Benjamin Chee Chee Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Benjamin Chee Chee (1944-1977) was born in Temagami, Ontario.
He largely taught himself to draw and paint. His father died when he was two months old and he lost track of his mother. Read the full biography

Benjamin Chee Chee (1944-1977) was born in Temagami, Ontario.
He largely taught himself to draw and paint. His father died when he was two months old and he lost track of his mother. One of the reasons for his desire to succeed as a painter was his ambition to reunite with her. He was a prominent member of the second generation of Woodland Indian Painters, a Native art movement that began in the early 1960s and became one of the important art schools in Canada.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, he painted in a style influenced by modern abstraction. While most of the young Woodland Indian artists were content to follow the style of the movement's founder, Norval Morrisseau, in depicting myths and legends with direct and "primitive" narrative means, Chee Chee pursued a more economical graphic style, a reduction of line and image more in line with the mainstream of international modern art.
One of the most dramatic turning points was the rapid emergence of Benjamin Chee Chee in the mid-1970s which ended with his tragic death in 1977 at the age of thirty-two, and at the height of a newfound success as an artist and printmaker.
Due to the short period in which his iconic artistic style was created, very few original works exist. In recent years, very few works have appeared for sale. Chee Chee's linear and minimal style had a profound impact on artists such as Hugh MacKenzie, Clemence Wescoupe, Isaac Bignell and Sweetpea.