Benjamin Chee Chee (1944 – 1977) was a Canadian artist of Ojibwa descent, born in Temagami, Ontario. Chee Chee’s early life was troubled and he lost track of his mother, whom he spent many years searching for. He moved to Montreal in 1965 where he developed his love of drawing, then returned to Ottawa in 1973.
He developed his unique style of clear graceful lines and minimal colour, depicting birds and animals. Though his art featured a great deal of iconography often used by Canadian First Nations artists, Chee Chee had denied his art had symbolic meaning. He instead referred to the animals featured in his art as “creatures of the present”.
After finding his mother and achieving success as an artist, Chee Chee died by suicide in an Ottawa jail in 1977, being just 33. (wikipedia)
