New coin features Ontario artist

EAGLE STAFF

A new $2 coin that honours the life and art of Daphne Odjig has gone into circulation.

Odjig (1919-2016) was one of the most influential artists working in Canada during the second half of the 20th century and who “led efforts to transform the perception of Indigenous art and giving it a rightful place in major galleries,” a Royal Canadian Mint statement said.

The mint is printing three million of the coins, two million of them in colour. The coin shows “glimpses of both The Folk Singer, and her monumental The Indian in Transition, two works that are part of the Canadian Museum of History’s collection in Ottawa,” the statement said.

Odjig became renowned for “minimalist fine-line sketches and massive, richly coloured paintings representing traditional knowledge and the historical experiences of First Nations people,” the statement said.

She “was a gifted storyteller, a bold path breaker and a born teacher,” said Bonnie Devine, an Anishinaabe artist, writer and teacher who lives in Toronto. “She would have been tickled to know that her life’s work was being honoured on a Canadian toonie.”

Odjig was born on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, “and learned about art-making from her grandfather, Jonas Odjig, a tombstone carver who taught her to draw and paint,” says a National Gallery of Canada profile of her.