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{{short description|Canadian artist (1944-1977)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| image = Benjamin Chee Chee.jpg
| alt = Portrait photo of Chee Chee
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1944|3|26}}
| birth_place = [[Temagami]], [[Ontario]], Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1977|3|14|1944|3|26}}
| death_place = [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], Canada
| nationality =
| field = [[Painting]]
| training = Self-taught
| movement = [[Woodlands Style|Woodland School of Art]]
| works =
| patrons =
| awards =
}}

'''Kenneth Thomas Benjamin Chee Chee ''' (26 March 1944 – 14 March 1977<ref name="CC">{{Cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/online/11558613|title=Find-a-grave site|website=[[Find a Grave]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412065015/https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/online/11558613|archive-date=12 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>), known as '''Benjamin Chee Chee''', was an [[Ojibwa]] Canadian artist born in [[Temagami]], Ontario. He is best known for his modern, simplified, and graceful depictions of birds and animals.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.native-art-in-canada.com/benjamincheechee.html|title=Native artist Benjamin Cheechee|website=www.native-art-in-canada.com|access-date=2019-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412064657/http://www.native-art-in-canada.com/benjamincheechee.html|archive-date=12 April 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Early life==
Chee Chee's father died when he was very young, and as a child, Chee Chee was separated from his mother and sent to residential school. He later spent 12 years searching for her before he found her. He moved to [[Montreal]] in 1965 where he developed his love of drawing, and moved back to [[Ottawa]] in 1973.<ref name="Phillips">{{cite web |last1=Phillips |first1=Ruth B. |title=Benjamin Chee Chee |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/benjamin-chee-chee |website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |access-date=10 October 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Benjamincheechee-gooseinflight.jpg|thumb|Goose in Flight, an original Chee Chee painting as seen in [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/benjamin-chee-chee/ The Canadian Encyclopedia]]]

==Career==
Chee Chee's first exhibition was held in 1973 at the [[University of Ottawa]],<ref name=":0" /> and featured abstract compositions of block-stamped geometric motifs.<ref name="Phillips" /> By 1976 he had gained recognition as he developed his style of clear graceful lines and minimal colour, depicting birds and animals. Though his art featured iconography often used by Canadian First Nations artists, Chee Chee denied his art had symbolic meaning. He instead referred to the animals featured in his art as "creatures of the present".<ref name="Phillips" /> He also specifically referred to himself as an Ojibway artist, as opposed to allowing himself to be categorized under the broader net of simply an "Indian" artist.

<blockquote>"I like to express my own feelings, not my Indian-ness. I express myself, the way I feel."<ref name="temiskaming " /></blockquote>

== Selected exhibitions ==
* 1973: [[University of Ottawa]];<ref name=":0" />
* 1974: ''Canadian Indian Art '74'', [[Royal Ontario Museum]], Toronto, Ontario;<ref>{{cite web |title=Exhibitions |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=Canadian+Indian+Art+%2774 |website=www.google.com |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>
* 1976: Inukshuk Gallery, Waterloo, Ontario;<ref name=":0" />
* 1977: Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver;<ref name=":0" /> ''Links to Tradition'', [[Indian and Northern Affairs]] Canada (travelling);<ref name=":0" />
* 1983: Retrospective, Thunder Bay Nation and Exhibition and Centre for Indian Art;<ref name="temiskaming " />
* 1991: ''Benjamin Chee Chee: The Black Geese Portfolio, and Other Works''. Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Ontario;<ref name="temiskaming " />
* 2018: ''Benjamin Chee Chee: Life and Legacy'', the Temiskaming Art Gallery (travelling).<ref name="temiskaming " />

== Selected public collections ==
* [[Canadian Museum of Civilization]], Hull, Québec;<ref name=":0" />
* [[Glenbow Museum]], Calgary, Alberta;<ref name=":0" />
* [[Indian and Northern Affairs Canada]], Ottawa, Ontario;<ref name=":0" />
* [[McMichael Canadian Art Collection]], Kleinberg, Ontario;<ref name=":0" />
* [[National Gallery of Canada]], Ottawa;<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/benjamin-chee-chee |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>
* [[Robert McLaughlin Gallery]], Oshawa;<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://rmg.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll?search&APPLICATION=COLLECTIONS_WEB&DATABASE=COLLECTIONS_WEB&language=144&REPORT=WEB_RMG_ART_SUM&ERRMSG=[RMG_INCLUDES]no-record.html |website=rmg.minisisinc.com |publisher=Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>
* [[Royal Ontario Museum]], Toronto, Ontario;<ref name=":0" />
* [[Thunder Bay Art Gallery]], Thunder Bay, Ontario;<ref name=":0" /><ref name="temiskaming " />
* Woodland Cultural Centre, Brantford, Ontario;<ref name=":0" />

==Death==
After finding his mother and achieving success as an artist, Chee Chee died by suicide in an Ottawa jail in 1977.<ref>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Al|title=Chee Chee: A Study of Aboriginal Suicide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ax37OXe8ZU4C|year=2004|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-7178-5}}</ref> He was buried in [[Notre-Dame Cemetery (Ottawa)|Notre Dame Cemetery]] in Ottawa, Ontario.<ref name="CC"/>

==Legacy==
Chee Chee has been mentioned in Canada's Parliament & [[House of Commons]] by Indigenous Cree MP [[Robert-Falcon Ouellette]] in a tribute to the artist about his influence.

Ouellette said "Let us also recognize one of the finest artists of Canada, Benjamin Chee Chee. He always refused to be an indigenous artist; he was a proud [[Anishinaabe|Anishnabeg]]. He drew simple lines, usually acrylic on paper. Highly influential in his time, he said he did not paint the past but the present, the living of today. We can see his works, like the flock of four geese. They represent the four directions of the unborn, the youth, the adults and the elders all moving in the same direction. Even though he died in tragedy and is buried in Ottawa, far from his land and people, he still inspires today."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ouellette |first1=Robert-Falcon |title=Tribute |url=https://openparliament.ca/debates/2019/5/2/robert-falcon-ouellette-3/only |website=openparliament.ca |access-date=14 December 2023}}</ref>

In 1983, upon their acquisition of a large collection of the artist's work for their new gallery, the Thunder Bay Nation and Exhibition and Centre for Indian Art organized his first [[retrospective]].<ref name="temiskaming " /> In 1991 the Thunder Bay Art Gallery held a second retrospective exhibition titled ''Benjamin Chee Chee: The Black Geese Portfolio, and Other Works'', guest curated by [[Robert Houle]].<ref name="temiskaming " />

In 2018, the Temiskaming Art Gallery organized a show titled ''Benjamin Chee Chee: Life and Legacy''.<ref name="temiskaming " >{{cite web |title=Exhibitions |url=https://www.temiskamingartgallery.ca/benjamin-chee-chee |website=www.temiskamingartgallery.ca |publisher=Temiskaming Art Gallery |access-date=9 December 2023}}</ref> The show received a grant of $97,200 from the Government of Canada to travel to communities throughout Northern Ontario over the next three years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Announcement |url=https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/the-government-of-canada-supports-indigenous-arts-in-northern-ontario-893697839.html |website=www.newswire.ca/ |publisher=Gov't of Canada |access-date=14 December 2023}}</ref>

There is a park named after him (Benjamin Chee Chee Park) in Milton, Ontario.<ref>{{cite web |title=Article |url=https://www.miltonnow.ca/2021/05/12/90718 |website=www.miltonnow.ca |publisher=Milton Now |access-date=14 December 2023}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}

* {{cite book
| first1 = Alvin L.
| last1 = Evans
| title = Chee Chee: A Study of Aboriginal Suicide
| publisher = McGill-Queens University Press
| date = 2004
| isbn = 978-0773526877
}}
* {{cite book
| last1 = Lerner
| first1 = Loren R.
| first2 = Mary F.
| last2 = Williamson
| date = 1991
| title = Art and Architecture in Canada
| publisher = U Toronto Press
| isbn = 978-0802058560
}}
* {{cite book
| last1 = Matuz
| first1 = Roger
| date = 1998
| title = St. James Guide to Native North American Artists
| publisher = The University of Michigan
| isbn = 978-1558622210
}}
* {{cite web
| url = http://www.native-art-in-canada.com/benjamincheechee.html
| title = Native artist Benjamin Chee Chee
| date = 2006
| website = www.native-art-in-canada.com
| ref = {{harv|native-art-in-canada.com|2006}}
}}
* {{cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=Carmen L. |title=The Making of a Movement: Chee Chee and Trailblazing Artists of the 1960's and 1970's |date=2018 |publisher=Temiskaming Art Gallery |location=Temiskaming|url=https://180projects.org/benjamin-chee-chee-life-and-legacy |access-date=9 December 2023}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=sh&GRid=11558613& Benjamin Chee Chee on-line cemetery]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160218002429/http://www.sg-chem.net/art/native-canadian-art.php Benjamin Chee Chee art sold recently at auctions]}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chee Chee, Benjamin}}
[[Category:Canadian Ojibwe people]]
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:1977 suicides]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]
[[Category:First Nations painters]]
[[Category:Artists who died by suicide]]
[[Category:Suicides by hanging in Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian people who died in prison custody]]
[[Category:Prisoners who died in Canadian detention]]
[[Category:People who died by suicide in prison custody]]
[[Category:Artists from Ontario]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian painters]]
[[Category:Canadian male painters]]
[[Category:Woodlands style]]
[[Category:People from Temagami]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male artists]]
[[Category:Burials at Notre-Dame Cemetery (Ottawa)]]
[[Category:Ojibwe artists]]

Benjamin Chee Chee - Revision history

imported>Citation bot: Altered url. URLs might have been anonymized. Added website. Removed parameters. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Abductive | Category:People who died by suicide in prison custody | #UCB_Category 63/147