The Ojibway Dream, Shilling reflects on his people and purpose; “Most people I paint don’t like themselves. I try to reveal their spiritual soul, the quietness that makes us different, that no other nation or people have. The echoes of a great past may be a new beginning, a new peace. Our souls and hearts can heal, and a new togetherness make our people proud […] in harmony again with the land.7

At a time when the dominant Canadian narrative saw Indigenous peoples as only part of the past, Shilling’s work boldly continues to assert the reality of his people’s existence in the present and his dreams for their future.

Shilling, Arthur. “The Ojibway Dream.” Internet Archive, Tundra Books, 1986, p. 10. archive.org/details/ojibwaydream0000shil/page/10/mode/2up.

2 “Arthur Shilling: Roberts Gallery.” Roberts Gallery | Toronto Art Gallery, 11 Apr. 2024, www.robertsgallery.net/gallery-artist/arthur-shilling/?r=1#bio.

3 “Arthur Shilling.” Beckett Fine Art Ltd., www.beckettfineart.com/arthur-shilling.

4 “The Complicated History of the Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket | CBC Radio.” CBC News, CBC Radio Canada, 2 July 2020, www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/uncovering-the-complicated-history-of-blankets-in-indigenous-communities-1.5264926/the-complicated-history-of-the-hudson-s-bay-point-blanket-1.5272430.

5 Edited by Carey “Hayalthkin’geme” Newman, The Witness Blanket, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, witnessblanket.ca/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2025.

6 MacDonald, Colin S. “Arthur Shilling: Roberts Gallery.” Roberts Gallery, 11 Apr. 2024, www.robertsgallery.net/gallery-artist/arthur-shilling/?r=1#bio.

7 Shilling, Arthur. “The Ojibway Dream.” Internet Archive, Tundra Books, 1986, p. 22. archive.org/details/ojibwaydream0000shil/page/22/mode/2up.

Further reading:

National Film Board of Canada – “The Beauty of My People” Arthur Shilling

CBC - The complicated history of the Hudson's Bay point blanket

Mohawk Residential School, Brantford ON:

https://treatiedspaces.com/the-mohawk-residential-school-at-grand-river-reserve/

https://nctr.ca/residential-schools/ontario/mohawk-institute-mechanics-institute/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/residential-school-tour-1.6983036