Inuit Art Quarterly - Prints: Making Multiples by Inuit Art Quarterly

CONTENTS

32.3

Inuit Art Quarterly Prints

Front

Features

04 Contributors

28 True to Form: The Printmakers of Kinngait Studios

05 From the Editor 06 Message from the Board 07 Impact Update 6 WORKS

14 Kinngait Rewind HIGHLIGHTS

18 A sneak peek at some

current and upcoming exhibitions and projects. CHOICE

20 Keeleemeeoomee Samualie by Sandra Barz CHOICE

22 Kananginak Pootoogook and Lukta Qiatsuk by Jocelyn Piirainen PROFILE

24 Christopher Blechert by Evan Pavka

Back

Now entering its sixth decade of production, the history of the Kinngait Studios is well-known across both the North and South. Yet, less considered are those involved in producing the now iconic releases. From stonecut to etching and aquatint to lithography, this Feature considers the influential and often unseen role of the many printmakers whose translation of drawings into editioned prints is an artform of its own.

by Inuit Art Quarterly

36 What Gets Lost: The Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s Rejected Prints

From 1961 to 1989, the CEAC evaluated which graphics by northern artists would be made available to southern audiences. During this time, hundreds of prints from communities across the Arctic were withheld—hours of labour, creativity and community resources tucked away from public view or destroyed entirely. In this unique Portfolio, a selection of arts professionals share their views on these rejected images and what we might learn from them now.

LEGACY

Indelible Ink: The Enduring Images of Nungusuituq by Krista Ulujuk Zawadski and Jo Poortenaar COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

56 Inukjuak by Janice Grey 58 Kinngait by Nakasuk Alariaq 60 Nain by Tobey Andersen 62 Ulukhaktok by Lisa Alikamik REVIEW

66 ᓲᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓲᓇ: ᓄᓇᙳᐊᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᙳᐊᓂᒃ The Power Plant Contemporary

Art Gallery

by Esmé Hogeveen REVIEW

68 Isuma La Biennale di Venezia by Reneltta Arluk TRIBUTE

44 The Re-collected Images of Joseph Senungetuk Page 36 From drum dancing to a playful encounter with a walrus, this Portfolio revists the legacies of prints once restricted from public view.

For more than four decades, this elder artist and author has crafted bold and evocative images that capture the ways of life and critical issues facing Iñupiat throughout Alaska. In this interview, the printmaker reflects on his extensive career by revisiting his early foray into woodblock printing and his current project to reclaim them.

by Melissa Shaginoff

70 Aqjangajuk Shaa Okpik Pitseolak 72 News LAST LOOK

76 Quvianaqtuk Pudlat

ON THE COVER

Ooloosie Saila (b. 1991 Kinngait) — Ornamental Owl 2017 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut 45.8 × 61.8 cm © DORSET FINE ARTS

Prints

Front

Jocelyn Piirainen, Assistant Curator of Inuit Art

Home to the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art. Thousands of artworks, thousands of stories to share.

MASTHEAD

CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Inuit Art Quarterly is published by the Inuit Art Foundation.

Executive Director and Publisher Alysa Procida

President Mathew Nuqingaq Iqaluit, NU

Editorial Director Britt Gallpen

Vice-President Heather Igloliorte Montreal, QC

Established in 1987, the Inuit Art Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable organization that provides support to Canada’s Inuit arts communities and is the sole national body mandated to promote Inuit artists and art within Canada and internationally. This magazine relies on donations made to the Inuit Art Foundation, a registered charitable organization in Canada (BN #121033724RR0001) and the United States (#980140282). The Inuit Art Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through contributions from the Reconciliation Secretariat at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage, as well as the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Creates. Subscriptions subscribe@inuitartfoundation.org Canada: $33/yr. Excludes GST/HST. US: $44/yr. Elsewhere: $48/yr. GST/HST #121033724RT0001. The Inuit Art Quarterly is a member of Magazines Canada. Publication date of this issue: September 15, 2019 ISSN 0831-6708 Publication Mail Agreement #40050252 Postmaster send address changes to Inuit Art Foundation. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Inuit Art Foundation 1655 Dupont Street Toronto, ON, M6P 3T1 (647) 498-7717 inuitartfoundation.org ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. THE INUIT ART QUARTERLY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR UNSOLICITED MATERIAL. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE INUIT ART QUARTERLY ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE INUIT ART FOUNDATION. PRINTED IN CANADA. DISTRIBUTED BY MAGAZINES CANADA. FROM TIME TO TIME WE MAKE OUR SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES AVAILABLE TO COMPANIES WHOSE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES WE FEEL MAY BE OF INTEREST TO YOU. TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THESE MAILINGS, PLEASE SEND YOUR REQUEST, ALONG WITH A COPY OF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION MAILING LABEL, TO THE ADDRESS ABOVE.

Editor-at-Large Taqralik Partridge Senior Editor John Geoghegan Managing Editor Evan Pavka Contributing Editor Napatsi Folger Contributing Editor Emily Henderson Copy Editor Simone Wharton Advertising Manager Nicholas Wattson Design Emily Tu

Secretary-Treasurer Erica Lugt Inuvik, NT Past President Sammy Kudluk Kuujjuaq, QC Jamie Cameron Toronto, ON Patricia Feheley Toronto, ON Michael Massie Kippens, NL Ryan Rice Toronto, ON

Colour Gas Company Printing Interprovincial Group

PROGRAMS Igloo Tag Coordinator Blandina Attaarjuaq Makkik

Programs Support Coordinator Serena Ypelaar

Igloo Tag Facilitator Bruce Uvilluq

Nunatsiavut Community Liaison Holly Andersen

Administrative Assistant Brittany Holliss Archives Coordinator Joanna McMann Archives Assistant Aaron Cain Archives Assistant Ashley Cook Archives Assistant Kasey Ball Archives Assistant Magdalen Lau Fellowship Community Resource Liaison Emma Steen

Jo Poortenaar is an art handler and gallery preparator currently working as the Collection Assistant and Handler for the Government of Nunavut Fine Art Collection at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba, and has worked with the collection in various roles since 2016. She holds a BA in History of Art from the University of Winnipeg. PAGE 52

Melissa Shaginoff Melissa Shaginoff is part of the Udzisyu (caribou) and Cui Ui Ticutta (fish-eater) clans from Nay’dini’aa Na Kayax (the log over the river or Chickaloon Village). She is currently the Curator of Contemporary Indigenous Art and Culture at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska. Her work revolves around identity and representation, and is included in the collections of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, the Palmer Museum in Alaska and the Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska. PAGE 44

Joseph Senungetuk

—

Development Manager Christa Ouimet

Jo Poortenaar

Nunavut Community Liaison Jesse Tungilik Southern Canada East Community Liaison Darcie Bernhardt Southern Canada West Community Liaison Alberta Rose Williams IAQ Profiles Program Officer Evangeline Mann IAQ Profiles Program Officer Eleanore Mackie

—

EDITORIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Joseph Senungetuk is a multidisciplinary artist based in Anchorage, Alaska. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute in California, and is the author of Give or Take a Century (1971). His work is included in numerous collections including The British Museum in London, UK, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY, and the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, among others. Senungetuk is currently Elder artist-inresidence at the Alaska Pacific University. PAGE 44

Krista Ulujuk Zawadski Krista Ulujuk Zawadski was raised in Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), NU, and currently calls Kangiqliniq (Rankin Inlet), NU, home. Zawadski holds an MA in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, and has focused her education and career on Arctic anthropology, museology and collections-based research, with an emphasis on fostering accessibility to collections for Inuit. She is currently a PhD student at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON, and works for the Government of Nunavut as a curator. PAGE 52

Mary Dailey Desmarais Kim Latreille Samia Madwar Sarah Milroy Elizabeth Qulaut

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

FROM THE EDITOR

Like most Canadians, my first exposure to Inuit art was through Inuit prints. For years imagery by Inuit artists surrounded me in the form of greeting cards, puzzles and coffee mugs. Printed on book jackets, posters and calendars, these iconic graphics took pride of place in classrooms, doctors’ offices and in the homes of family friends.

To read more about this print, and others like it, vist: inuitartfoundation.org/choice ABOVE

Lisi Maggie Thomassie (b. 1974 Kangirsuk) — ᐊᓪᓕᓂ 2019 Linocut 24 × 19 cm COURTESY THE ARTIST PHOTO GUY L’HEUREUX

Prints

I vividly remember carefully peeling a stamp off an envelope for safekeeping as a child. It wasn’t until years later that I came to understand that the vast majority of these “fascinating images” I’d been seeing, to quote Studio Manager Terry Ryan, emerged from a single community: Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU. Unquestionably the longest-running print program in the country, for six decades the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection has traced the evolution of technical experimentation in the studios as well as broader shifts in style, subject and taste. This history has been well documented over the years, including in our own pages. What has been granted far fewer words, however, is the unique skill of Kinngait’s expert visual translators, who have been steadily creating printed images that remain true, in content and style, to the original drawings–often created by other artists. As a result, on the occasion of 60 years of printmaking in Kinngait, the Inuit Art Quarterly team undertook a somewhat unusual approach. With the help of many of our friends, we collaboratively wrote a Feature for this Prints issue with the express purpose of spotlighting the immense contributions of the printmakers themselves to the field of Inuit art history. Beginning with the first cohort of Kinngait Studios printmakers, “True to Form” draws a through line to those printmakers working now, bringing the current creative visions of their community to the fore. Our other Features are similarly invested in showcasing little-known stories of Arctic

printmaking. This year also marks 30 years since the closure of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council (CEAC), a southern body tasked with evaluating and bringing Inuit prints to market from the early 1960s through to the end of the 1980s—a period of incredibly rich production for Inuit printmaking. Over the course of their run, the CEAC reviewed and assessed thousands of works, but many were ultimately deemed unsuitable. This Portfolio considers the tremendous impact of these decisions and the artists and artwork caught at the centre of them. For Interview, curator Melissa Shaginoff talks with Iñupiaq artist Joseph Senungetuk about his extensive career and current project to collect back his own works, as an act of both protest and remembering. Finally, in this issue we have included four Community Spotlights, each written by an Inuit contributor on a topic closer to home. All capture a unique account of a previously unpublished printmaking episode from the vantage of those who know them best. Together, with our Legacy on the early prints of Nungusuituq (1890–1950), these pieces offer a retelling of the history of printmaking in the North, a narrative many feel has already been told. It’s a strong reminder that for all we have catalogued, recorded and analyzed, the artworks themselves will always urge us to consider that there is more to learn, to uncover and to celebrate. Britt Gallpen Editorial Director

Front

THANK YOU

The Inuit Art Foundation is your home for Inuit art We are the only nationally mandated organization dedicated to supporting all Inuit artists working across the North and beyond.

MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD

Learning, Growing, Sharing

Inuit Art Quarterly

On behalf of the Inuit Art Foundation’s Board of Directors, I thank you for your continuous support, and I hope you had a joyous summer with your freezers, like mine, filled with Arctic berries. I am an Inuvialuit beneficiary and an incoming member of the IAF Board. My family originates from the shores of the Arctic Ocean in the beautiful community of Tuktoyaktuk, NT. I am honoured to join the Board of Directors and I look forward to learning and contributing on behalf of my people in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. The IAF has had an active spring and summer, with many highlights to share. With the Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project, we travelled to Italy, for the opening of Isuma’s historic representation of Canada at the Venice Biennale. Here, Contributing Editors Napatsi Folger and Emily Henderson lead the development of the all-Inuit, digital edition of the Inuit Art Quarterly on the event, now available online. Also this spring, 6

BELOW

Eva Talooki Aliktiluk (1927–1994/5 Arviat) — Three Beaded Figures n.d. Beads, stone and string Dimensions variable

Alice Sakitnak Akammak (b. 1940 Arviat) — Hooded Figure with Beaded Amauti n.d. Beads, stone and string Dimensions variable COURTESY WADDINGTON’S

the IAQ was nominated at the National Magazine Awards for Issue Grand Prix alongside Executive Director and Publisher Alysa Procida’s nomination for Publisher Grand Prix. Both nominations were a first for our team. In partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts, we organized a delegation of Inuit artists to attend the second Arctic Arts Summit in Rovaniemi, Finland, where they participated in panels on artistic practice in the circumpolar North. I also had the opportunity to sit with the IAF at this year’s annual Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, NT, meeting with local artisans to discuss the future of the Igloo Tag Trademark and much more. Quyanannii to all our readers and supporters. I look forward to learning and growing with you through our shared love of Inuit art. Erica Lugt Secretary–Treasurer, Inuit Art Foundation Fall 2019

THANK YOU

Monthly gift supporter Endowment fund supporter Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award supporter

Publications fund supporter

Sustainers $5,000+ Rene Balcer Susan Carter Andrew Chodos, in memory of Ted and Toni Chodos Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron Erik Haites Hugh Hall The Herb and Cece Schreiber Foundation John and Joyce Price and one anonymous donor $2,500–$4,999 Katarina Kupca David and Liz Macdonald Joram Piatigorsky The Michael and Sonja Koerner Charitable Foundation The Radlett Foundation $1,000–$2,499 Adventure Canada Huit Huit Tours Ltd. and Cape Dorset Inuit Art Shary Boyle Donald and Pat Dodds Marian Dodds, in honour of Dedie Dodds Arthur Drache and Judy Young Eleanor Erikson Fath Group / O’Hanlon Paving Patricia Feheley Harald Finkler and Nadine Nickner David Forrest Janice Gonsalves Inuit Art Society Monty Kehl and Craig Wilbanks Charles Kingsley Christie MacInnes Kathryn Minard Susan A. Ollila Constance Pathy Ann Posen, in honour of David Braidberg Andrew and Valerie Pringle Alysa Procida and Kevin Stewart Prints

Thank you for giving generously to the Inuit Art Foundation! You and your generous support ensure the Inuit Art Foundation can do its work. You support artists. You encourage and nurture artistic expression. You connect artists and audiences. Thank you so much. The IAF is pleased to recognize those who have contributed between June 2018 and June 2019.

Catherine Wilkes, in honour of David Wilkes and two anonymous donors [1 ,1 ] $250–$499 James Abel, in honour of Xanthipi Abel John and Sylvia Aldrich Alphabet Shelley Ambrose Eric Barnum Jurg and Christel Bieri Cedar Bradley-Swan Matthew Bradley-Swan Catherine Campbell Mary Campbell, in honour of Billy Gauthier Kate Doorly Leah Erickson, in honour of all Inuit artists Alana Faber Alain Fournier Susan Gallpen Peter Gardner Gillian Graham Paul Gemmiti Friends of Carol Hordatt Gentles, in honour of Christa Hordatt Dr. Andrew Gotowiec Mark Gustafson Barbara Hale Shawn Hassell Carol Heppenstall Patricia Hinton and David Wilson Dale Horwitz Heather Igloliorte and Matthew Brulotte Louis Jungheim and Thalia Nicas, in honour of Eliot and Alisa Waldman Joyce Keltie Nancy Keppelman and Michael Smerza Rawlson O’Neil King Ellen Lehman and Charles Kennel Val K. Lem Linda Lewis

Celine Saucier David Sproule, in honour of Jean Katherine Sproule Ellen Taubman The Goring Family Foundation Barbara J. Turner Norman Zepp and Judith Varga $500–$999 Paul and Ellen Alkon Jim Bader Vincent and Barbara Barresi Patricia Bovey Kaaren Brown Woody Brown and Christa Ouimet, in memory of Susan Oster Tobi Bruce Yvonne C. Condell Cowley Abbott Canadian Fine Art Neil Devitt Irena and Peter Dixon, in memory of Philip Igloliorte Jon and Val Eliassen Yvonne and David Fleck Britt Gallpen and Travis Vakenti Molly K. Heines and Thomas J. Moloney Margaret and Roger Horton K+D (Kalaman + Demetriou) Carola Kaegi Alex Krawczyk Mary Kostman, in honour of Jennifer Kilabuk Simon Lappi Ann and Michael Lesk Maija M. Lutz and Peter A. Tassia P. McKeown Scott Mullin Allan Newell Danielle Ouimet, in memory of Trista Wong Smye Paul Pizzolante Mark Richardson Michael and Melanie Southern The Power Foundation Joel and Evelyn Umlas Gail Vanstone Nicholas Wattson Jaan Whitehead 7

Lois Loewen Michael Martens, in memory of Miriam Bordofsky Paul Mayer Nancy Moore Michael J. Noone Suzanne O’Hara Maria Parsons Sandy Riley Bruce Roberts Luigi Ruffolo Paula Santrach Ronald Senungetuk Mari Shantz Elizabeth Steinbrueck Colleen Suche Jacek Szulc Charles and Carol Tator The Pemsel Case Foundation, in honour of Jamie Cameron Marie-Josée Therrien Hunter and Valerie Thompson Jay and Deborah Thomson Carol Thrun, MD Ann Tompkins Anne Vagi Galerie d’art Vincent Gord and Laurie Webster Mark and Margie Zivin And four anonymous donors [3 ] $100–$249 Amy Adams Manasiah Paniloo Akpaliapik Lea Algar-Moscoe Eleanor Allgood Mary Anglim Sarah Ashton, in honour of Sharon Allen Catherine Badke Eric Barnum Susan Baum Heather Beecroft Patrick Béland Pamella and Charles Binder, in honour of C Alan Hudson III Catherine Birt Terry and Donna Bladholm Francois Boucher, in memory of Peter Pitseolak Front

THANK YOU

Shirley Brown, in honour of Christa Ouimet Freda and Irwin Browns Lisa-Margaret S. Bryan Stephen Bulger Claudia Christian Linda Cleman Nancy Cleman Carol Cole Raymond F. Currie Fred and Mary Cutler Celia Denov Urmi Desai John Domsy Sophie Dorais François Dumaine Hélène Dussault and Louis Hanrahan Melanie Egan Leslie E. Eisenberg Pat English Lynne and John Eramo Lynn Feasey Shirley Finfrock Barbara Fischer Ed Friedman John Geoghegan Carole Gobeil Claire S. Gold Peter Gold and Athalie Joy Deborah D. Gordon Nelson Graburn, in memory of Taiara and Ituvik from Salluit Carol Gray Linda Grussani Susan and Victor Gustavison Andrea Hamilton James M. Harris Dianne Hayman Janet Heagle Ingo Hessel Albert and Femmeke Holthuis Warren Howard Dr. Jacqueline Hynes indiGem Inc., in honour of Matthew Nuqingaq Lynn Jackson, in honour of Paula Jackson Laurence Jacobs Vic Janzen Amy Jenkins Sharon Jorgens John and Johanna Kassenaar A.B. Kliefoth, MD, in honour of the hardworking IAF staff Randy Lazarus Kenneth R. Lister Daryl Logan Louise Logan Simone Ludlow Samia Madwar, in memory of Hazar Sawaf Priya Mani Susan Marrier Inuit Art Quarterly

Claude M. Weil, in honour of Jim Shirley Leslie Saxon West Scott White Judy Wolfe Bea Zizlavsky and eight anonymous donors [2 , 1 , 1 ]

Larry Martinez Elizabeth McKeown G. Lester and Phyllis McKinnon Tess McLean, in memory of Christian Gunnar Saare Valerie Meesschaert-Verheyen Robert Michaud Joanna Miazga Margaret Morse Stephen Morris, in memory of Aqjangayuk Shaa Meredith Mozer Barbara Myslinski Suzanne F. Nash Gary Nelson Lee and Sharon Oberlander Donna and Hal Olsen Pierre-Francois Ouellette Carole Ouimet Louie Palu, in memory of Fiorina and Giuseppe Palu Doreen Peever Steve Potocny and Anne Milochik Robin and David Procida Prue Rains, in honour of Marybelle Mitchell Blaine Rapp, in honour of Helen Mary Rapp Bayard D. Rea Leslie Reid Timothy Reinig K. Richardson Marcia Rioux Mark Rittenhouse Michael L. Foreman and Leslie Roden-Foreman Blandina Attaarjuaq Makkik and Greg Rogers Susan Rowley Dana and Noel Rufino, in honour of Christa Hordatt Judith Rycus Joseph Salkowitz, DMD Alexa Samuels Jeffrey Seidman Paul Shackel Mark Shiner Seiko Shirafuji Janet Shute Susan Simpson Scenery Slater Liz Charlotte Smeloff Carmine Starnino Phil Tinmouth and Brit Dewey Robert C. and Judith Toll Tundra North Tours Teri Vakenti Peter Van Brunt James and Louise Vesper Charles M. Voirin Rod Wacowich, in memory of Lorraine Neill Mary Jo Watson Lowell Waxman Ann and Marshall Webb

Friends of the Foundation Up to $99 Bea Alvarez Olga and Boris Andriewsky, in honour of Erik Haites Susan Anthony Judy Archer, in memory of Sarah Prince Archer Susan Baker Elizabeth P. Ball Bruce Bauer Pat Bavin Catherine Black Maegen Black Roland and Dorothy Beauregard, in honour of Erik Haites David Burns Nancy Chorley Claire Christopher Judy Conning, in honour of Erik Haites Barbara Dalziel Nadine Di Monte Autumn Diaz Janette Doering Lynn Enright Katharine W. Fernstrom Anne and Steve Georgas Karen and George Gorsline Susan Griswold Alissa Hamilton John A. Hanjian Kathryn Hanna Beatrice Hanson, in memory of Cesare Ansovini Mary Hanson Tekla Harms Clive Harvey Ian Harvey Anne Hearn Janna Hiemstra Charles Hilton Petra Holler Brittany Holliss Anna Holmes Home & Away Gallery Andrew Hubbertz Emily Jolliffe Melinda Josie Gwen Kerr, in honour of Germaine Arnaktauyok Koula Koliviras, in honour of Christa Hordatt 8

Peter Kovacik Nadia Kurd Benoit Labelle Carol Lampert, in honour of Erik Haites Mary Lawrence Breinig David Lee Marion Lord Norma Lundberg Catherine Madsen Elaine and Neil Margolis Alison McDonald Michelle McGeough Verena Mereb Susan Newlove Oswald Family Louisa Pauyungie Sr Kara Pearce Kate Permut Marie Peron Pinero Family, in loving memory of Christa Emma Hordatt Serge Ricchi Mark Rieger Marilyn Robinson Kerstin Roger Irene Rokaw and John Reese Anita Romaniuk Robert Rosenbaum Lise Rousson-Morneau Allan R. Sampson Nicholas Sappington Evelyn R. Savitzky Joanne Schmidt, in memory of Gail Schmidt Claude Schryer Iris Schweiger Elika Shapiro Linda Simmonds Muriel Smith Charmaine Spencer Ann Sprayregen Rosalind Sweeney-McCabe Gray and Margaret Taylor, in honour of Erik Haites Bertha K. Thompson Kitty Thorne Scott G. Travis Emilie Tremblay Darlene Tymn Anne Van Burek Larysa Voss Nancy Walkling, in memory of Frank Walkling John Weber Sarah Whelchel Amanda Whitney Michael Wiles Catherine Wolf-Becker, in honour of Erik Haites and six anonymous donors [1 ]

Bequests Virginia Watt Perpetual Trust Fall 2019

THANK YOU

Your Impact Thank you for supporting the Inuit Art Foundation. By giving, you allow both emerging and established artists to share their work while ensuring that Inuit voices are amplified and lead discussions of Inuit art. Below is one demonstration of your impact, of many.

How You Help

Being published in the Winter 2016 issue of the Inuit Art Quarterly was my ﬁrst time working with the Inuit Art Foundation. The IAQ was the ﬁrst magazine to contact me. This support, and being included in the special photography booklet for Art Toronto 2018, allowed me to show what I have done and what I can do with photography. It really got my name out there. It has opened up new opportunities for me, such as the upcoming exhibition Dark Ice at the Ottawa Art Gallery, which I am thankful for.” ROBERT KAUTUK

IAF Supporter’s Circle The Supporter’s Circle is a special group of donors who give monthly to sustain the IAF and create opportunities for artists. Thank you Supporter’s Circle Members for your special yearround support. Manasiah Paniloo Akpaliapik Mary Anglim Vincent and Barbara Barresi Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron Claudia Christian Sophie Dorais Donald and Pat Dodds Amy Jenkins Katarina Kupca Michael Martens, in memory of Miriam Bordofsky Robin and David Procida Michael and Melanie Southern Claude M. Weil, in honour of Jim Shirley Gord and Laurie Webster and one anonymous donor Welcome to the following new members to the Supporter’s Circle! Between May 2019 and June 2019: Tobi Bruce Catherine Campbell Celia Denov Barbara Hale Kate Doorly Lynn Feasey Britt Gallpen and Travis Vakenti Anik Glaude Dr. Andrew Gotowiec Shawn Hassell Brittany Holliss Samia Madwar, in honour of Hazar Shawaf Stephen Morris, in memory of Aqjangayuk Shaa Alysa Procida and Kevin Stewart Ann Posen, in honour of David Braidberg Nicholas Wattson Leslie Saxon West Melanie Egan and one anonynous donor

ADDITIONAL 2018–2019 PROGRAM SUPPORT PROVIDED BY: PRIMARY SUPPORTER

Prints

PROGRAM SUPPORT

Front

THANK YOU

Without you, there would be no IAQ In June, the IAF launched a campaign to specifically support the Inuit Art Quarterly. Thank you to the donors who have made sections of this issue possible with their gifts dedicated to the magazine. And a special thank you to those this year, and for the next year, who made additional gifts to this campaign above and beyond their ongoing support. Please let us know if you’d like to add your name to the list of publication supporters—for the magazine as a whole, or a specific section.

Thank you to Rene Balcer, Andrew Chodos, Joram Piatigorsky and John and Joyce Price for their exceptional support. — Cover Feature True to Form: The Printmakers of Kinngait Studios PAGE 28 Thank you to Shary Boyle; Hugh Hall; Janice Gonsalves; The Goring Family Foundation; David Forrest; Monty Kehl and Craig Wilbanks; Katarina Kupca; Inuit Art Society; Constance Pathy; and Ann Posen, in honour of David Braidberg. — Legacy Indelible Ink: The Enduring Images of Nungusuituq PAGE 52 Thank you to Patricia Bovey; Tobi Bruce; Neil Devitt; Peter and Irena Dixon, in memory of Philip Igloliorte; Harald Finkler and Nadine Nickner; Molly K. Heines and Thomas J. Moloney; Carola Kaegi; Kathryn Minard; Allan Newell; Alysa Procida and Kevin Stewart; Ellen Taubman; and one anonymous donor. — Interview The Re-collected Images of Joseph Senungetuk PAGE 44 Thank you to Alphabet; Shelley Ambrose; Catherine Campbell; Kate Doorly; Jon and Val Eliassen; Yvonne and David Fleck; Dr. Andrew Gotowiec; Shawn Hassell; Carol Heppenstall; Samia Madwar, in memory of Hazar Sawaf; P. McKeown; Mari Shantz; Catherine Wilkes, in honour of David Wilkes; and one anonymous donor. — Profile Christopher Blechert PAGE 24 Thank you to James Abel, in honour of Xanthipi Abel; John and Sylvia Aldrich; Jim Bader; Eric Barnum; Terry and Donna Bladholm; Francois Boucher, in memory of Peter Pitseolak; Kaaren Brown; Mary F. Campbell; Celia Denov; Sophie Dorais; Melanie Egan; Lynn Feasey; Barbara Fischer; Paul Gemmiti; Gillian Graham; Mark Gustafson; Barbara Hale; Dr. Patricia Hinton and David Wilson; Heather Igloliorte and Matthew Brulotte; Nancy Keppelman and Michael Smerza; Charles Kingsley; Val K. Lem; Dr. Marie Loyer; Maija M. Lutz and Peter Tassia; Stephen Morris, in memory of Aqjangajuk Shaa; Scott Mullin; Michael J. Noone; Suzanne O’Hara; Maria Parsons; K. Richardson; Jeffrey Seidman; Susan Simpson; David Sproule, in honour of Jean Katherine Sproule; Charles and Carol Tator; Phil Tinmouth and Brit Dewey; Ann Tompkins; Teri Vakenti; Rod Wacowich, in memory of Lorraine Neill; Peggy Weller; Leslie Saxon West; Mark and Margie Zivin; and two anonymous donors. — Thank you also to Amy Adams; Catherine Badke; Bruce Bauer; Patrick Béland; Maegen Black; Stephen Bulger; Freda and Irwin Browns; Raymond F. Currie; Urmi Desai; François Dumaine; Shirley Finfrock; Michael L. Foreman and Leslie Roden-Foreman; John Geoghegan; Claire S. Gold; Peter Gold and Athalie Joy; Nelson Graburn, in memory of Taiara and Ituvik from Salluit; Susan Griswold; Linda Grussani; Alissa Hamilton; Andrea Hamilton; John Hanjian; Beatrice Hanson, in memory of Cesare Ansovini; Diane Hayman; Janna Hiemstra; Petra Holler; Dr. Jacqueline Hynes; indiGem Inc., in honour of Mathew Nuqingaq; Emily Joliffe; Sharon Jorgens; Gwen Kerr, in honour of Germaine Arnaktauyok; Peter Kovacik; Nadia Kurd; Darryl Logan; Marion Lord; The Honourable Justice Paul Mayer; Michelle McGeough; Tess McLean, in memory of Christian Gunnar Saare; Joanna Miazga; Margaret Morse; Meredith Mozer; Suzanne F. Nash; Louie Palu, in memory of Fiorina and Giuseppe Palu; Steve Potocny and Anne Milochik; Blaine Rapp, in honour of Helen Mary Rapp; Allan R. Sampson; Alexa Samuels; Nicholas Sappington; Joanne Schmidt, in honour of Gail Schmidt; Claude Schryer; Elika Shapiro; Seiko Shirafuji; Scenery Slater; Ann Sprayregen; Carmine Starnino; Colleen Suche; Marie-Josée Therrien; Jay Thomson; Emilie Tremblay; Tundra Tours North; Nancy Walkling, in memory of Frank Walkling; Lowell Waxman; Ann and Marshall Webb; Judy Wolfe; Anne Vagi; and three anonymous donors for supporting the IAQ.

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

THANK YOU

Join Us Help us support artists working across Inuit Nunangat and beyond by donating to the Inuit Art Foundation. Celebrate the art you love, become a part of our community today.

As funding cuts continue to impact our ability to advocate and provide opportunities for artists, your support means more now than ever. Thank you for investing in Inuit artists, you are an invaluable part of our community.”

ABOVE

Ooloosie Saila (b. 1991 Kinngait) — Ornamental Owl 2017 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut 45.8 × 61.8 cm © DORSET FINE ARTS

The Inuit Art Foundation — Your Home for Inuit Art To learn more about donating contact us at 647-498-7717 or visit us online at inuitartfoundation.org/support/give. Donations are essential to the programs that promote and celebrate Inuit art and artists.

MATHEW NUQINGAQ, CM PRESIDENT, INUIT ART FOUNDATION

As a registered charitable organization in Canada (BN #121033724RR0001) and the United States (#980140282), the Inuit Art Foundation welcomes donations, sponsorships, legacy gifts and in-kind contributions.

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artists from around the circumpolar world. Together, their works politically and poetically express current Arctic concerns towards land, language, sovereignty and resurgence.

ᐊᓯᓐᓇᔭᖅ asinnajaq ᓛᑯᓗᒃ ᐅᐃᓕᐊᒻᓴᓐ ᐸᑦᑑᕆ Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory ᑲᕈᓚ ᑯᕋᕼᐊᓐ Carola Grahn ᒫᔾᔭ ᕼᐋᓕᓐᑐ ᐅᓇᓗ ᓵᒥ ᕕᓐᓚᓐᒥᐅᑕᖅ Marja Helander ᖃᑉᓗᓯᐊᖅ Kablusiak ᓵᓐᔭ ᑲᓕᕼᐅ-ᑰᒻᔅ Sonya Kelliher-Combs ᔪᐊᖅ ᓇᓐᑰ Joar Nango ᑕᕐᕋᓕᒃ ᐹᑐᔨ Taqralik Partridge ᐱᐅᓕ ᐸᑐ Barry Pottle ᐃᓅᑎᖅ ᓯᑐᐊᑦᔅ Inuuteq Storch ᑲᔨᓐ ᐸᓐ ᕼᐅᕕᓕᓐ Couzyn van Heuvelen ᐊᓕᓴᓐ ᐊᑰᑦᓲᒃ ᒍᐊᑕᓐ Allison Akootchook Warden ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖕᒥ ᑲᒪᔨᑦ: Hᐃᑐ ᐃᒡᓗᓕᐅᖅᑎ, ᐋᐃᒥ ᐳᕈᑎ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᕆᓴ ᐹᓐ ᕼᐃᐅᓕᒐ Curated by: Heather Igloliorte, Amy Dickson and Charissa von Harringa

September 18 to December 7, 2019

contemporary art by Indigenous

FREE public reception Wednesday September 18 from 6 to 9 p.m.

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Image: Marja Helander, Dolastallat (To have a campfire), 2016. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.

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6 WORKS

Kinngait Rewind IAF staff share their decadespecific picks to celebrate 60 years of printmaking

BELOW

Qabaroak Qatsiya (b. 1942 Kinngait) — Two Men Discussing Coming Hunt 1961 Printmaker Eliyah Pootoogook Stencil 50.8 × 63.6 cm ALL IMAGES © DORSET FINE ARTS

Qabaroak Qatsiya

Two Men Discussing Coming Hunt (1961) I often look at an artwork and wonder what the figures depicted are thinking, or what they are saying. Two Men Discussing Coming Hunt by Qabaroak Qatsiya brings me into the fold, visually sharing the dialogue and inner-thoughts of its characters. A teetering blue band connects the two men’s heads like a tandem top hat. On it rests three birds— the bounty the men hope to find on their coming hunt, though not yet in hand. The man on the left is cautious, raising his hands, so as not to get too excited before the birds are caught, but the figure on the right smiles broadly, gesturing with one finger raised; he is confident of their coming feast.

Kingmeata Etidlooie

JOHN GEOGHEGAN

Senior Editor

Hunter’s Dream (1988) I’ve never been much for longwinded answers or unnecessarily complicated concepts when simple and direct will do. It strikes me that Kingmeata Etidlooie (1915–1989) and I might have this in common. A fixture of the studios in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, for over two decades, Etidlooie had more than 50 of her prints included in the annual collections, beginning in 1970—many of which follow the formal and aesthetic logic on display in

Hunter’s Dream. A concise concept, realized in a limited palette, confidently marked and beautifully rendered. Here, the artist presents us with an entire cosmology in only four elements: starry sky, deep ocean, bear and seal. It’s everything and nothing more.

BRITT GALLPEN

Editorial Director

ABOVE

Kingmeata Etidlooie (b. 1915–1989 Kinngait) — Hunter’s Dream 1988 Printmaker Pitseolak Niviaqsi Lithograph 55 × 76 cm

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

6 WORKS

Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA

Tuktu (1995) Kananginak Pootoogook’s (1935–2010) skill as a graphic artist and interest in Arctic wildlife is well documented and beloved by many. Dubbed by some as the “Audubon of the North,” Pootoogook’s keen eye for detail and inherent sense of composition combine to create some of the most iconic images of wildlife produced by Kinngait Studios. All of these qualities are on display in Tuktu. Pootoogook realistically renders the walking caribou from the rear, paying close attention to its shifting posture and the varying details of its foot pads as it continues on. Like many of his animal prints, the image is devoid of a background, which lets the viewer more closely contemplate the animal itself. It seems surprised mid-step, its head turned and yelping in shock that the viewer has intruded on this private moment. While portraiture often strives to capture a subject’s best angles, sometimes the opposite is true. ALYSA PROCIDA

Executive Director and Publisher

Ningiukulu Teevee

Aasiva (Spider) (2012)

There is a running joke amongst Inuit about a fearfulness of insects. Hunters will gamely go after dangerous walruses and polar bears, but run from bumblebees. Spiders are not insects, but they are equally good at causing a fright, and we are told from childhood that we must not kill them. It’s no wonder then that whoever was picking these paurngait (crowberries, or blackberries) suddenly dropped their prize. They might have been warned by the way the shrub climbs up spider-like over the sod or by the way some of the berries and the usual evergreen needles are discoloured, as if the plant is no longer living—even though the rest of the ground grows green. The spider has taken hold of this terrain. Even the design on the classic enamelware cup reflects the reach of her limbs.

BELOW

Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010 Kinngait) — Tuktu 1995 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut 74.9 × 58.4 cm

TAQRALIK PARTRIDGE ABOVE

Editor-at-Large

Ningiukulu Teevee (b. 1963 Kinngait) — Aasiva (Spider) 2012 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut and stencil 46 × 46 cm

Prints

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6 WORKS

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Peter Pitseolak (1902–1973 Kinngait) — Two Girls Eating 1975–77 Printmaker Pee Mikkiga Lithograph 51 × 66 cm

Napachie Pootoogook (1938–2002 Kinngait) — Winsome Travellers 2003 Printmaker Studio PM Etching and aquatint 80 × 82 cm

Peter Pitseolak

Two Girls Eating (1975–77) Though hardly a mainstay of the print collection and more noted for his groundbreaking photography than his graphic work, Peter Pitseolak’s (1902–1973) posthumously released Two Girls Eating captures a shared tradition: eating together. We watch as two young women, in what could easily be interpreted as expressions of relief or glee, bite into their meals, uluit at the ready to cut off delicious mouthfuls. With their matching features and ensembles, they appear to be sisters, sitting side by side and hunched over so that their bodies form perfect circles. On closer inspection, the vibrant blue and red rings outlining their bodies overlap on the page as they huddle close, as though to suggest they have sat shoulder to shoulder many times prior, keeping the evening chill off their supper. EMILY HENDERSON

Contributing Editor

Napachie Pootoogook

Winsome Travellers (2003) A departure from her more subdued early work, Napachie Pootoogook’s (1938–2002) aptly titled Winsome Travellers uses bold, bright colours to express the charm and appeal of a joyful family enjoying a beautiful day on the water. Pootoogook frames her travellers with whimsical qapuit (bubbles) rising up around them. She captures the depth and clarity of the Arctic water as they fade from dark blue to azure, bringing us viscerally along for the ride on this crisp summer day. The artist does, however, hold true to her signature style by capturing tradition and daily life adeptly. Through careful rendering of body language and the casual, conversational expressions of the travellers, Pootoogook expertly brings movement to a still image, like a song transforms the printed word. NAPATSI FOLGER

Contributing Editor Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

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HIGHLIGHTS

Exhibition Highlights A behind-the-scenes look at some notable projects on view now

To see a full list of exhibitions, visit our enhanced calendar online at: inuitartfoundation.org/calendar

Pierre Aupilardjuk (b. 1967 Kangiqliniq) — Giving Without Receiving 2016 Ceramic 23 × 45 × 22 cm COURTESY ESKER FOUNDATION PHOTO M.N. HUTCHINSON

NOVEMBER 8, 2019–APRIL 5, 2020

Àbadakone / Continuous Fire / Feu continuel National Gallery of Canada OTTAWA, ON

This much-anticipated follow-up to the 2013 landmark exhibition Sakahàn: International Indigenous Art will take over the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) in Ottawa, ON, from this fall until spring of next year. Àbadakone / Continuous Fire / Feu continuel is curated by NGC’s Greg A. Hill, Christine Lalonde and Rachelle Dickenson with the assistance of three guest curators: Ariel Smith, Carla Taunton and Candice Hopkins. With the work of some 70 Indigenous artists from almost 40 nations, including the circumpolar North, pieces by Maureen Gruben, Joar Nango, Evgeniy Salinder and Shuvinai Ashoona, RCA, will join those of numerous international artists, addressing themes of resource extraction, Inuit Art Quarterly

climate change, relationship to land, personal histories and more. We caught up with ceramicist Pierre Aupilardjuk, who is also included in the major survey, to learn about the powerful stories captured in two of his works on view: When I was making Giving Without Receiving (2016), I was thinking of my parents. They had a qulliq they were using before I was born, when they lived in an igloo. The qulliq was taken, and my parents told me that they did not know how they survived that winter as they had no light, no heat and nothing to cook with. Somehow, they survived that winter. 18

When my father told me that story, I was touched. I was hurt, and my mother was almost in tears. The hand is the person taking the qulliq without giving anything, that’s why it is beneath and the palm is facing forward. The figure on top is my father giving the qulliq without receiving anything. The other piece in the exhibition is Facing Forward (2016), which I made with Shary Boyle. It is about a mother teaching and talking to her children. They are facing forward and she is saying, “That’s your future over there, look at that future of yours. Be good and you will achieve the goal that you want.” I did some of these pieces to show stories from my father, my mother and some from my uncles. In the future, I would like to get more clay and make something that my father has told me: an ayaya song. – Pierre Aupilardjuk

Fall 2019

HIGHLIGHTS

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Couzyn van Heuvelen (b. 1987 Bowmanville) — Large Fishing Lure 2 2018 Aluminum, steel and resin 127.2 × 45.7 cm COURTESY FAZAKAS GALLERY

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Nick Sikkuark (1943–2013 Kugaaruk) — Untitled (Figure Emerging from Abstract Forms) 2005 Coloured pencil and pen 41.9 × 27.9 cm COURTESY MARION SCOTT GALLERY

SEPTEMBER 13–OCTOBER 19, 2019

Bait / Iqiammigaaq Artspace PETERBOROUGH, ON

With stops in Vancouver, BC, Montreal, QC, and Sackville, NB, this touring exhibition features a series of works by Bowmanvillebased artist Couzyn van Heuvelen that address themes of subsistence hunting in Inuit communities. Ahead of the first installation at Artspace in Peterborough, ON, this fall, we hear from Guest Curator Ryan Rice and Director and Curator Jon Lockyer about the project and dialogues surrounding the artist’s first solo show: Bait / Iqiammigaaq revolves around key pieces of work coming together, beginning with Large Fishing Lure 1 and 2 (2018). All of the works in the exhibition connect to food, to sustenance and to the continuity of material culture in the North. Also included is Nets (2018), which was a site-specific installation in Fort Qu’Appelle, SK, reimagined within the gallery space. Van Heuvelen is also creating a new piece, a marble qamutiik, a light weight object that he is turning into a monument. It makes a statement that culture is permanent, to some extent, but also mobilized. He is playing with these objects—with technologies of survival—and transforming them. They all become something else while maintaining their relationship Prints

to what they actually are. The premise of the exhibition is to draw attention to van Heuvelen’s unique interpretation of significant fishing and hunting implements, inviting us to witness the scale of his transformation of these functional objects outside of the cultural spaces to which they have been relegated. – Ryan Rice

SEPTEMBER 21–DECEMBER 1, 2019

Toronto Biennial of Art Various Locations TORONTO, ON

Curated by Candice Hopkins and Tairone Bastien, the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art, titled in relation, will occupy 10 venues across the city’s waterfront—from the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga to downtown Harbourfront Centre—exploring the many ways bodies of water shape our connections and links to one another. Included among the cohort of local and international artists are Isuma, who will bring their project from the 58th Venice Biennale to Toronto, ON; Embassy of Imagination + PA System with youth from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU; Qavavau Manumie and the late Nick Sikkuark (1943–2013). Below, we reproduce an excerpt of an interview with Sikkuark from our Fall 1997 issue where the artist discusses his drawings, paintings and memories of the waterways near his home in the Kitikmeot Region: When I was a child, I used to draw. I wasn’t thinking about making any money from it; I did it for the joy of drawing. As I matured and got married, I continued with my drawing. While I never tried people-portraits from live models, I drew them from photographs. I would copy the image and practice making it recognizable. I have not used pencils for a while, but I experimented with oil paints for a year. There is one [drawing] that stands out in my memory, a scene of the river here in Kugaaruk (Pelly Bay), NU. – Nick Sikkuark

As an artist-run centre and as a regional centre, it is rare for audiences in our community to see the work of Inuit artists— particularly contemporary Inuit artists. Bait / Iqiammigaaq was proposed by Ryan Rice, with Couzyn van Heuvelen as the natural choice to lead it. His work is part of a larger ongoing dialogue that we have tried to shape here at the gallery around the practices of Indigenous artists throughout North America. In a very broad way, we are interrogating issues of subsistence hunting and harvesting, land use, treaty rights and cultural practices. I think that the pieces van Heuvelen is presenting will bring that forward for viewers to engage with. Ultimately, it is our hope that visitors will find something in this exhibition that we never anticipated them seeing and that they will be able to carry away. – Jon Lockyer 19

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Keeleemeeoomee Samualie Walrus Hunter

by Sandra Barz

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

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OPPOSITE

Keeleemeeoomee Samualie (1919–1983 Kinngait) — Walrus Hunter 1972 Printmaker Timothy Ottochie Stonecut 38.2 × 61.5 cm

The size of the three walrus heads, way out of proportion with reality, tells it all—communicating intimidation through perspective. The artist expresses feeling by drawing. No need for words.

It is somewhat ironic given my history of the study and appreciation of Inuit art that I didn’t own an Inuit print until 1972. Although I saw and was intrigued by sculptures exhibited in the all-Canadian shop of the Château Laurier in Ottawa, in 1965 prints were not on view, and I was unaware of their existence. It took an illustrated article in The New Yorker about the debut of the 1972 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection to alert me to them. The featured print was Walrus Hunter by Keeleemeeoomee Samualie (1919–1983). Luckily it was available for purchase and it has been hanging on my living room wall ever since. Thus began a 50-year adventure studying and documenting Inuit art, in particular prints, artists and printmakers. Intrigued by Inuit art from my early trips to Ottawa, but unable to find much first-hand information, I decided to take a stab at informing myself and others. In 1976, I launched Arts & Culture of the North, an international newsletter on circumpolar arts and events. The effort to accurately report on the annual print collections led me to an interest in printmaking and eventually to the publication of three workbooks dedicated to the printmakers. Furthering public interest in the study of Inuit art and artists, I organized

a series of six conferences in Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Kinngait (Cape Dorset), as well as Washington, DC, and Chicago, IL, that brought together artists, dealers, scholars and enthusiasts, most of whom had never met before. I chose to write about this specific print for several reasons. Initially, of course, because it was the first print I owned (doesn’t everyone have a soft spot for their eldest), but mainly for its fabulous, wordless emotion. There is no doubt that the artist experienced the jaw-dropping challenge of being a lightlyarmed human-sized hunter confronting an enormous walrus. The size of the three walrus heads, way out of proportion with reality, tells it all—communicating intimidation through perspective. The artist expresses feeling by drawing. No need for words. Finally, I chose this image because it is illustrative of many great prints from other print-producing communities that emphasize perspective over reality to express a feeling or point of view. This is a marvellously effective approach to telling a visual story, which seems to come naturally to those who learn to be observant at a young age. The quality of the print also comes through in the fastidious work of Timothy Ottochie (1904–1982), who translates and interprets Samualie’s drawing.

LEFT

Luke Anguhadluq (1895–1982 Qamani’tuaq) — Family 1971 Printmaker Basil Tatunak and Irene Taviniq Stonecut 62.8 × 72.1 cm COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

Prints

I had my own taste of this hunter’s scary situation when, many years ago, I was sitting in a zodiac bobbing in the water of the Bering Strait, surrounded by thousands of walruses floating on ice pods. It was exciting and intimidating. Perhaps these types of experiences contribute to a deeper enjoyment of Inuit prints and the perspectives they offer. Some further examples to look for: Walrus Hunt (1964) by Parr (1893–1969), with the walrus depicted similarly out of proportion to the hunters in their kayaks; Bird Dream Forewarning Blizzards (1959) by Tudlik (1890–1966), where in his dream the artist imagines a huge bird to express an overpowering feeling; Host of Caribou (1976) by Jessie Oonark, OC, RCA (1906–1985), where the herd is shown smaller in scale to reveal their place far in the distance, as well as several prints and drawings by Luke Anguhadluq (1895–1982) and additional experimental prints from the Holman Print Shop (now the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre), created between 1962 and 1963. Finally, a little personal addendum: my favorite Inuit print? Family (1971) by Anguhadluq. It was the first image produced out of Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake) that I ever saw “in the flesh” at a private home in Winnipeg, as collections from the community had not yet been exhibited in my part of the world. A child between a mother and father; a charming and warm community of three. I have always loved the image but have no thought of owning it: it’s not available and I couldn’t afford it, but it remains in my heart.

— Sandra Barz is a writer, editor and researcher, who, for 50 years, has been dedicated to documenting Inuit art, the evolution of printmaking in the North and encouraging interest in Inuit art worldwide. She launched the first international newsletter on circumpolar arts entitled Arts & Culture of the North (1976–84). She is the author of three volumes on Inuit printmaking entitled Inuit Artists Print Workbook (1981, 1990 and 2004) and, in 2016, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba. Front

CHOICE

Kananginak Pootoogook and Lukta Qiatsuk Nasiqniatuq / Seal Hunting by Jocelyn Piirainen

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

CHOICE

What we learn from the rare opportunity to view both a print and the stone block it came from is the tremendous effort involved in achieving this level of detail.

The 1978 print Nasiqniatuq / Seal Hunting by Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA (1935– 2010) shows a hunter, patiently waiting above a seal’s breathing hole. A lone bird flies overhead, observing any movement below. This print, in all of its elegant simplicity and attention to detail, speaks volumes about the importance and respect for seal hunting—and for hunting in general. But how was it made? When printmaking was introduced in the late 1950s in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, there were several techniques Inuit artists used to create the unique and iconic graphic images for which the community has become known. Of them all, stonecuts required one of the most involved processes. And, was one that required much patience and accuracy. The first step was to select an original drawing to translate into a print. Kananginak’s graphic is unique: the composition is sparse, with ample white space around the figure, giving the work an open feeling that is particularly unusual for prints of this time. The selected drawing was then given to longtime printmaker and collaborator of Kananginak, Lukta Qiatsuk (1928–2004). Lukta transferred the mirrored image onto a smooth piece of stone, so the final print would appear the same as Kananginak’s drawing. He then carefully carved a relief,

created by slowly chipping away at the negative space of the image. What remained was the raised areas onto which coloured ink was rolled over. The stone block carved by Lukta stands independent from the print due to its astounding artistic merit. The hunter wears a traditional atigi, indicated by the small, delicate lines illustrating the soft fur from which it is made; his kamiit also show the pattern of sealskin. To replicate the intricate details of Kananginak’s original drawing, the stone block was precisely carved, articulating in three dimensions each delicate piece of fringe and tuft of fur. Lukta could have stopped here. Yet, incredibly, this is only one part of the process. Following the completion of the stone block, the surfaces were carefully coated with coloured ink. In this piece, the final print makes use of four tones that compliment the scene; the neutral hues adding to the quiet air of the figure’s surroundings. Next, a thin sheet of paper was pressed carefully onto the stone then lifted away to reveal the print as it was intended. To create a full edition, this process would have been repeated over 50 times. Each of these stones holds its own record of the intensive labour of the printmakers, as slabs were rough-hewn and

required extensive work to bring them to the point of use. Larger roughed-out areas for the negative spaces reveal the many hundreds of strokes it must have taken to ensure the stone was level; and the minute and detailed lines of each image represent another layer of concentrated work on a substance that requires great skill and rigour. Print matrices are often destroyed so that additional works cannot be pulled after the edition is finished. Stones like this one are sometimes scored with tools to “cancel” them, marring the impressive work and technical expertise of the printmaker. What we learn from the rare opportunity to view both a print and the stone block it came from is the tremendous effort involved in achieving this level of detail. Precision, depth, craft and complexity describe many of the stone blocks that have been created in the six decades of the Kinngait studios. These same qualities also define many great works of art.

— Jocelyn Piirainen is a photographer, filmmaker and the Assistant Curator of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba.

OPPOSITE

Lukta Qiatsuk (1928–2004 Kinngait) — Block for print Nasiqniatuq / Seal Hunting 1978 Stone 45.7 × 61 cm GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT FINE ART COLLECTION COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY PHOTO LIANED MARCOLETA

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Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010 Kinngait) — Nasiqniatuq / Seal Hunting 1978 Stonecut and stencil 40.6 × 57.2 cm © DORSET FINE ARTS

Prints

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PROFILE

Christoper Blechert

Christopher Blechert (b. 1986 Yellowknife) — Tern 2019 Digital photograph ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE ARTIST

by Evan Pavka

Three delicate stems of a potted monstera peer out from the edge of a polished screen. This nearby surface captures the hazy reflection of their tear-drop leaves, accented in the soft glow of an unseen window just beyond the frame. In Stieglitzian fashion, this monochromatic interior scene is strikingly intimate, relaying the fullness of a quiet moment. Yet the objects themselves are difficult to encapsulate, shifting in scale as light touches their surfaces. Another image conveys a similar sentiment. An angular shadow abruptly meets the midday light, cutting sharply across an abstract form that reveals itself as a building façade only after a second or third viewing. The geometric joints of the cladding form a tilted grid that disappear at the shadow’s Inuit Art Quarterly

edge as the inset windows appear to radiate from within. “I really like contrasts—contrasting scenes and subjects,” explains Yellowknifebased photographer Christopher Blechert about his rich monochromatic still-lifes. Through subtle variations between light and shade, rooted in the contemporary built environment, the photographer deftly abstracts everyday elements of urban life in the North. “Once I started exploring blackand-white photography, it made me see things differently and made me see how it can shape an image or a subject. It changed my perspective.” These shifting points of view are at the core of the self-taught photographer’s practice. Growing up, Blechert recalls a camera always being near, with his father’s 24

early interest in photography sparking his own exploration of the medium. This fascination is also shared with his sister, designer and photographer Caroline Blechert, whom he cites as a major influence in his work. Although early in his visual arts career, he has already created a significant collection of vignettes reflecting themes of contemporary life. “My work and my images are like a snapshot of my life,” he says, “but they are also a snapshot of what it means to be Inuvialuit.” Both qualities are at the fore of Tern (2019), a favourite of the artist. Bathed in the rose tones of the setting sun, the bird breaches the peachy hues of the still lake, its wings outstretched, encircled by the rippling water beneath it. With no horizon in sight, the diving Fall 2019

PROFILE

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Reflection 2018 Digital photograph

Shadow Building 2019 Digital photograph

“I realized that I could use photography as a tool to create a discussion around Inuvialuit identity.”

tern and its reflection straddle the thin line between earth and sky—caught mid-dance. For Blechert, the quiet moment also brings to mind Western Arctic drum dances, drawn from the movements of local fauna. “If I create a pleasing image and if someone simply likes my work for the sake of the image,” notes the artist, “on a larger scale I [still] want people to recognize that I am an Inuk photographer, that I’m Inuvialuit.” For Blechert, whose imagery routinely departs from representations of land and landscape, photography acts as a catalyst for nuanced understandings of identity, culture and perspective. “I realized that I could use photography as a tool to create a discussion around Inuvialuit identity.” These links between image, identity and outlook are only expected to deepen as Blechert has recently begun exploring the materiality of his works through printing. Feeling these images in his hands—moving from the screen to the page—has presented the artist with another perspective from which to analyze his growing oeuvre. From the sweeping lines of the grill of an air purifier to tender portraits, Blechert’s compelling images require our sustained attention. With each new look they offer a brief chance to see the world from a new and unique vantage. “Art is so powerful, and it really does have the ability to change how you think and feel,” he asserts. “I try to see [different] perspectives all the time, and I hope that what I view can help someone else see something differently as well.” Prints

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First Arts Auctions I Retail I Appraisals I Consulting

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TRUE TO FORM The Printmakers of Kinngait Studios â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

The history of printmaking in Canada is impossible to tell without looking to and celebrating the prolific output from the hamlet of Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, and its unprecedented success. The origins of the program, now well-worn art historical lore, have been recounted and analyzed across numerous texts and catalogues over the past six decades. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the inaugural Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection, the Inuit Art Quarterly considers the often unsung artists who have dedicated themselves to bringing the artistic visions of their peers to the fore.

Since 1957, the beginning of Kinngait’s printmaking program, printmakers have been the backbone of Kinngait Studios.1 However, the great irony is that despite creating the prints themselves, their work of translating an artist’s drawing into a finished piece is often invisible. Though processes have evolved over the decades, the core work of these artists remains constant: to create beautiful, expertly rendered, original works of art that remain true, in content and style, to the original drawing, often created by another artist. Stonecut printmaking began in 1958 on James Houston’s return from Japan, based on the ukiyo’e method he learned from Un’ichi Hiratsuka. In Kinngait, he trained printmakers Iyola Kingwatsiak (1933–2000), Lukta Qiatsuk (1928–2004), Eegyvudluk Pootoogook (1931–2000) and Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA (1935–2010) in techniques that included stonecut and stencil. However, the process they adopted was unlike other studios, in that its collaborative nature flew in the face of convention, which held that to be an original print, the artist must directly work on the print matrix itself. Instead, printmakers worked—as they still do in these media—to faithfully interpret another artist’s work through the stone. In the early years, printers would quarry large stones, sanding them flat and occasionally using the shape of the stone to influence the work on the page. The physical labour involved in these early days—selecting, quarrying, transporting, sanding and incising—cannot be overstated. “What I constantly say to my clients,” explains Patricia Feheley, a dealer of Inuit prints for over 30 years, “is to leave aside the imagery and the colour and look at these prints. Consider that someone has done this: has cut into a stone and has put this paper down four or six times.”2 These first printmakers were remarkable not only for their diligence and skill, but also for their ingenuity. In stark contrast to the marketing materials produced at the time, which effectively shrouded the process in the romanticized exoticism of invented sealskin stencils, these printers used painstaking labour to precisely carve other artists’ work into linoleum tiles and later stone. The experimental nature of these works is visible in the way that technique can be seen to develop significantly from year to year in early collections, with the printmakers’ contributions only noted through

Inuit printmaking in Canada is a story of multiplicity. Inuit prints entered the international visual lexicon in a way that only two-dimensional works can—with their striking graphic forms, often brilliant colours and scenes of life that became synonymous with Canada’s identity as the “Great White North.” Where stone sculptures can only be housed in one place at a time, prints go forth in numbers. Inuit prints can be found in places as varied as embassies, highrise boardrooms and the living room walls of modest households. Owning a work from a limited run offers admission, of a sort, to a unique group— one whose value increases with time. As with any great creation, these bodies of work also have a value that may not have been the express intent of the first artists who took up print as medium: their works are now priceless cultural heritage for the generations of Inuit that follow. It used to be generally assumed that Inuit do not buy Inuit art, and while not every Inuit home is decorated with prints from Kinngait, Ulukhaktok, Ivujivik, Qamani’tuaq, Panniqtuuq or Nain, every Inuk child lives in a world where imagery from their heritage can be found on stamps, calendars, coffee mugs and coasters—as well as in the rooms of the world’s great museums. The stories told in and around these works fuel the living culture of Inuit today. As works that involve both the artist’s concepts and their meticulous adaptation by the skilled hands of printmakers, prints mark the collaboration between artists—which fits so well with Inuit values. They are also an important part of the history of the Inuit co-operative movements, which were early iterations of Inuit community organization. We learn about family ties, plant use, spiritual beliefs, long-distance travel and countless other subjects from these works. And yes, some Inuit do buy Inuit art—and the value of these works is counted with all the knowledge they represent. – Taqralik Partridge

PREVIOUS SPREAD

Lukta Qiatsuk and Eegyvudluk Pootoogook pulling a copy of Pitseolak Ashoona’s Joyful Owl from a stone block, 1961 COURTESY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA PHOTO B. KORDA

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Iyola Kingwatsiak (1933–2000 Kinngait) — Canada Geese Taking Off 1959 Printmaker Iyola Kingwatsiak Stencil 45.3 × 60.4 cm ALL IMAGES © DORSET FINE ARTS

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

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Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013 Kinngait) — Six-Part Harmony 2011 Printmaker Qavavau Manumie Stonecut 62.2 × 99.5 cm

Eegyvudluk Ragee (1920–1983 Kinngait) — Bird and Captive Fish 1984 Printmaker Udluriak Towkie Pudlat Etching and aquatint 40 × 45 cm

Pitaloosie Saila (b. 1942 Kinngait) — Woman of Old 1984 Printmaker Pitseolak Niviaqsi Lithograph 67.5 × 50.3 cm

Prints

the application of their individual chops on prints; no printmakers were acknowledged by name in the community’s annual print catalogues until 1982. All four of the community’s original printmakers were also accomplished sculptors, whose sense of composition and movement leant itself to carving print stones. Kingwatsiak, celebrated for his intricate carvings of birds, successfully translated these skills into two-dimensional work, both as a printmaker and as a graphic artist. His stencil Canada Geese Taking Off (1959), showing six large birds, with necks outstretched and wings up, ready for take-off, was presented to Queen Elizabeth II that same year at an exhibition of the inaugural print collection in Stratford, ON. The most beloved of Qiatsuk’s prints is perhaps the stonecut Owl, also included in the 1959 collection, with its bold lines and expressive pose. While Eegyvudluk Pootoogook rarely made his own prints, he is responsible for incising over 200 stonecuts, including the iconic Enchanted Owl (1960) by Kenojuak Ashevak, CC, ON, RCA (1927–2013). One of the most influential and consistent printers from the beginning was Kananginak Pootoogook, a graphic artist in his own right, and along with Kingwatsiak and Qiatsuk, one of the original signatories of the incorporation documents for the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, the organization that oversees Kinngait Studios. While Kananginak is perhaps best known for his images of expressive animals, as a printmaker he was also particularly adept at creating precise lines, complemented with beautiful colour. Speaking to his dual role in the studio, as both a printmaker and a graphic artist whose works were printed by others, Kananginak expressed his trust with the quality of the studio’s output overall, naming his colleagues “experts” in their approach—a sentiment echoed by many working across media in the studio.3 This trust formed the foundation of the program because it was designed to distribute labour between several people. The process has changed little over the years: studio managers and printmakers would select drawings and often isolate individual elements for translation into a print. After incising the stone and pulling a test print to ensure the graphic had transferred well to the page, printmakers and arts officers (generally not the graphic artists, particularly at the outset of the program) would select colour treatment. In the early period, many of the drawings translated into prints were done in graphite, with no additional colour. As materials like coloured pencil and indelible marker became available to artists in the late 1960s, the prints became more colourful and detailed, responding to the new styles of drawings produced with greater access to materials. The process and supplies used for stonecut prints have continued to shift. For the past several decades the studio has used slate from pool tables, a much more uniform or consistent surface to work from than local stone. “We started to use slate in the early 1990s,” explains former Studio Manager Jimmy Manning.4 “Before that, we used serpentine and other soft stone, but we had to be very careful when we were using those, especially when recreating precise lines, which could be easily damaged. When we began using slate, a uniform stone, it became much easier to carve into the surface.” Printmakers also became more sophisticated in their registration methods, including reductive stonecut printing, which opened up new tech nical possibilities, as well as expanded colour use. Reductive stonecut printing is an incremental practice in which an entire image is first carved in relief, partially inked (usually in a single colour though sometimes multiple) and transferred to paper. Next, the parts of the image that are to remain that initial colour are carved away from the stone, the remaining parts of the stone are inked in a new colour, and printed again. The process is repeated until all the colours have been inked and pulled. It takes extraordinary skill to produce a perfectly aligned and coloured print using this method. “There is a print by Kenojuak Ashevak in particular, Six-Part Harmony (2011), that took Qavavau Manumie a very long time to print,” recalls Feheley. “You have the aesthetic of the imagery coupled with these extraordinary colours, but it’s the sheer fact that it went back down on the stone so many times—it was perfectly executed. It is one of the most magnificently printed pieces I’ve ever seen.”

True to Form

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Saimaiyu Akesuk (b. 1988 Kinngait) — Latcholassie’s Birds 2013 Printmaker Niveaksie Quvianaqtuliaq Lithograph 57 × 38.3 cm CENTRE

Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958 Kinngait) — Celestial Flight 2018 Printmaker Qavavau Manumie Lithograph 38.7 × 61.5 cm RIGHT

Ningiukulu Teevee (b. 1963 Kinngait) — Siku Siggiaju (Spring Break Up) 2014 Printmaker Cee Pootoogook Stonecut and stencil 62 × 75 cm

the first set of lithographs was released as part of the annual print collection in 1975.6 The medium of lithography, as curator and gallerist Leslie Boyd points out, was also popular because it suited “artists who had more narrative than graphic styles.” Pitseolak Niviaqsi, RCA (1947–2015), one such artist, was one of the studio’s most accomplished and prolific lithographers, leading the lithography program in Kinngait from its inception until his recent passing. Along the way, Niviaqsi achieved Master Printer status—a well-known and respected international designation. Niviaqsi was also identified early on as a natural teacher. In 1977 he travelled to Ulukhaktok (Holman), Inuvialuit Settlment Region, NT, with Brannen and Manning, who was then Assistant Arts Advisor, to teach the process to other artists. “Though also an artist himself and occasionally printing his own work,” recalls Boyd, “he was better known as a printmaker, as he was able to bring not only technical expertise, but also an excellent eye to the process.” Such technical acumen and experimentation was evident in Niviaqsi’s involvement in pioneering the technique of the rainbow roll, a characteristic of prints in the early 1980s, where the printmaker would mix colour to roll across an image to create a background wash. While Niviaqsi was innovating with lithography, other artists were expressing renewed interest in etchings. Debuting in the 1980 print collection, two portfolios were released that for the first time made use of vibrant aquatint and hand-colouring. Notably, all of the printmakers were women. Despite women artists taking on lead roles in Ulukhaktok and Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, this was the first time women in Kinngait were trained in the printmaking process. The three women, Auksuali Ottokie, Quyuk Simeonie and Udluriak Towkie Pudlat, worked in the engraving studio with graphic artists

Soon after, artists in the studio started experimenting with other printmaking methods, like copper etchings and lithography, that offered them the chance to work directly on the printing surface, facilitating new ways of working and creating more print opportunities. Even before lithography was introduced, etchings were printed in the community—as early as 1961, with the first work, Towards a Gathering, engraved by Kiakshuk (1886–1966) and printed by Terry Ryan. This method allowed artists such as Pitseolak Ashoona, CM, RCA (c. 1904–1983), Jamasie Teevee (1910–1985) and Kovinaktilliak Parr (1930–1998) to create their own works in print without an intermediary. Etchings had a very promising debut, making up all but six of the 69 prints in the 1962 print collection, and were included annually until 1976, when they stopped being released. The reception of the early etchings was inconsistent and although these works more directly reflected the hand of the artist, the media itself limited the possibilities for integration of colour which had become increasingly bold in the stonecuts, stencils and recently introduced lithographs, produced in the 1970s. Lithography offered greater graphic agility and introduced a new style that foregrounded texture, sinuous lines and bold backgrounds. In 1971, former co-op Manager Terry Ryan purchased, with help from art dealer Avrom Isaacs, a lithography press from Toronto-based artist Charles Pachter.5 Its addition to the studio allowed artists to work directly on a stone or aluminium plate with a grease pencil to produce highly detailed original graphics. After the initial graphic is captured, the plate is etched, leaving the marked areas intact to attract the coloured ink. Despite being teased in the 1973 catalogue, it was not until Wallace Brannen arrived in the community in 1974 as Arts Advisor that the program took off and

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

Today, lithographs from Kinngait are marked by their bright, crisp colours and they continue to retain the studio’s commitment to collaboration. —

1988 to 2019 and himself an accomplished lithographer. “[Ritchie] is such a well-trained lithographer that he has brought lithography in Kinngait not just to a level of perfection in printing, but to a level of exploiting the medium for all that can be done with it,” notes Feheley. “As a result, the lithographic prints created in the studio underscore a real understanding of what can be achieved with the medium.” Today, lithographs from Kinngait are marked by their bright, crisp colours and diffused, warm light, and they continue to retain the studio’s commitment to collaboration. Saimaiyu Akesuk’s print debut in the 2013 collection, Latcholassie’s Birds, for instance, allowed her to work with the lithographers in the studio and experience the process first hand. “When they were done with the outline, I [went] down to the shop and coloured the plates,” the artist explains. “There were three plates that I was supposed to colour so they could make the print. I usually only help with the lithograph, not the stonecut, because I can colour the face [of the plate].” Beyond lithography, Ritchie, like Ryan and Manning, has encouraged studio artists to work in and experiment with other print media, including gum bichromate and sugar lifts; however, stonecut remains the mainstay of production in Kinngait. Today, a small but highly skilled group of printers continues to work in the studio, creating stunning, innovative prints. Though Qiatsuq Niviaqsi began his career as a lithographer, he transitioned to the stonecut studio in 1980 and has been working in the medium ever since. His careful, deliberate style is perfectly suited to creating fine detail and texture, a necessity to faithfully render the tactile, lush graphics made in the past decade, such as Handstand (2010) by Shuvinai Ashoona, RCA, the print of which conscientiously mimics Ashoona’s short strokes or Tim Pitsiulak’s (1967–2016) Whale

to translate copperplate engravings into finished prints. Though the women were responsible for inking and printing the etchings, they did not use chops to mark their labour, nor were individual printers identified in the annual catalogue. Despite the best efforts of Ottokie, Simeonie and Pudlat, who worked to translate the graphics of many artists into small but powerful etchings, by the mid-1980s enthusiasm had waned and the activities in the etching studio ceased for a second time. In 1994, Montreal-based printer and founder of Studio PM Paul Machnik arrived at the studio to lead etching workshops and establish a renewed interest in the medium. “The etchings done before were more along the lines of engravings,” Machnik notes. He was interested in encouraging artists to experiment with the medium and explore strategies that had not been attempted before in the studio. Working with artists Ashevak, Mary Pudlat (1923–2001), Sheojuk Etidlooie (1929–2009) and others, Machnik introduced a new approach to printmaking, instead of using drawings as reference for these etchings, he was “keen for them to go at it freely,” and draw directly on the plate. Following the first workshop, four etching/ aquatints produced and proofed in Kinngait, and later fully editioned in Montreal, were included in the 1995 annual print collection. The prints were enthusiastically received and Studio PM has been a mainstay in the collections ever since, producing hundreds of works in bold colours, and occasionally in very large scale, like Ashevak’s Angakuit Qaijut (emerging spirits) (2010), a triptych that measures over three metres wide. This persistent interest in lithography is unsurprising, given the technical difficulties inherent in etchings and the presence of former Studio Manager William Ritchie, a fixture in the studio from

Prints

True to Form

Innovation has always been at the heart of printmaking in Kinngait, but what has remained constant throughout the development of the print program is the mutual respect between artists and printmakers, which shapes every aspect of the process. —

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Tim Pitsiulak (1967–2016 Kinngait) — Whale Sounding 2012 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut and stencil 76.4 × 55.5 cm

Niveaksie Quvinaqtuliaq working on a print in the Kenojuak Cultural Centre.

Inuit Art Quarterly

Sounding (2012) which skillfully utilizes negative space as well as a stippling-like technique to suggest three dimensional form. Niviaqsi’s style is similarly reflected in his process. “Extreme patience with a very quiet focus,” recalls Boyd about the printmaker. “And [he] absolutely never makes a mistake.” While Niviaqsi has collaborated with some of the most celebrated artists to pass through the studio over his career, he has also used his skill to translate the drawings of a younger generation of artists working in the studio, including Akesuk’s Courting Birds (2015), admittedly one of the artist’s favourites. Like Niviaqsi, Qavavau Manumie began working as a lithographer in 1988 and is now a distinguished stonecut printmaker. A versatile and precise artist, his work can be recognized by its flowing, natural lines. “Every time I make something, [Manumie] asks to check up on it and see if it’s workable,” says Akesuk, when asked about her frequent collaborations with the artist. “When he does a stonecut of one of my works, he looks at the friction of the colouring that I do and follows my colouring and my stroke. He loves working on my drawings.” Manumie, a respected artist who has exhibited widely across Canada, has unsurprisingly cut the blocks for many of his own prints, in addition to interpreting the work of others. In Celestial Flight, included in the 2018 print release, one of the artist’s signature diminutive parka-clad beings, or Inugarulligaarjuit, is seen tightly gripping the back of a bird in mid-flight. “Those little guys are helping spirits,” Manumie explains about the ethereal cloud of even smaller cerulean figures that surround the pair. “[they are helping] the guy flying through the air on the bird.” In the early 1990s, Niveaksie Quvianaqtuliaq began working at the studio as an assistant before becoming a trainee sometime between 1995 and 1996. Currently, he is the only full-time lithographer in the studio. “I like working with all of [the artists],” Quvianaqtuliaq explains, “but mostly I remember working with Kenojuak Ashevak, Kananginak Pootoogook and Tim Pitsulak. I used to talk with them, interact with them. That is why we work with the artists, because we have to talk with each other to understand how the process will work in the lithographic area.” The printmaker also fondly recalls the discussion surrounding one of Annie Pootoogook’s (1969–2016) few, but evocative, prints: the multicoloured array of underwear Briefcase (2005). “First, when we were looking at it, we asked her if [it was] okay to make it into a printed edition. She asked us, ‘Do you think people will buy that kind of stuff in the South?’ Bill [William] Ritchie replied, ‘Oh yeah, a lot of people.’” Though initially unsure of its reception, Quvianaqtuliaq remains pleased with the resulting print—one that sold out quickly and was acquired by numerous major institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Indigenous Art Centre and the Canadian Museum of History. Hailing from a family of artists and a carver by training, Cee Pootoogook has brought his expertise to stonecuts since 2009, when he joined the studio as a printmaker. Also a graphic artist whose work has been featured in the annual print collections since 2012, he carries the same depth and complexity evident in his own work into his translation of the images of others. The prints that Pootoogook produces are highly detailed and seek to translate the mark making of artists like Papiara Tukiki, Ningiukulu Teevee and more into brilliant patterns. Innovation has always been at the heart of printmaking in Kinngait, but what has remained constant throughout the development of the print program is the mutual respect between artists and printmakers, which shapes every aspect of the process and without which these prints would not be possible. “If the drawing had three or four colours in it, then we tried to incorporate those into the print,” Manning explains, adding “we tried to come up with more than three trial proofs that we were able to show to the artist. It was [then] up to the artist to decide which colour they preferred.” Akesuk recognizes this attentiveness today, noting, “they always choose the colours I have selected, or try to use the same colours as the crayons I’ve used [in the drawing].” The artist is also quick to identify the printmaker’s

PHOTO CATHERINE DEAN

Fall 2019

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Ooloosie Saila (b. 1991 Kinngait) — Sunlit Sky 2019 Printmaker Niveaksie Quvianaqtuliaq Lithograph 56.5 × 73 cm

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Nicotye Samayualie (b. 1983 Kinngait) — Polished Buttons 2013 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut 53.5 × 76.3 cm

detail and commitment to capturing her bold, graphic mark making. NOTES “They don’t really change anything around,” she continues. “They 1 This Feature was researched and written by Britt Gallpen, John Geoghegan, stay pretty true to my drawing.” Taqralik Partridge, Evan Pavka and Alysa Procida. With the fall 2018 opening of the Kenojuak Cultural Centre, 2 All quotes, unless otherwise attributed, taken from conversations with the printmakers in the community have a new space in which to innovate Inuit Art Quarterly conducted between June and July 2019. 3 “Interview with Kananginak Pootoogook and Marion Jackson discussing his and to hone their skills and one that encourages this collaborative experience as a printmaker, James Houston, and the history of printmaking spirit. Now with a new space to work, printmakers are already looking in Cape Dorset,” Canadian Museum of History, 7:28, February 20, 1979, trans. to the future: “I would like to see more artists, younger artists,” Mukshowya Niviaqsi, https://www.historymuseum.ca/capedorsetprints/ Quvianaqtuliaq says about the future of printmaking in Kinngait, history/1950s.php. noting the importance of engaging more members of the community 4 The following are among those who have held leadership positions in the studio across the past six decades: Terry Ryan, General Manager, 1960–2000; Robert to activate both of the presses in the new studio. “We need more Patterson, Studio Manager, 1964, 1973, 1985, 1991; Wallace Brannen, Studio people here, but our work is involved and there is a lot that needs to Manager, 1974–1984; William Ritchie, Studio Manager, 1988–1990, 1996–2019; be learned.” As the studio enters its sixth decade of production, the Jimmy Manning, Arts Advisor, 1973–2000, General Manager, 2000–2009. expertise, dedication and commitment of generations of printmakers 5 Leslie Boyd Ryan, Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective — Fifty Years of Printmaking in the Kinngait Studios (Petaluma: Pomegranate Press, 2007), 84. and their innovative practices continue to inspire the work of 6 The year 1975 holds significant associations for many Inuit, aligning with the artists far beyond the community. The rarely considered or seen signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement by the Inuit of contributions of the numerous printmakers involved throughout Nunavik. This event had importance for all Inuit as well as other Indigenous the history of Kinngait Studios imparts a powerful and lasting legacy peoples in Canada, as it was the first comprehensive land claims agreement of its kind. This year also saw the first fully elected council in the Northwest on future artists—some of whom we have had the chance to know Territories, with a majority of Inuit and Dene representatives. and others we’ve yet to meet.

Prints

True to Form

PORTFOLIO 02

05 SANASIMAJANGIT

When it was founded in 1961, the Canadian Eskimo Arts Committee (later Canadian Eskimo Arts Council) sought to support the Inuit art market by ensuring that works met particular standards before they were made available for sale to the public. There are no extant review guidelines produced by the committee, composed at the outset exclusively of arts professionals from the South. Rather, judgments were based on committee members’ personal aesthetic tastes and what they felt would be marketable within Canada and internationally.

— The Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s Rejected Prints

Kanatamiut Inuit Sanauganginnut Katimajiit Angirsimanngitangit Titiqtugait —

Pigiaqtitausimajut 1961mi, Kanatamiut Inuit Sanauganginnut Katimajiralaarnut (kinguniagut Kanatamiut Inuit Sanauganginnut Katimajiit) ikajurumalaursimammata Inuit sanauganginnik niurrutiqaqtittiqattanirmik qaujimagiarnikkut sanajausimajut piqujanit atuqtaugajuttunit maliqattariaqarniarngata niuviassaruqtitaulaunnginninginni inulimaanut. Maanna atuqtauvattunit qimirrunirmut atuagarnit pitaqanngimmat sanajausimajunit katimajiralaarnut, titiraqtausimajunit turaangaluarajaqtunit sanaugalirijillattaanut qallunaat nunanganni. Kisianili, niruarnikuummata malittutik katimajiuqataujut sanagarnit piugisuunginnik ammalu isumagijamininginnik niurrutaujunnarajariassanginnik Kanatami nunarjualimaamilu.

From its inception, the CEAC was controversial. Some collectors and media outlets in the South saw oversight as “directing” artists and “corrupting” traditional Inuit culture. It is also significant to note that there was no Inuit representation on the council until 1973, 12 years after its inception, when Joanasie Salomonie (1938–1977) and Armand Tagoona (1926–1991) (who resigned before actually attending a meeting) were the first appointed Inuit members. From their appointments until the CEAC eventually disbanded in 1989, a number of other Inuit (mostly artists) held positions on the committee. Though the council advised on many art-related matters over its near 30-year existence, the most significant aspect of its legacy is tied to the reviewing of prints. Beginning in the early 1960s, print collections produced by communities across the Canadian Arctic were submitted to the CEAC for review. Accepted prints would be stamped in ink with the CEAC’s own chop, though later this was changed to a blind stamp. Those not approved were often rejected outright. Rejected prints were not to be sold, marketed or circulated in any way. In 1961, 36 of 40 prints produced by artists in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, QC, were rejected, though the following year 76 stonecuts were approved and released as part of the inaugural Puvirnituq Annual Print Collection. Similarly, prints produced in Ulukhaktok (Holman), Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, in 1962 and 1963 were rejected with the council claiming they bore too much southern influence. However, later efforts from the community were enthusiastically approved and they began releasing annual print collections in 1965. Though prints from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, often received very favourable judgeents from the CEAC, in this early period, a handful of works were rejected for use of “strong colours” or “unfortunate cuteness” as well as the “handling [of] elements of form and space.” Though 20 experimental prints from Qamani’tuaq (Baker Laker), NU, presented in 1965 were enthusiastically reviewed, six prints presented in 1969 were rejected because of “poor printing and cutting.” In March 1973, 131 prints from communities across Nunavik were presented to the CEAC with only 39 recommended for sale.

It was around this time that the Council stopped referring to prints as being “rejected” and began referring to them as “disapproved” or “withheld.” The disapproval of 70% of the collection was devastating to the artists of Nunavik, as many prints were already editioned in full sets of 30, meaning that an incredible investment of resources, time and materials had been made and could not be earned back. Astonishingly, artists from Nunavik continued to produce prints and submit them to the CEAC for review. A second collection of Nunavik prints was presented in October 1973. This time 49 of 55 works were approved. Members of the CEAC identified that one of their motives for rejecting or withholding prints was to protect the art market from over saturation and maintain high prices for quality works in hopes that printmaking could be a viable source of income for northern communities. In an attempt to protect the market, though, many things were lost. Prints depicting legends, traditional ways of life and stories of personal experiences were censored. Reams of paper, gallons of ink, hours of labour and sparks of imagination were carefully piled and tucked away in drawers, cabinets and back rooms, hidden from public view. Some artists’s entire output was rejected, discouraging them from ever making graphics again. In 1989, shortly before it disbanded, the CEAC identified that “the need for the formal southern jurying of annual print collections [was] no longer necessary.” In the years and decades that followed, the once rejected or withheld prints began to make their way to market, assembled in special releases and other sales. Yet, still today many remain out of public view or have been lost altogether. Looking carefully at the role of the CEAC and the artists and artworks affected by their decisions, there is an impulse to question choices made some 50 years ago. Tastes have changed, power has shifted yet the artworks themselves remain. And, from them, there is still much to learn. In the following Portfolio, we hear from contemporary artists and arts workers from across the North and South responding to a selection of these withheld works in hopes of recovering some of what was lost.

PREVIOUS SPREAD

CEAC Chop Introduced as an ink chop in 1961 and later replaced by a blind-embossed stamp, the CEAC logo appeared on prints that had been approved by the council. Katimajiit Nalunaikkutanga Saqqiqtaulaursimajuq amialik nalunaikkutaliangusimajuq 1961ngutillugu kinguniagullu asitaaqtitaulluni amiaqanngittumut nalunaikkutaliurummut, Katimajiit nalunaikkutanga nalunaikkutauqattalijujuq titiqtugarnit angiqtausimajunit Katimajinut.

To learn more about rejected prints from other communties across the North, visit: inuitartfoundation.org/CEAC — Tukisikkannirumagussi Katimajiit missaanut ammalu angiqtaunginnikunit titiqtugarnit uvunga qaujigiaqattarunnaqtusi: iaq.inuitartfoundation.org/CEAC

Inuit Art Quarterly

May Akulukjuk Lonsdale (b. 1947 Panniqtuuq) — Loons Curing the Blind 1980 Printmaker Gyta Eeseemaillie Stonecut 35 × 57 cm

Simon Tookoome (1934–2010 Qamani’tuaq) — Hunger 1983 Printmaker Magdalene Ukpatiku Stonecut and stencil 63 × 94 cm

Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013 Kinngait) — Child with Owls 1975 Printmaker Qabaroak Qatsiya Stonecut and stencil 63 × 86 cm

COURTESY CANADIAN ARCTIC PRODUCERS

COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

Lucassie Tukalak (1917–2003 Puvirnituq) — Man and Son Going Caribou Hunting 1979 Printmaker Caroline Qumaluk Stonecut 32.5 × 55.5 cm

Agnes Nanogak Goose (1925–2001 Ulukhaktok) — Kuplualuk 1985 Printmaker Peter Palvik Lithograph 50.5 × 65.7 cm

Lizzie Saggiak (1924–1989 Kinngait) — Lynx 1963 Printmaker Timothy Ottochie Stonecut 49 × 60.3 cm

COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

COURTESY LA FÉDÉRATION DES COOPÉRATIVES DU NOUVEAU-QUÉBEC

Fall 2019

ISIVISIMALAUQTUQ SAUMA 01

May Akulukjuk Lonsdale (b. 1947 Panniqtuuq) — Qarsauq Tautunngittumik Tautuliqtittijuq 1980 Titiqtugaliuqti Gyta Eeseemaillie Ukusiksalikmit 35 × 57 cm

Simon Tookoome (1934–2010 Qamani’tuaq) — Kaanniq 1983 Titiqtugaliuqti Magdalene Ukpatiku Ukusiksalikmit ammalu titiqtugaqsimajuq 63 × 94 cm

Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013 Kinngait) — Nutaraq Ukpiillu 1975 Titiqtugaliuqti Qabaroak Qatsiya Ukusiksalikmit ammalu titiqtugaqsimajuq 63 × 86 cm

Lucassie Tukalak (1917–2003 Puvirnituq) — Angut Irningalu Tuktuliaqtuuk 1979 Titiqtugaliuqti Caroline Qumaluk Ukusiksalikmit 32.5 × 55.5 cm

Agnes Nanogak Goose (1925–2001 Ulukhaktok) — Kuplualuk 1985 Titiqtugaliuqti Peter Palvik Titiraujaqsimajuq 50.5 × 65.7 cm

Lizzie Saggiak (1924–1989 Kinngait) — Piqtuqsiraq 1963 Titiqtugaqti Timothy Ottochie Ukusiksalikmit 49 × 60.3 cm

TUNISIJUQ ILAGIISAQ

TUNISIJUQ WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

TUNISIJUQ INUNGNUT SANAUGAT

TUNISIJUQ WINNIPEG ART

Pigianngarningani, katimajiit naammangittuusimammata. Nuattivattut ammalu tusarassalirijiit qallunaat nunanganni takunnaaqtuminiit aamittinirmik “tukimuattittiniullugu” titiqtugaqtinit ammalu “suraillutik” piqqusiqtigut Inuit iliqqusingannik. Qaujimajaujariaqallarimmijuq Inuttaqarsimanngimmat kiggaqtuijunit katimajinit kisiani 1973mi ilagijausitainnalaursimajut, qulit marruullu arraagut kisiani anigurngata pigialaursimammata taimannganit, Joanasie Salomonie (1938mi-1977mut) ammalu Armand Tagoona (1926mi-1991mut) (nuqqalaursimajuq katimaqataulaursimanngimmarittuni suli) sivullirpa angullutik tikkuaqtaulaursimajuuk Inuullutik katimajiuqataunirmut. Tikkuaqtauninginnut Katimajiit nuqqarasunninginni 1989mi amisut asingit Inuit, titiqtugaqtiinnarujuit, katimajiuqatauqattarsimajut katimajiralaarnut. Katimajiit uqaujjigiaqattarsimagaluaqtillugit amisut titiqtugarnirmuungajut missaanut 30 arragut qanigijaani aulaniqaqtil lugit, anginiqpaangusimajuq aulanirisimajanganni qimirruqattarniq titiqtugarnit. Pigiaqtutik 1960 pigianngarninginni, titiqtugarnit nuattiqattarniq sanajausimajunit nunalinnit ukiuqtaqtumiunit nakituin naarsimajunit tunijausimajunit katimajinut qimirrujauniarngata. Angiqtausimajut titiqtugait naqtitauvattuminiit amialimmut katimajiit namminiq pingannut, kinguniagulli kisiani asijjiqtaulaursimajuq naqittaummut amiaqanngittumut. Taikkua angiqtauninngittut atuqtaungittiammarippattuminiullutik. Angiqtausimanngittut titiqtugait niuviassaugiaqarsimanngittut, niurrutaugiaqarsimanngittut uvvaluunniit takuqqujjaugiaqarsimanngittut qanulimaattiaq. 1961ngutillugu, 36 40nginnit titiqtugaqtausimajunit titiqtugaqtinit Puvirniqtumi, Quebecmi, angiqtauninngittut, kisiani arraagummat 76 ujararmut titiqtugaliangusimajut angiqtaulaursimajut ammalu saqqiqtaullutik ilagijaullutik sivullirpaami Puvirniqtumiut titiqtuganginnut katitausimajunit. Taimaassainnapaluk, titiqtugaliangusimajut Ulukhaktoormi (Holman), Inuvialuit Nunanganni, Nunatsiarmi, 1962mi 1963milu angiqtaulaursimanngittut katimajiit uqaqtutik Qallunaat nunanganni pijjutilinnit pitaqaluarniraillutik. Kisianili, kinguniagut pinasuarutauvattut nunanganni angiqtauttialilaursimajut ammalu saqqitittiqattalilaursimajut arraagutamaat titiqtugarnit nuatausimajunit 1965mi. Titiqtugait Kinngarnit piugijaunirpa anguqattarsimagaluaqtillugit Katimajinit, tamaani pigialirataarniku utillugit, amisuunngittut sanajausimajut angiqtaulaursimanngittut “amiangit taqsauluarniraqtaullutik” uvvaluunniit “iniqunaluarninginut pijaarigatik” ammaluttauq “kamagijausimaninginnut ilangit aaqqisimaningit iningillu”. Taima avatit uutturautausimajut titiqtugait Qamani’tuarmi (Baker Lake), Nunavummi, saqqiqtaulaursimajut 1965mi qimirrujauttialaursimajut, pingasuujuqtut titiqtugait saqqiqtaminiit 1969mi angiqtauninngittut pijjutiqaqtutik “paippaanuuqqatauttiarningimmata ammalu alliruujaqtaningit pittiarsimanningimmata.” Maatsi 1973mi, 131 titiqtugait nunalinnit Nunavimmi saqqiqtaminiit Katimajinut 39nginnakuluit niuviassaugun Prints

naqtugijaminiullutik. Taissumani Katimajiit taisiqattarunniiqtuminiit titiqtugarnit imaak “angiqtaungittut” taisingaaqattaliqtuminiit “angiqtausimanngitut” uvvaluunniit “aturunniqtut”. Nammagijaun nginningit 70%ngit katitausimajut qunuummirutaullarittuminiq titiqtugaqtinut Nunavimmi, pijjutigillugu titiqtugait amisut saqqiqtaunikuusimalilaursimammata naamallutik 30nginniittut, imaak tukiqaqtuni pinasuarutausimallarinnirngata, kamagijaussu ujaqtutik ammalu atuqsimallutik kisutuinnarnit sanallutik ammalu utiqtigassaugatik qanutuinnaq. Kamanarutigivaali, titiqtugaqtiit Nunavimmi suli sanaqattanirngata titiqtugarnit tunivattugillu Katimajinut qimirrujauniarngata. Tungilinginni katitausimajunit Nunavimmi titiqtugarnit saqqitittilaursimajut October 1973ngutillugu. Tavvanili 49 55nginnit angiqtaulaursimajut. Katimajiuqataujut Katimajinut nalunarisilaursimajut ilangannik angirsingijjutiqaqattarniriassaq uvvaluunniit aturassaunginniraiqattarniriassaq titiqtugarnit sapujjillutik titiqtugarnit niurrutiqarvimmit amisuuluarniangimmata, ammalu aaqqiumatittiniarngata akitunirivat tanginnik piujuutiit sanaugait niriuttutik titiqtugaqattarniq kiinaujaliurutaunginnaqullugu ukiuqtaqtumiunut.. Sapujjinasuarnirmut niurrutiqarvimmit, amisut asiujijaminiit. Titiqtugait sanajausimajut unikkaaqtuanit, piqqusirnit inuusinginnit ammalu unikkaanginnik namminiq atursimajanginnit takujaujariaqaqtitinningittut. Paippa agasait, titiqtuujautissagasait, matuiqtajuut ammalu illurusiit ungataaniittut, saqqijaanngittut inulimaanut. Ilangit titiqtugaqtiit sanajalimaattiaminingit angiqtauninngittut, sanakkan nilaursimagumagunniinirmik isumataaqtitaunasuttutik. 1989mi, nuqqarumaarnialiqtillugit, Katimajiit nalunairsilaursimajut “qallunaat nunganni tukitaarutauqattariaqarningit arraagutamaat titiqtugait katitauvattut taimaak kamagijauqattariatugunniirninginnik.’ Arraagut ammalu arraagugasait kinguniagut, uattiaru angiqtauvanningittut uvvaluunniit aturassauniraqtausimanngittut saqqipallialilaursimajut niurrutiqarvimmut, aaqqisuqtauvattutik maunatuinnaq saqqiqtitauvaliqtutik ammalu asingitigut niuviassatigut. Kisiani suli, ullumi amisut inulimaanut takujauqattangittut uvvalu unniit asiujijausimattiammarittut. Qimirrutiaqtugit iqqanaijaqarsimaningit Katimajiit ammalu titiqtugaqtiit ammalu sanajausimajut attuqtausimajut tukita arutigivattamininginnut, apiriguminaqtuq tukitaarutigivattamininginnit taissumani 50nit arraagunit aniguqtunit. Piugijausuut asij jirsimalirngata, aulattijullu asijjirsimaliqtutik kisiani sulu sanaugait sul taakkusainnauvut. Ammalu, taakkunanngat, suli ilitassaqtalillarialu ummat. Taakuninga Kamagijanginnit, tusaqtugut maanauliqtuq titiqtugaqtinit ammalu sanaugarnit iqqanaijaaqaqpattunit namituinnaq Ukiuqtaqtumi ammalu Qallunaat Nunanganni kiujunit ilanginnut saqqiqtaunikuunngitut missaanut niriuttutik utiqtitaulaariassanginnik ilanginnik asiujijausimajunit.

What Gets Lost

Birth of Jesus c. 1962 —

Jiisusi Inuutillugu c. 1962 —

Harry Egotak’s (1925–2009) print Birth of Jesus is a rarely seen glimpse into the early years of printmaking in Ulukhaktok (Holman), Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT. Inspired by the success of early print releases from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, artists worked with Father Henri Tardy to create the community’s first collection of six prints that were submitted to the CEAC for evaluation in 1962. As recordkeeping in the community is uneven, it is impossible to determine with certainty that this print was submitted at that time, but it likely was as it bears the hallmarks of why the entire collection was rejected: the sophisticated use of backgrounds and three-point perspective. This work offers a local take on the Nativity. Joseph is pictured in the process of building Mary and the baby Jesus an igloo. The structure curves around the pair in a protective embrace that mirrors her tender cradling of the newborn. The thick lines and bold blocks of colour contrast with the slight, smiling features of the happy family, creating a lightness that permeates through the scene. The CEAC felt that the print displayed undue influence from Tardy, surprisingly not in subject matter so much as technique. Their interest in keeping Inuit graphic production “authentic” translated into a limited view of what constituted appropriate technique for northern artists. This meant that the artists were discouraged from exploring the full range of stylistic approaches available. Though the community has been home to many great artists who employ a wide range of techniques, this inauspicious beginning set an unfortunately limiting precedent to artistic expression that took time to overcome. – Alysa Procida

Harry Egotak (1925–2009) titiqtugaqtamininga Jiisusi Inuutillugu takujaugajunngittumik taimaak takutittijuq titiqtugaqattalirataaqtillugit Ulukhaktuurmi (Holman), NT. Titiqtugarumalilaursimajuminiq uattiaru titiqtugaqtaugiannaqtuminiit Kinngarnit (Cape Dorset), Nunavumi saqqiqtaummata, titiqtugaqtiit piliriqatiqaqtutik Ataata Henri Tardymik sananiarngata nunaliit sivulliqpaanginni katinngajunit pingasuujuqtunit titiqtugarniarngata tunijaulaursimajut CEACkunnut qaujisaqtauniarngata 1962. Titiraqattarniq nunalinnit naammaqattangimmat, nalunaqtuq taanna titiqtugaq tunijaulaursimannirmangaaq taissumani, kisiani taimaittusaunnirngat nalunakkutaqaqquq ilu unnatik tavvaniittut angiqtauninngimmata; pijariatujunit atursimaningit pivalliasimaninginnik ammalu pingasuiliqqangajumik takunna aqtauninganik. Taakkua sanajausimajut pijjutiliit sivullimininnguanit. Juusipi ajjiqaqtuni sanatillugu Mialimut ammalu piararmut Jiisusimut iglumit. Sanasimajanga avalusisimalluni taakkuninga uquutaq sapujjigutigillugu taimaak tigumiaqtutitut inuurataarmik ajjiqaqtuujaaqtuni. Silittuullutik titikutaassimaningit taaniqtullutillu amiangit sarsaura arjuttutik, qunganningit ilagiikuluit, qaumaniqaqtitilluni tauttunganik. Taakkua CEAC isumagijaqarsimammata titiqtugaq titiqtugarsimannirianganik taimaak tiliurigiatunningikkaluarngat titiqtugaqujiluni Tardy, kamanaqtuni pijjutinganiunngittuq kisianili sanagunnarninganik. Takujumasimaningit Inunnguanik “sulijunit” tukisijausimammat killilimmik takunnaarninginnik naammattumik sanajunnarninginnik ukiuqtaqtumiut titiqtugaqtiit. Imaak tukiqarsimajuq titiqtugaqtiit kajungirsataunningittut qaujinasuarunnanirmik naamajunit titiqtugausirnit atuqtausuunit. Taanna nunangat nunagijausimagaluaqtuni amisunut titiqtugaqtillarialunnut atusu ungullutik ajjigiinngiruluujaqtualunnit piusirnit, taimaak uppinanngittumik pigianngautiqarniminingit uggunaqtumik killitaarutaunnirngat titiqtugarunnaqtunut tamannalu akuni aniguigutaugasussimalluni. – Alysa Procida

Harry Egotak (1925–2009 Ulukhaktok) — Birth of Jesus c. 1962 Printmaker Harry Egotak Stonecut 50.9 × 76.3 cm COURTESY CANADIAN ARCTIC PRODUCERS

— Jiisusi Inuutillugu c. 1962 Titiqtugaliuqti Harry Egotak Ukusiksalikmit 50.9 × 76.3 cm TUNISIJUQ INUNGNUT SANAUGAT

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

Napachie Pootoogook (1938–2002 Kinngait) — Walrus Surprises Hunter 1967 Printmaker Timothy Ottochie Stonecut 47.4 × 63.4 cm © DORSET FINE ARTS

— Aiviq niriunnginaarsitittijuq Angunasuttimik 1967 Titiqtugaliuqti Timothy Ottochie Ukusiksalikmit 47.4 × 63.4 cm © DORSET FINE ARTS

Walrus Surprises Hunter 1967 —

Aiviq niriunnginaarsitittijuq Angunasuttimik 1967 —

I respond so strongly to Walrus Surprises Hunter because it is not a typical work by Napachie Pootoogook (1938–2002), and it has a deep element of humour. The thought of a person in a kayak perched atop a giant walrus’s head is comical. But, if this were to happen in reality, it would be frightening due to the dangers in encountering such a large animal. This piece says much about my culture. It speaks to the way Inuit often use humour as a strategy to lighten heavy subject matter. Napachie took an experience that would have been terrifying for the hunter and injected comedy within the scene as a way to grapple with the horrific situation. This piece, and its rejection by the CEAC in the 1960s, also speaks to me because of my interest in living literacy. Living literacy or traditional Inuit literacy is about the ability to read symbols, codes and the environment. Members of the CEAC would not have had the same literacy that Inuit did in reading such works. And this is likely where the unfortunate misunderstandings and withholding of prints came from. It is disappointing to think that so many pieces were rejected because of differences in how people see the world. Ultimately, this work is not just a pretty picture. Napachie and the many others whose works were lost for decades are telling stories through their images. Though they have been kept from us, we are now able to hear them and learn from them once again. – Heather Campbell

Prints

Ippigillarittaaluga Aiviq niriunnginaarsitittijuq Angunasuttimik upinnarani tamaittunik titiqtugarajunngimmat Napachie Pootoogook (1938–2002), ammalu ijurnarnialuanik takussautittilluni. Takunnannguariassaq inummik qajarmiituumik aivialuup niaqualuata qaanganiitumik ijurnaviutimmat. Kisiani, taimaittuqallattaaniqqat, kappianarajarngat attanarninganut taimaittualumi uumajumik angijumit naammanaarisijuqarniqqat. Taanna angijualummik tukisinarngat uvanga iliqqusinganik. Pijjutiqarngat Inuit ijurnaqtunik aturajunninginnik pijariatujukkuutillugit uqilliumitittigiaqtutik. Napatchie titiqtugarsimajuq kappianarajaqtualummik angunasut timut ilallugu ijurnaqtumik tauttunganik kappianaraluaqtillugu atuqtanga tukisijauqullugu. Taanna titiqtugaq, ammalu angiqtauninnginniminga CEACkunnut 1960nginni, uvannut nilliammijut pijjutigillugu quviagijaqarama Inuusirmik atuqtauvattunik tukisiaqattanirmik. Inuusirmik atuqtauvat tunik tukisianiq uvvaluunniit piqqusiqtigut Inuit tukisiagusingit imaittuummata tukisiajunnarniq nalunaikkutarnik tauttungitigut, titiqqaqtigut ammalu avatittinni. Ilagijaujut CEACkunnut ajjisainnanginnik tukisiagajarningimmata Inuit tukisiajanginnik taimaak sanajausimajunit. Ammalu, uggurnaqtuq tukisinirluttaminiuninginnik ammalu saqqiqtauttailiniminingit pigiaqtusaunnirngata tavvani. Qunuumminaqtuq isumagillugu amisualuit sanagait angiqtaun ningimmata pijjutigillugit ajjigiinngittunit tautugusiqarninginnik kikkutuinnait silarjuarmik. Piluaqtumilli, taakkua sanajausimajut takuminaqtuinnaungimmata. Napatchie ammalu amisut asingita sanaugangit asiujijausimajuminiit arraagugasaalunnit unikkaaliit titiqtugangitigut. Uvattinnut takujautitauttailisimagaluaqtillugit, tusaagunnarsijavut ammalu ilivvigikkannirunnarsijavut. – Heather Campbell

What Gets Lost

Janet Kigusiuq (1926–2005 Qamani’tuaq) — Woman in Labour 1983 Printmaker Nancy Sevoga Stonecut and Stencil 62.4 × 80.5 cm COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

— Arnq Irnisuttuq 1983 Titiqtugaliuqti Nancy Sevogaup Ukusiksalikmit ammalu Titiqtugaqsimajuq 62.4 × 80.5 cm TUNISIJUQ WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

Woman in Labour 1983 —

Arnaq Irnisuttuq 1983 —

A woman with visible tuniit and kakiniit prepares to give birth, surrounded by other women and all that is needed to welcome the new life. Inuit art is rife with mother and child scenes, but Woman in Labour by Janet Kigusiuq, RCA (1926–2005) is one of very few prints to depict a woman about to give birth. This work is also rare as it is only one of two prints by Kigusiuq to depict a woman with traditional tattoos. It would be interesting to learn more about the grounds on which this graphic was rejected by the CEAC. Was it withheld due to the technical skill with which the work was printed? The quality of artistry is in keeping with Kigusiuq’s creative output at the time, and is a fine example of Nancy Sevoga’s printmaking abilities. Was it rejected because of the subject matter? There is nothing of a graphic nature being depicted, just the care and preparation that goes into giving birth. Kigusiuq’s work at this time emphasizes intimate portrayals of quotidian activities, and a woman in labour is most certainly an integral aspect of daily life. When images like this one were censored, women’s labours are made invisible. The loss of these stories significantly minimizes the contributions of women and diminishes the importance of motherhood in Indigenous communities. – Linda Grussani

Inuit Art Quarterly

Arnaq takujassanit tunnilik ammalu kakinilik upalungaijaqtuq irniniarnirminut, avalujausimalluni asinginnut arnanut ammalu atuqtaujariaqarniaqtunut tunngasuttitauluni inuurataaqtukuluk. Inuit sanaugangit naamammata Anaanaup Qiturnganganillu ajjiliit, kisiani Janet Kigusiuq (1926–2005) Arnaq Irnisuttuq ilagijaummat amisuunngittunut titiqtugarnut tauttulinnut arnarmik irnisunnguaqtumik irnijariakillitillugu. Taannalu ajjiunngiujarmijuq ilagijaummat marruinna anuk titiqtugaannuk Kigusiuq sanasimajanginnik arnannguamik tunnilimmik kakinilimmillu titiqtugarsimajumik. Takujuminarajaqtuq tukisiniaratta kisunit pijjutiqarnirmangaat taakkuninga titiqtugaqtausimajunit anginngijjutimininginnik CEACkut. Angiqtauninngilaat pijariatujunit atuqtutik sanajausimaninginnut titiqtugait? Titiqtugarunnarninga Kigusiup sanagunnatiarninganik taissumani, ammalu tukiliujjassautiaqtuni Nancy Sevogaup titiqtugattiarunnarninganik. Angiqtauninngilaat pijjutigillugu titiqtugarutiminga? Takuminganngittualummik saqqijaaqtuqanngittuq, ippigusuttiarnituangit upalungaijarningillu irnisuttumut taimatu ullutik. Kigusiup sanajaminingit taissumani pijjutiliit pinnarusunnirmik qautamaarsiutinik atuqtausuunit, ammalu arnaq irnisuttillugu pimmariuniqpaangusuungummat qautamaarsiutauvattunit inuusirmi. Taimaittunit saqqijaaqtuqtaliit takujaugiaqaqtitautinnagit, arnait irnisunnirisuungit takujassautitauvanngimmata Asiujijauningit unikkaat tamakkua mikillitittigutauvammata ikajuutigivattanginnik arnait ammalu aturunniitittillutik pimmariuninginnik anaanauniup nunaqaqtutuqarnit nunalinnit. – Linda Grussani

Fall 2019

Man and Woman Going after Walrus 1979 —

Angut ammalu Arnaq Aivvagasuttuuk 1979 —

Man and Woman Going after Walrus by Leah Qumaaluk (1934–2010) is an incredible stonecut. The large, expressive walrus in the foreground looks away while the couple attempting to sneak up on the creature appear both worried and fearful of their giant prey. The tension is right there on the page. It is a very true print, and Qumaaluk is conveying the emotions of how people feel when they go out to hunt. To me, the most interesting aspect of this print is the texture. Qumaaluk employs small white areas of negative space to indicate the direction that the fur is laid on her figures. On the man’s kamiik the thin lines point downwards, while the fur moves left to right on those of his companion. There is a lot of knowledge that is shared here, such as traditional clothing, that may not be obvious at first glance. I have a difficult time discerning why this work was refused. To me, it is very complete. I remember that some high-quality prints did not resonate with members of the CEAC. While I understand that their goal was to protect the market, perhaps they were reviewing so many images so quickly that a detailed, expressive print like this was simply not given the full consideration it deserved. – Richard Murdoch

Leah Qumaaluk (1934–2010 Puvirnituq) — Man and Woman Going After Walrus 1979 Stonecut 40.3 × 60.5 cm COURTESY LA FÉDÉRATION DES COOPÉRATIVES DU NOUVEAU-QUÉBEC

Prints

Leah Qumaalup (1934–2010) Angut ammalu Arnaq Aivvagasuttuuk piujurjuaraaluulluni ujararmut titiqtugaliangusimammat. Angijualuk, aivialuk qanuilingammangaaq nalunanngittualuk saanganiittuq alaqtuni taakkua aippariik tirliarsisaarasunniaqtuuk taassuminga uumajumik isumaaluttuujaaqtutik kappiasuttuujaaqtutillu irsigija aluanik. Isumaalunningik nalunanngitiaqtuuk tavvani. Sulillattaaqtumik titiqtugarsimajuq, ammalu Qumaaluk takutittilluni ippinniagijaujunit qanuq kikkutuinnait ippigususuungummangaata asivaraimmata. Kisianili, takujuminarutigiluannguaqtanga taassuma titiqtugaup aaqqitiarsimaninga. Qumaaluk atursimammat mikijuutinit qakuqtanit ujjirnarsitittisimalluni namut saanngammangaata miqqungit inun nguap annuraanginni. Amittukutaangullutik angutiup Kamingik ujjirnarngat miqqungit namut saanngammangaata ammut arnaulli atuqtangit ajjigimminanigit, sanningammatali talirpianit saumianut. Qaujimajanginnik amisualunnit takutittisimammat tavvani titiqtugarmi, ilagijaullutik piqqusiqtigut annuraarisuungit, ujjirnaqtusaunngittut sivullirmi takugiannarlugu. Pijariatugijara tukisinattugu summat taanna titiqtugaq angiqtauninngimmangaaq. Uvannulli, naamattiarngat. Suqquisuttunga ilangit piujuutirjuaraaluit titiqtugait ippigijausimanngimmata katimajiuqataujunut Katimajinit. Tukisigaluaqtunga tura agaqarnirngata sapujjinasuttutik niurrutiqarvimmik, immaqa amisuuluaqtualunniqqai qimirruvannirngata ajjinit tuaviqtutik tamaatigi nalunaijarsimattiaqtumik, tukisinaqtumik titiqtugarmik tassumingatitut isumassarsiurutiqaluarninngilat isumagijaugiaqallarittuminiutillugu. – Richard Murdoch

— Angut ammalu Arnaq Aivvagasuttuuk 1979 Ukusiksalikmit 40.3 × 60.5 cm TUNISIJUQ ILAGIISAQ

What Gets Lost

INTERVIEW

The Re-collected Images of Joseph Senungetuk â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by Melissa Shaginoff

PREVIOUS SPREAD

Joseph Inusunŋaaq Senungetuk, also known as Joe, is a renowned author and multimedia artist. Senungetuk’s works, including prints, sculpture and jewellery, chronicle his life and personal experiences, often reflecting his dreams and his views of Native lifeways with the inclusion of text drawn from the headlines of the bi-weekly newspaper Tundra Times (1962–97) concerning whaling across the circumpolar Arctic. The artist’s roots are evident in the thematic elements in his work. Senungetuk often states that he creates for his people—they are his audience and the perspective he wishes to reflect—and has spent his career making with sovereignty at the fore. Taken together, his numerous and complex prints provide a catalogue of Iñupiaq philosophy and ways of being. Born in Wales, Alaska, in 1940, Senungetuk and his family moved to Nome, Alaska, when he was ten years old. Growing up in the community was challenging for Senungetuk and his family. In Wales, they lived off the land—whaling and hunting—speaking their own language and nurturing the close ties with neighbouring families through dance, ceremony and spiritual practice. The decision to leave Wales was largely based on the fact that Senungetuk’s parents would inevitably be separated from their children once the Bureau of Indian Affairs took them to school. When Senungetuk started school, he struggled with the English language and the structure of Western education. He saw an inequitable divide between the Iñupiaq and White students, which left him questioning his ability to succeed within these institutions as an Iñupiaq. As the years passed, Senungetuk started gaining notoriety for his artistic skills, and, in his late teens, he was considered the “town artist.” His teachers would ask him to draw portraits of the American presidents, and local business owners would task him with painting their signs and windows. For Senungetuk this recognition began to shape his unique and autonomous artistic practice, and it would later define his beliefs in the production as well as commodification of his work. Senungetuk went on to serve in the military and, later, at the recommendation of his brother and noted sculptor Ronald Senungetuk, took a position with the National Park Service in Sitka as an Artist Demonstrator. While working there, the artist would begin creating most of his prints. His images portray the lifeways of the Arctic, spiritual connections with land and marine mammals as well as depictions of current events affecting Iñupiat. He often incorporated written elements in his prints describing the contradictions of the enmeshed and divergent Iñupiaq and Western cultures.

Joseph Senungetuk (b. 1940 Anchorage) — Self Portrait 1970 All artworks printed by Joseph Senungetuk Etching 75.6 × 55.6 cm COURTESY ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

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Yesteryear’s Seasons 1973 Woodblock 46 × 72 cm COURTESY ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

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Joseph Senungetuk at work in the Alaska Pacific University studios PHOTO KAREN PADGETT

— His images portray the lifeways of the Arctic, spiritual connections with land and marine mammals, as well as depictions of current events affecting Iñupiat.

In 1967 he relocated to San Francisco, California, to further his studies in printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. While in San Francisco, Senungetuk began working for the Indian Historian Press in a position he describes as, “a glorified-secretary-bookshelfbuilder-and-finally-writer.” There he would take secretarial notes and build office bookshelves, all while working on his memoir Give or Take a Century (1971). Senungetuk recalls being thankful for the typing skills he acquired while in the military. He was able to write as fast as he could think, describing his life in Nome and addressing issues of distortion concerning Iñupiat in mainstream media. His memoir would later pave the way for Indigenous authors across Alaska and define his creative practice in his thorough analysis of Iñupiaq representation. After publishing Give or Take a Century, Senungetuk returned to Alaska and worked for the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Sheldon Jackson Jr. College, where he met his partner Martha Jay Hoover. Today, the Senungetuks both work as Elder artists-in-residence at Alaska Pacific University (APU) in Anchorage. Their studio is a devoted community workspace for all Indigenous artists that provides instruction and support for those entering the university system— some for the first time. As an Elder in the community, Senungetuk serves as mentor to many, and his work represents a continuum of self-determined Iñupiaq art. He is currently occupied with collecting back his own work; both as protest to artistic commodification and as an act of remembering the significant moments of his life embedded in each piece. As a whole, his collection of works represents an Iñupiaq life, deeply rooted in a belief system of autonomy and intention. I sat down with Senungetuk in his APU studio to learn more about his over 40-year practice and the personal histories captured in his images.

Prints

MELISSA SHAGINOFF: The first question I have is about your printmaking work. Can you talk a little bit about why you chose that medium? JOSEPH SENUNGETUK: Well, when I was working as an Artist Demonstrator in Sitka, Alaska, they had us working in the National Parks building. It had a big window and we were supposed to sit in front and make art for the tourists coming through. I’ve always been private. I don’t think people should share everything about [themselves], and I was just paralyzed in front of that window. The first two weeks, I couldn’t make anything. I was so frustrated [that] I banged my fist on the table and my ink splattered up and down onto my drawing pad. I looked at the dots and start drawing from them. I made little animals around each dot and then humans. Those became my drawings for my first woodblock prints. And for a while after that, it was how I started all my woodblock prints, with splatter. MS: What a great story, and you remember it so vividly. Many of your woodblock prints include text, such as Yesteryear’s Seasons (1973). As a writer, I imagine that is quite important for the messaging of your work. Can you talk about some of the text you include and why? JS: Well, I used a lot of headlines from the Tundra Times, Howard Rock’s Inuit newspaper. I liked to use headlines about whaling and politicians—things that affected Iñupiaq lives. I also liked that it was writing from Native people for Native people. MS: A lot of dialogue regarding your work is about how it resonates with Iñupiat. Is that something you have done deliberately? Do you create specifically for an Indigenous audience? What aspects of your life and history do you draw upon?

Interview

JS: Not intentionally, but I guess that is what I do. And that is what I have been doing, both in writing and making artwork. It’s all one life. In studying art, I know that there are different forms of art in different historical times. I’ve tried to apply that idea to Iñupiaq art, and I marvel at all the times that I’ve looked at photographs of old museum pieces. They didn’t have electricity [but] they had their own type of drills and their own knives and chisels, and yet, they were able to make jade carvings, which is next to a diamond as far as hardness goes. So, they would have had to use nature somehow to carve jade. I read somewhere that one of the techniques they used was placing a piece of jade in a small creek or running water, and they tied it up just so that it would rub and rotate next to a hard rock in the river, in the running water. They had the patience to watch nature carving something that they could not do [by hand]. They also made quite a lot of tools for daily living, hunting, fishing and so on.

MS:

Do you think being prolific is important as an artist?

JS: I don’t know how to be prolific at all, because I don’t value art as a source of money. As it turns out, each person’s artwork is somehow related to his own identity. [Picasso] may borrow from African art, or maybe he borrowed from Inuit art, but I don’t suspect its historic tools related to him. MS: Can you talk a bit more about your identity? Is investigating that aspect of yourself part of your art practice? JS: Well, I don’t believe in copying my own ancestors’ artwork, except [if] I make some change to it purposefully or accidentally, or somehow it becomes mine. The integrity of being able to do that [comes] from whatever I’m built of. I know I’m spiritual, because each person has a spirit, and, when we die, some people say it’s gone, but I don’t think so. I think through art [a person’s] spirit can keep living forever.

MS: This ingenuity you are referring to, by Iñupiat in the creation of utilitarian objects, is quite amazing. What parallels do you see with Iñupiaq art today?

MS: That is really moving, and I think an important point to be aware of, that borrowing from our ancestors and their ingenuity needs to come from a purposeful place.

JS: The education that they were receiving, which was passed down from year to year, is a period of Iñupiaq art [objects created precontact]. This was similar to the Renaissance period in Europe, except it’s all different [laughs]. If I could go back to the prehistoric period where they were painting like crazy on the cave walls you could say [that this artistic skill in representing their world] surpassed Western art completely, as far as knowing their subject and techniques and how to get those animals for food and material. [Laughs] In the same way that I’ve viewed art forever in its various forms, from prehistory to Picasso. I know that Picasso “borrowed” ideas from African artists in his paintings of African masks, so it wasn’t “his” inspiration. But I do admire his work, simply because he was so prolific.

JS:

Martha thinks that way too [smiles].

MS: Something I’d like to return to is that you said you don’t value art as a source of income. Can you talk about that? JS: I admit that I have [thought about it], in various times—times when I was very poor. A commission will come in, an idea will come in. But I’ll only do it if it is an idea that comes from a dream or from a mental image that I’ve kept all these years [while] growing up. It has to be part of me.

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Block for print The Silent Sea 1967 Wood 38.1 × 29.3 × 1.9 cm COURTESY NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

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Melting of Winter 1966 Woodblock 38.8 ×43.2 cm

The Shaman Beckons 1971 Woodblock 71 × 39.7 cm

COURTESY NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

COURTESY ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

There are certain things in a life, in my life, that I consider to be in the sacred realm. My art and creating is spiritual to me. And it’s also a bit of resistance. I guess I view myself as more of a recorder. —

It has to belong somewhere. Images I [have] collected in my head, my whole life. That’s how I view my life and my art, as belonging to me and coming from somewhere. For me, it comes from mostly a sad story and I could feel sorry for myself in reviewing who I am, but I don’t. I’ve enjoyed life too much to feel sorry for myself. MS: With these images being so close, so personal, can you explain where collecting the work you have sold comes into your practice. What does the act of reclaiming your work mean to you? Some might say it’s the opposite of being an artist, bringing your work back rather than spreading it out. JS: There are certain things in a life, in my life, that I consider to be in the sacred realm. My art and creating is spiritual to me. And it’s also a bit of resistance. I guess, I view myself as more of a recorder. In fact, there’s a photograph that I’ve been working from. [He pulls a framed photo from a shelf and shows me the image of a school with Iñupiaq students lined up in front.] It’s called Wales School and is from 1926. It’s before I was a glint in my parents’ eyes. But they lived that. In fact, they might even be pictured in there. [He points at the framed photo.] I think this looks very much like my mom, and this looks very much like my dad. I’m particularly interested in these two. [He points to two blurred figures in the photo.] They are the resisters, they won’t sit still. MS:

What drives you to make art?

JS: I think about what my ancestors did many hundreds of years ago, and I’m hoping that I’m reliving those moments. Even though I cannot really imagine what 10,000 years of developing or undeveloping technologies, or adapting to [Western food sources], or staying with the same [Iñupiaq] food, or even what remaining static looks like over time. I like to think my Iñupiaq ancestors were like, “Whoa! What a genius!” when they saw their ancestors’ art. And then I think about my art, and I look back at the work and realize, I really like my own past artwork. And sometimes it does speak to me, and I go, “Whoa! What genius! How did I think of that?” [Laughs].

This interview has been edited for clarity and condensed.

Prints

Interview

Kudluajuk Ashoona - Untitled (199-0290) - 23 x 30 Inches - Coloured Pencil on Paper

KUDLUAJUK ASHOONA NOV 2 - 15, 2019

6 0 6 V I E W S T R E E T V I C T O R I A , B . C . V 8 W 1J 4 - 2 5 0 3 8 0 4 6 6 0 - W W W. M A D R O N A G A L L E R Y. C O M

Woman with Fish and Kakivak unidentified artist, Nunavik, ca. 1952

NEW ADDRESS: 1444 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal H3G 1K4

www.elcalondon.com | info@elcalondon.com | 514-282-1173 Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

Lindsay McIntyre still from her McIntyre silent life Lindsay (2012) still from her silent life Art Toronto Booth A24 (2012)

2423 Granville Street Vancouver, BC V6H 3G5 marionscottgallery.com

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LEGACY

Indelible Ink: The Enduring Images of Nungusuituq

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Nungusuituq (1890–1950 Kinngait) — Ungnau Omiak Kyakloo (A Boat, a Kayak and Dogs) 1915 Lithograph 16.5 x 25.5 cm

by Krista Ulujuk Zawadski and Jo Poortenaar

Drawings by Enooesweetok of the Sikosilingmint Tribe of Eskimo, Fox Land, Baffin Island is a pivotal and significant, yet often overlooked, mark on the vast landscape of Inuit art history.

Inuit Art Quarterly

This portfolio of prints, based on drawings by Nungusuituq (1890–1950), was produced between 1913 and 1914 near Amadjuak Bay and published privately by Robert J. Flaherty in 1915. Only two copies of the original portfolio are known to exist: one in the Government of Nunavut Fine Art Collection, currently on long-term loan to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the other in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, along with a collection of Nungusuituq’s original pencil drawings. As one of the earliest efforts to reproduce drawings by an Inuk artist through the practice of printing, this collection is integral to the contemporary history of Inuit printmaking; and yet questions surrounding Nungusuituq’s artistic relationship to Flaherty, the circumstances of the drawings’ production and the rarity of the portfolio itself have 52

ALL ARTWORKS © GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT FINE ART COLLECTION COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY PHOTOS LIANED MARCOLETA

all served to shroud these works in mystery over for over a century. Consisting of 21 stone lithographs, this portfolio is a collection of small-scale figurative silhouettes depicted against stark paper landscapes. Both simple and striking, the linear composition and austerity of the forms are reminiscent of the type of engraving that would have traditionally been done on narrow bone and antler. Nungusuituq depicts scenes of hunting, travel, games and other details of traditional life on the land, thematically consistent with much of the graphic work produced in the early days of Inuit printmaking. The inscription on the portfolio cover reads, “These Drawings were Made at Amadjuak Bay, Fox Land, the Winter Quarters of Sir William Mackenzie’s Expedition to Baffin Land and Hudson’s Bay, 1913–1914.” Fall 2019

LEGACY

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Unganu Angeeook Omiak (Women’s Large Boat) 1915 Lithograph 16.5 x 25.5 cm

Prints

In 1910 Mackenzie commissioned Flaherty to conduct a geological survey on the east coast of Tasiujarjuaq (Hudson Bay). He then undertook the survey over the course of six years and four expeditions. Nungusuituq acted as a guide for Flaherty, making over 40 drawings while wintering in the expedition’s quarters. The drawings Flaherty collected from Nungusuituq during the 1913 to 1914 expedition were published privately in the spring of 1915 in Toronto. While on expedition Flaherty also shot film footage, with Nungusuituq acting as a member of the crew. Made almost a decade before Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922), these early films were all lost in a fire; however, the documentary images created by Nungusuituq in this print portfolio have survived. Nungusuituq (Noogooshoweetok, Noasweeto), which translates to “everlasting,” was born around 1890, the son of Joe and Lao, in the Qikiqtaaluk region (Sikosuilarmuit; Baffin Island), and lived near Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU. He was married to Luliakame and they had a son named Anunglung. Among his cousins are the prolific photographer, historian and artist Peter Pitseolak (1902–1973) and the renowned camp leader and artist Josephie Pootoogook (1887–1958). Pitseolak notes that Nungusuituq did not take up drawing of his own volition, but rather was instructed to draw by Flaherty, and he recalls that the artist described the process as “tiring.”¹ It is still unclear why Flaherty

chose to credit the artist as “Enooesweetok,” as he frequently called the artist Noasweeto and referred to him in writing simply as “N.”² Beyond the ramifications that this pattern of naming inconsistencies has had on Flaherty’s legacy, it has likely also affected Nungusuituq’s place within the arc of Inuit art history. Beyond the production of the drawings themselves, the artist participated in many aspects of the expedition and the filmmaking, and Flaherty described Nungusuituq as “the Eskimo artist par excellence at either drawing or carving on ivory.”³ In notes and records from Flaherty, he has suggested that one of Nungusuituq’s drawings included in the portfolio, titled Innuit Pektockseauk (Esquimaux Playing a Game), was to be the basis of a specific scene in the now destroyed 1914 film, and so it is possible that the sequence of shots are based on the series of drawings.4 Works like Netsuiekseeak Okeeyuitme (Seal Hunting in Winter), thoughtfully composed scenes of over wintering around Amadjuak Bay, exemplify the broader importance of the preservation of Inuit cultural identity through the representation of traditional practices on paper. These snapshots of Arctic life from the early twentieth century have served as essential documentary images, not only for those like Flaherty, who elicited their production, but also for Inuit themselves. The exploration of themes such as Inuit

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LEGACY

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Portrait of Nungusuituq c. 1913–14 by Robert Flaherty COURTESY THE ROBERT AND FRANCES FLAHERTY STUDY CENTER

Nungusuituq — ABOVE

Innuit Keinek Ivik (Esquimo Hunting Walrus) 1915 Lithograph 16.5 x 25.5 cm RIGHT

Ivik Keinek Okeeyuitme (Walrus Hunting in Winter) 1915 Lithograph 16.5 x 25.5 cm

cultural traditions, traditional lifestyle, community, labour and the land can be seen throughout the contemporary history of printmaking. From Niviaksiak’s (1908–1959) sealskin stencil Eskimo Fishing Through Ice (published in the first Eskimo Graphic Art catalogue in 1959) to Pitaloosie Saila’s stonecut Journey by Dog Team (printed by Qavavau Manumie and published in the 2018 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection), these themes have been consistently represented and remain visibly relevant to contemporary Inuit cultural identity. Though the transaction between Flaherty and Nungusuituq may seem isolated from what we know of the printmaking process today, as the production of prints by Inuit themselves is an essential element of the print studio dynamic, this exchange is foreshadowing. The incentivizing Inuit Art Quarterly

of pencil and paper-based artistic production the indelible quality of the printed image. for the purpose of reproduction through Inuk artist par excellence, enigmatic printing is an early example of the evolving and everlasting. print economy and the relationship between Inuit artist and the early patrons of Inuit prints. NOTES The influence of this small body of work, alongside the complex and layered 1 Peter Pitseolak and Dorothy Harley Eber, People narratives about its creator, while not widely from Our Side: An Inuit Record of Seekooseelak – known, continues to endure. The precedent The Land of the People of Cape Dorset, Baffin Island. set by these drawings and subsequent A Life Story with Photographs by Peter Pitseolak and Oral Biography by Dorothy Harley Eber (Edmonton: prints for a future generation of artists, who Hurtig Publishers, 1975), 88. have gone on to claim control over the 2 Jo-Anne Danzker, ed., Robert Flaherty, Photographer/ means of their own artistic production in Filmmaker: The Inuit 1910–1922 (Vancouver: Vancouver Kinngait and beyond, cannot be under Art Gallery, 1979), 54. estimated. While many questions remain 3 Ibid. 4 An edition of 200 facsimiles were made in 2001, regarding the details of these works, their which are now spread throughout various libraries impact is difficult to overstate. A milestone and private collections. Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, work by a mysterious figure in the history “Robert Flaherty/Photographer,” Studies in Visual of Inuit art, Nungusuituq lives on through Communication 6, no. 2 (Summer 1980): 21. 54

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Inukjuak Another Reality

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Thomassie Echaluk (1935–2011 Inukjuak) — Landscape of Inoucdjouac 1974 Printmaker Thomassie Echaluk Stonecut 52.7 × 73 cm ALL IMAGES COURTESY LA FÉDÉRATION DES COOPÉRATIVES DU NOUVEAU-QUÉBEC

by Janice Grey

In late June, I unexpectedly found myself at the offices of la Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec in Baie-D’Urfé, QC, where I was lucky enough to get a private look at the vast selection of archived prints from the community of Inukjuak, Nunavik, QC, created from 1975 to 1976. There were more than 100 prints in the archive, most of which had been rejected from broader production for myriad reasons, as well as some original artist proofs from prints released in the catalogue Arctic Quebec 1975. Before I saw the originals, I had perused the publication, featuring prints by Inukjuak artists Daniel Inukpuk (1942–2015), Thomassie Echaluk (1935–2011), Jobie Inuit Art Quarterly

Ohaituk and one by Lucassie Echalook. All of the prints I saw were breathtaking and unique, and excitement radiated from Sales Director Richard Murdoch who showed them to me. These original prints had not seen the light of day since the early 1990s, and have rarely been viewed since their creation more than 40 years ago. The same year they were produced, the first comprehensive Indigenous land claim was signed and the Inuit of Nunavik were forced to make choices and take actions that would resonate through history. Thus, the artwork of that period is particularly important and interesting. In the catalogue, traditional ways are 56

juxtaposed and set alongside the new realities of settled life, as the politically charged atmosphere hung over all who dwelt in the northern region of the province. The village scenes by Daniel Inukpuk and Thomassie Echaluk are especially poignant, as it seems so little has changed in Inukjuak and the other Nunavik communities. Both are set next to the Inukjuak River. Echaluk’s is peaceful and serene, the river is calm and all seems well, while Inukpuk’s interpretation is more energetic, the rushing water with dogs in varying degrees of rest and restlessness tied nearby. The powerlines in each should not be taken for granted, as these too were a new fixture in communities, along Fall 2019

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT with the houses and the concept that dogs should be leashed at all. Though produced decades ago, the artists’ images are still relevant, personal and strikingly relatable. Knowing that these works are celebrated by audiences both outside and within our communities is another significant aspect of why art is so important to our cultural identity. The deep blue print Two Men Picking Seagull Eggs by Lucassie Echalook is one of my personal favourites from the collection. As someone who harvests seagull eggs myself, the absolutely murderous look in the birds’ eyes gives me goosebumps. It’s a feeling you can only understand if you have come face to face with a determined and vicious avian foe. The teamwork captured in the print is also spot on: one person can collect the goods while the other distracts and defends from an aerial attack. Yet I found Jobie Ohaituk’s work to be the

most unique of this collection. It’s fascinating to me that trees are so prominently featured in his pieces, considering their absence so far North. His animals are whimsical, with soft curves and expressive eyes. With each season represented in the catalogue, it’s clear that the artists’ lives were still heavily influenced by traditional practices. The organic, deliberate lines used in the drawing of flora—the vines and leaves and berries—in works like Blueberries in Inoucdjouac by Inukpuk gives these prints a realistic feel while maintaining the stylistic signature of Inuit printmaking. The scenes depicted are so down to earth, so true to life. There is a deep sense of humility and honesty in each image. The artists were drawing what they knew and what they lived day-to-day, despite the rapidly changing world around them. The prevalence of bows and harpoons—still featured heavily across many of the pieces

when guns were readily accessible—is especially powerful as much had changed for Inuit by that point and yet much still remained the same. As we continue to work to protect ourselves and maintain our traditions through the overwhelming crush of colonization and globalization, this unique collection of prints reminds us of the unparalleled capacity of art to preserve our culture and identity. Together, the works within this catalogue are an impressive nod to the times in which they were produced—both maintaining a strong connection to the past while providing an intimate glimpse into what was then the present day. Now, more than four decades after they were produced, they continue to stand as an important reminder that our history is our own to document, through whatever means available.

There is a deep sense of humility and honesty in each image. The artists were drawing what they knew and what they lived day-to-day, despite the rapidly changing world around them.

Prints

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Lucassie Echalook (b. 1942 Inukjuak) — Two Men Picking Seagull Eggs 1975 Printmaker Lucassie Echalook Stonecut 41 × 61.2 cm

Daniel Inukpuk (1942–2015 Inukjuak) — Blueberries in Inoucdjouac 1974 Printmaker Daniel Inukpuk Stonecut 37.9 × 54 cm

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Kinngait Learning from Kiakshuk

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Kiakshuk (1886–1966 Kinngait) — Sea Monsters Devouring Whale 1961 Printmaker Lukta Qiatsuk Stonecut 30.5 × 35.5 cm ALL IMAGES © DORSET FINE ARTS

by Nakasuk Alariaq

Spending the first half of my life in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, I learned the oral histories of local leaders, both spiritual and political, that have shaped our small town into the community it is today. The story surrounding Kiakshuk (1886–1966), a noted artist and one of the last practicing angakkuit (shamans) in Kinngait, and his eldest son Lukta Qiatsuk (1928–2004), a skilled craftsman and printmaker, was always one of my favourites. Inuit Art Quarterly

Born in the late nineteenth century, Kiakshuk was witness to the rapid changes Inuit faced from the early 1900s onwards, many of which he captured in his numerous drawings, prints and carvings. His authority and importance in the community was revered, most notably by fellow graphic artist Pitseolak Ashoona, CM, RCA (c. 1904–1983). Pitseolak considered Kiakshuk one of the most significant elders and graphic artists 58

of her time, stating in her autobiography, “Because Kiakshuk was a very old man, he did real [Inuit] drawings. He did it because he grew up that way, and I really liked the way he put the old [Inuit] life on paper. I used to see Kiakshuk putting the shamans and spirits into his work on paper.” His works continue to resonate today, offering a unique view of traditional ways, not only of camp life, but also of the supernatural, elements Fall 2019

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His works continue to resonate today, offering a unique view of traditional ways, not only of camp life, but also of the supernatural, elements of our culture that fell out of practice.

of our culture that fell out of practice as a result of the growing presence of the Anglican Church and the “modernizing” of lives in the Arctic. By the late 1950s both Kiakshuk and Lukta had begun working with James Houston, who had set up an arts program in Kinngait some years before which eventually became the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. Collaborating with Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA (1935–1910), Iyola Kingwatsiak (1933–2000) and Eegyvudluk Pootoogook (1931–2000) on experimental prints, Lukta was chosen by Houston to help with the initiative due to his keen sense of style and his skill with his hands. In 1984, at the end of his career, Lukta had cut and printed over 200 prints, including 15 based on his father’s drawings. Despite retiring from printmaking, he con tinued to produce traditional tools, drawings

and sculpture for the next 20 years. Like his father before him, Lukta lived a long life and experienced traditional ways living in seasonal camps before settling in the community of Kinngait. Lutaaq Qaumagiaq, Lukta’s grandson and namesake, told me that Kiakshuk had offered Lukta his angakkuq abilities. The elder artist was willing to teach his son the magical songs, healing techniques and powers he had carried with him his whole life. Lukta declined his father’s offer, telling his ataata he did not need to be an angakkuq to succeed in life. While Kiakshuk shared other important teachings and beliefs with his children, Lukta desired to create a legacy of his own that still payed respect and homage to his father, his culture and traditions. The teachings that Kiakshuk shared about hunting, survival and providing food

and support for one’s family were passed down to Lukta, who passed them on to his children and grandchildren before he passed away in 2004, teachings that he had learned directly from one of Kinngait’s last angakkuit. Yet, it was Lukta who translated Sea Monsters Devouring Whale (1960), my favourite of Kiakshuk’s supernatural prints. This spectacular black and navy stonecut captures an underwater scene in which a giant bowhead whale is being devoured by two large monsters, figures so big that they have already devoured the whale’s head and are about to swallow the rest in giant, toothy bites. Though Lukta ultimately rejected the more spiritual teachings of his father, it appears that through their collaborative printmaking Kiakshuk found another way to pass along this knowledge to his son and his community.

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Loading Fur Bales 1966 Printmaker Lukta Qiatsuk Stonecut and stencil 63.5 × 87 cm

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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Nain Relocating Lithography

by Tobey Andersen As the main door to Jens Haven Memorial School in Nain, Nunatsiavut, NL, opens, the light breeze lifts the silk off the walls in a slow wave to reveal images of Artic fish, the bears that have made Nunatsiavut their home and Inuit dressed in traditional clothing out hunting and gathering. Throughout the halls you will find surfaces lined with these artworks created through the process of lithography on a printing press. Pieces by former students, made throughout the 1990s, join original work by former art instructor Bill Wheaton. Though Kinngait Studios in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, is known worldwide for its printmaking program, many other Inuit regions in Canada, even Nain, have their own rarely discussed histories with this important medium. In 1976 William Ritchie, a recent graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, was sent to Nain through an outreach program organized by Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. He was tasked with introducing various forms of art to preschool and elementary school children and to study how these creative mediums impacted them. That was, until he met Gilbert Hay on the road in Nain. Now a well-known artist whose works have been exhibited across Canada, including his lithograph Inukshuk (1981) recently on view with the travelling exhibition SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut (2017–19), Hay was primarily a stoneworker and sculptor when the men first met. Ritchie had a great interest in Inuit culture and heritage, and, in turn, Hay had a great interest in printmaking as well as in Ritchie’s work. The pair applied and received grant funding to attend St. Michael’s Printshop in St. John’s, NL, where they spent two weeks learning about printmaking and lithography. Both men returned to Nain and worked together with relief painting. The following year, they reapplied for the grant and once again participated in the two-week session. This time, upon their return, both Hay and Ritchie knew that in order to continue making prints, they would need to find a way to bring a printing press to Nain. Together, they worked with the Town of Nain to establish the Craft Council and were

ABOVE

Gilbert Hay (b. 1951 Nain) — Inukshuk 1981 Printmaker Gilbert Hay Lithograph 45.7 × 33 cm ALL IMAGES COURTESY THE ROOMS

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2019

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

LEFT

Michael Massie (b. 1962 Happy ValleyGoose Bay) — Homage to Kenojuak c. 1980 Printmaker Michael Massie Lithograph and collage 84.5 × 61 cm

Financial costs, coupled with little support for such a small project in such a small community, halted the grand vision of a printmaking program.

to open the first Craft Centre where artists in the community could sell their works. This Craft Centre was also intended to have a dedicated printing studio in it. Unfortunately, due to limited funding, the council disbanded and the centre closed. Ritchie was invited back to St. Michael’s and was soon offered a position at Kinngait Studios. With nowhere to practice, no etching press and with his now long-time collaborator gone, Hay returned to stonework and sculpting. Five years later in 1993, Wheaton, an art instructor from Manitoba, arrived in Nain after three years living in Hopedale, NL. Once settled, he applied for a grant through the ArtsSmarts program and bought a press. With no space for a studio, the press was housed in the art room at Jens Haven Memorial School. Wheaten spent years Prints

teaching students how to create a variety of pieces on the press, and how to use the machine for different purposes, such as copying scripts for the drama program. He would even print onto fabric, creating costumes for the school plays performed at the annual Labrador Creative Arts Festival. Wheaton was also a traveling artist. He had visited Kinngait Studios and, after learning about its operation, had a similar dream for the community of Nain. Through the remainder of his career, he would continue work towards making the etching press an economically profitable cultural project for the community. However, due to its location, there was little access for the public to explore or learn how to work with the etching press. Rather, it had to be used only during school hours. With use of the machine limited, it was 61

difficult for Wheaton to market the press to the public. Few members of the community had the knowledge to work with or the time to access the device, and many were simply not interested. Financial costs, coupled with little support for such a small project in such a small community, halted this grand vision of a printmaking program. Wheaton left Nain in 2001 and suddenly passed in 2003. The rapid decline of printmaking in the community followed. In 2017, for the first time since Wheaton’s departure, the press was briefly used by current instructor Tony Tibbo and his class to create Christmas cards. To this day, the etching press remains in Jens Haven Memorial School, waiting for another generation of artists to cover the walls in Nain and beyond.

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COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Ulukhaktok Carrying Cultural Memory

by Lisa Alikamik

ABOVE

Inuit Art Quarterly

Ulukhaktok, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, formerly Holman, has long been known to the world through the creativity of its people. From prints to mittens, moccasins to sculpture and even screen-printed apparel and home décor, the work of artists from our small community has travelled far. The Holman Eskimo Co-operative was formed in 1961 by a group of local artists eager to market their art. In 1962 printmaking experiments led by Father Henri Tardy turned the drawings of Peter Aliknak (1928–1998), Harry Egotak (1925–2009), Billy Goose (1943–1989), Paul Ipiilun, Helen Kalvak, CM, RCA (1901–1984) and Jimmy Memorana 62

(1919–2009) into incredible stencil prints that tell the story and history of our culture. Following a poor initial reception by the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council (CEAC), the first official collection of prints from Ulukhaktok was released in 1965. Shortly after the release of the collection, artists in Ulukhaktok also began printing their work on woven household goods. Placemats, coasters and burlap wall hangings came to bear our traditional stories and the designs of our artists. Greeting cards, t-shirts and more soon followed. Occasionally designs used on these goods were the same as prints released in Fall 2019

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

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Silkscreen for a wall hanging featuring graphics by Victor Ekootak

These objects keep our ancestors and loved ones alive and for our current artists, gives them exposure and allows them to promote their identity. the annual collections, which ran uninterrupted until 2000. For instance, Victor Ekootakâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (1916â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1965) Drum Dance (1977) was released as a stonecut in an edition of 50 and included on a series of placemats in various colours and tones. Printed mostly in black ink, the bold graphics from Ulukhaktok worked beautifully on the rich blue, bold red, rusty orange and warm brown fabrics onto which they were printed. With the establishment of the Ulukhaktok Arts Centre in 2011, the work of these celebrated artists continues through the circulation of rich, evocative images on prints, cards, bookmarks and more by the next generation of makers. This distribution of arts and crafts from Ulukhaktok across the world fills our people with a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. And, through these objects, our culture and traditions are discovered by new audiences and our community is placed on the map. For many artists, both contemporary and historic, creating pieces with such incredible detail, including those designed for commercial distribution, is an important way to provide income for their families while also carrying cultural memory. These objects keep our ancestors and loved ones alive and for our current artists, gives them exposure and allows them to promote their identity. Whether on a wall or a greeting card, each print tells a powerful story held by the artist. Although we may have many other means of passing on our values to the generations that follow, today the history of printmaking in Ulukhaktok reminds us that these traditions can be found all around us, even at the dinner table. Prints

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Eldred Allen — Heather Angnatok — Holly Andersen — Peggy Andersen — Danielle Baikie — Irene Burden — Heather Caroll — Heather Campbell — Tracy Denniston — Vanessa Flowers — Veronica Flowers — Jason Jacque —Polly Jacque — Samantha Jacque — Yvonne Moorhouse — Shirley Moorhouse — Roxanne Nochasak — Sophie Pamak — Garmel Riche —Inez Shiwak — Jane Shiwak —Jason Sikoak — John Terriak — Dorothy Voisey — Jennie Williams — Blanche Winters — Jessica Bonnie Winters — Nellie Winters

The Canadian Guild of Crafts 1356 Sherbrooke W. Montreal (QC) H3G 1J1

Autumn Program 2019

info@laguilde.com 1.866.477.6091 laguilde.com

03.10 ≥ 24.11 Image — Holly Andersen, Sustenance, 2016 digital print, ed.1 of 5 28 x 43 cm

NUNATSIAVUT OUR BEAUTIFUL LAND

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28 artists Photography | sculpture | painting | drawing | craft

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Lucy Qinnuayuak Large Bear Featured in our November 19th Live Auction

Bill Reid Chief of the Undersea World Price Realized: $129,800.00

Cowley Abbott (formerly Consignor Canadian Fine Art) is currently accepting consignments of Canadian Historical, Post-War, Inuit and Northwest Coast works of art for inclusion in our forthcoming auctions.

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Inuit Art Quarterly

Lucy Qinnuayuak Large Bear Featured in our November 19th Live Auction

Fall 2019

Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border

September 28, 2019 – January 5, 2020 This first retrospective of Alootook Ipellie’s extraordinary work draws from the many aspects of his career, demonstrating the importance and continued relevance of his voice and vision. Curated by Sandra Dyck, Heather Igloliorte and Christine Lalonde Produced by Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, Ontario

123 King Street West, Hamilton • 905.527.6610 artgalleryofhamilton.com

Alootook Ipellie (1951-2007), The Death of Nomadic Life, the Creeping Emergence of Civilization (2007), Ink on illustration board. Estate of the artist. Photo by Justin Wonnacott, courtesy Carleton University Art Gallery

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HOST OF THE 2019 INUIT ART SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING, OCTOBER 25–27

THE POWER FAMILY PROGRAM FOR INUIT ART

TILLIRNANNGITTUQ Introducing an exceptional collection of 20th century Inuit Art, on view for the first time. This exhibition inaugurates the Power Family Program for Inuit Art, established in 2018 through the generosity of Philip and Kathy Power. Exhibition on view through October 27, 2019. Niviaksiak, Polar Bear and Cub in Ice, Cape Dorset, 1959, stencil. Promised gift of Philip and Kathy Power. © Dorset Fine Arts. Photography: Charlie Edwards

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525 South State Street Ann Arbor, MI, USA umma.umich.edu The museum is always free.

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REVIEW

ᓲᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓲᓇ: ᓄᓇᙳᐊᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᙳᐊᓂᒃ

Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery JANUARY 26–MAY 12, 2019 TORONTO, CANADA

by Esmé Hogeveen

A squid-like creature with multiple human faces and a pair of roiling human legs. A leaf-green woman with a porpoise tail carrying her baby while encircled by a host of chimeric figures. When considering ᓲᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓲᓇ: ᓄᓇᙳᐊᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᙳᐊᓂᒃ Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, the graphic artist’s recent solo exhibition at The Power Plant in Toronto, ON, the notion of mise en abyme becomes strangely appropriate. From the French expression for an image that contains copies of itself, in literature mise en abyme refers to a story that contains another story within it. The longer I contemplate the otherworldly tableaux that fill Mapping Worlds, the more the plurality invoked in the title resounds. How can a single drawing—or even a single image, for that matter—contain such multiplicity? And how does the cacophony of images speak to the placement of the artist’s practice within broader worlds of contemporary art? Inuit Art Quarterly

As is often the case with mise en abyme, many of Ashoona’s pieces initially appear deceptively straightforward. Though some drawings employ more conventional compositions—such as the perpendicular cruise ship in Sinking Titanic (2012), inspired by the iconic 1990s film by James Cameron— a sense of latent energy expands across the page in all of the works on view. Colourful palettes—resplendent with living greens, pinks, blues—and dark ink outlines, draw my eye around the works, revealing halfhidden clues and insights into Ashoona’s complex worldview. The juxtaposition of realistic scenes, such as a series of tightly cropped human portraits, with fantastical globe motifs and chimeras, as in Composition (Attack of the Tentacle Monsters) (2015), underscores the artist’s unique ability to make the strange appear routine and to simultaneously reveal the surreal under pinnings of the familiar. 66

The coloured pencil, graphite and ink drawn globes that abound in Mapping Worlds, curated by Dr. Nancy Campbell, are earthly, yet do not depict the planet as we know it. Mostly comprised of familiar representations of the planet, the terrestrial formations in Ashoona’s drawings recall sites germane to science fiction or fantasy. The scale and inhabitants of these mysterious territories are likewise unknown to us viewers, though I sense that the human figures within them may be possessed of greater insight. The characters appear to be guardians or inhabitants (or both) of these private worlds. In several drawings, globes appear either directly connected to the human body, as with the irises of the figure in The World In Her Eyes (2011), or as objects en masse, as in Shovelling Worlds (2013), in which a man shovels dozens of globes into a large container. The apparent tension between Fall 2019

REVIEW idiosyncrasy—each miniature world is subtly different— and unanimity—they each obliquely reflect our own Earth—aptly embodies the negotiation of individual and collective vision in Ashoona’s oeuvre. Though her subject matter, which includes mythological beings, humananimal birthing scenes, Arctic landscapes, and vignettes from Titanic, is vastly different from the settings described by authors such as Octavia E. Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, or George R.R. Martin, Ashoona shares a proclivity for vivid allegory with these canonical world builders. While I am initially struck by the surreal scenes and hybrid creatures, an underlying thread of interpersonal and interspecies connection contributes critical depth to the work. For Ashoona, these links are crucial to the environments in her work with connectedness often depicted via circularity. This is perhaps most apparent in Composition (People, Animals and the World Holding Hands) (2007–8), which features nine figures holding hands in a loop around a grizzly bear, polar bear, seal and Arctic char. The analogous scale of the figures in Composition also brings to mind questions concerning human impact upon the environment. At The Power Plant, Ashoona’s drawings are hung only metres from Lake Ontario, which glimmers in the surprisingly cool March sun. The day is beautiful and bracing, though no doubt very different than the cold weather depicted in so many of the artist’s works. Seen from this wider lens, Ashoona’s oeuvre points to new ways of considering cross-species links, responsibilities and failures. Whether or not she intends to draw attention to global climate issues, the representations of close ties between human and non-human worlds and between changing natural landscapes and pop culture read exigently across contexts. It is refreshing to have the opportunity to consider Ashoona’s distinct handling of these topics given her frequent contextualization with famous family members, as in Three Women, Three Generations (1999), with Pitseolak Ashoona, OC, RCA (1904–1983) and Napachie Pootoogook (1938–2002), and again in Ashoona: Third Wave (2006–7) with cousins Annie Pootoogook (1969– 2016) and Siassie Kenneally (1969–2018), or as only one of many voices in international group exhibitions. Within these wider narratives enveloping Mapping Worlds, the memory of Annie Pootoogook’s own 2006 solo show at The Power Plant looms large. The self-titled show was the gallery’s last solo exhibition by an Inuk artist, bestowing even greater anticipation for this spotlight on Ashoona. I also wonder what stories within stories would have unfurled had some of Ashoona’s more monumental drawings, early pen-and-ink pieces or collaborative works been included. In the end, we are left pondering whether Mapping Worlds only presents one facet of an artist’s compelling oeuvre and eagerly awaiting future chapters.

Shuvinai Ashoona 2019 Studio PM

studiopmmontreal@gmail.com

OPPOSITE

Installation view of ᓲᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓲᓇ: ᓄᓇᙳᐊᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᙳᐊᓂᒃ Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2019 COURTESY THE POWER PLANT CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY PHOTO TONI HAFKENSCHEID

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REVIEW

Isuma 58th International Art Exhibition/ La Biennale di Venezia MAY 11–NOVEMBER 24, 2019 CANADA PAVILION VENICE, ITALY

BELOW

Installation view of Isuma at the Canada Pavilion for the 58th International Art Exhibition/La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2019 COURTESY LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA PHOTO FRANCESCO GALLI

by Reneltta Arluk

As a part of the Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project: Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership summer institute, 20 of us writers, academics and artists flew to Venice, Italy, to witness the opening of Isuma’s historic installation in the Canada Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale; my first foray into this prodigious happening. I was welcomed to the Giardini by Lucy Uyarak Tulugarjuk’s smiling face, which I had been following on Facebook as she shared pictures of her family interlaced with behind-the-scenes photos of Zacharias Kunuk, OC, ON, and, the Isuma team preparing for the exhibition. In anticipation, I walked towards the pavilion. Joining several Inuit smiling for photos beside a large ISUMA plaque affixed to the building’s exterior, I was informed that signs are not normally permitted outside of the pavilions. However, in a clever turn, Kunuk had called it an installation and this was Inuit Art Quarterly

why it had been allowed. The Isuma sign will prominently share space with Canada’s permanent lettering for the run of the Biennale. A fitting gesture as Isuma is the first Inuit-led collective to be invited into this international site and during the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages. Inside, a volunteer handed me a postcard of a familiar face: Kunuk at his home in Kapuivik, NU. The installation comprises comfortable benches placed parallel to four large screens playing One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019), a film that presents the Canadian government’s historic relocation of Inuit to permanent settlements. The 112-minute feature is based on the true story of Iglulik elder Noah Piugattuk who, when visited by a Qallunaaq man called “Boss,” was asked to abandon his nomadic lifestyle and relocate to Iglulik with his community. Piugattuk ultimately refuses, and what follows 68

is a complex series of misunderstandings and mistranslations. Performed in Inuktitut and English, the feature is presented with Italian, French and English subtitles creating an immersive, multilayered environment throughout the pavilion. The large audience crowded together intently listening to the sounds of Inuktitut while reading subtitles. There was a flow to the installation, like a river, as the pavilion itself contains no sharp corners. In the middle stand two trees of formidable size that, like Isuma, also claim space. Holding the fullness of languages and sound, the space is strikingly absent of objects, the only item, a map belonging to Kunuk’s father that reveals in syllabics where to hunt seal. There are no carvings, no drawings, no sealskin; and no Kunuk, at least not physically. Instead, the artist is in the exact spot near Iglulik where the events of Fall 2019

the film took place 50 years prior, hosting the real-time broadcast Silakut Live from the Floe Edge. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the filmmaker will convene elders in conversation on the implications of the mining activity currently underway near their community. During the preview week live stream, we watched the conversation between the five men intently, intimately, calmly yet energized. There we were, over 5,500 kilometres away, with a mass of people witnessing the voices of community members speaking on what is important to them, now. Kunuk, always conscious of his audience, deftly shifts the focus and attention from Italy to Nunavut. As the celebrations outside began, I perched myself up on a ledge above the crowd of hundreds and started my own live stream as Uyarak spoke Inuktitut on Italian soil. As Isuma’s female voice in Venice, and someone who has been a part of Isuma for over 20 years, Uyarak’s attendance at the Biennale was critical. A director in her own right and assistant director of One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, Uyarak brings a voice to the official opening that is not represented in the largely male cast of the film or on Silakut Live. Her words were generous, expressing gratitude to the all-women curatorial team— asinnajaq, Catherine Crowston, Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Barbara Fischer and Candice Hopkins—for their creative diligence. While perhaps unintentional, having Isuma represented by three Indigenous women—asinnajaq, Hopkins and Uyarak—on this international stage feels timely and strikingly responsive to the silenced voices of Indigenous women in Canada. Isuma’s presentation at the Canada Pavilion shares its knowledge of generations and openly addresses ways the Canadian Government has and continues to displace Inuit sovereignty. The absence of key members of the collective at the Biennale in favour of broadcast discussions on the Mary River mine’s proposed disruption of walrus breeding grounds reflects their commitment to environmental stewardship. Though ice is shrinking and sea levels are rising, language remains integral, as does community. As the first Inuit voices included in the national entry, these messages from Isuma remind us it is imperative that we listen. Through a dynamic filmic portal comprised of a full-length feature and live stream, the collective made both physical and digital space for Inuit perspectives to be heard. The title of this year’s Biennale is “May You Live in Interesting Times,” which is strikingly apt. May we indeed.

For more Venice Biennale content, read our special digital issue online at: inuitartfoundation.org/venicebiennale2019

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TRIBUTE

In Memoriam: The Inuit Art Quarterly Remembers

Okpik Pitseolak (1946–2019)

PHOTO ERNIE BIES

Sculptor and longtime member of the Inuit Art Foundation’s Board of Directors Okpik Pitseolak was born in Kimmirut in 1946, but spent much of her life in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU. She began carving in the late 1960s, initially assisting her father-in-law, the great camp leader, photographer and artist Peter Pitseolak (1902–1973). Learning from careful observation, she developed a unique, detailed carving style. “I either make [carvings from] what I experienced in my life or from stories that I’ve heard,” Okpik explained in a 2003 interview. Many of her highly polished, evocative sculptures are self-portraits, sometimes showing the artist with her children, engaged in everyday activities like sewing clothing, carrying water and breastfeeding. Okpik’s women are strong, empowered and often smiling widely. Okpik attended several workshops organized by the IAF throughout the 1990s and attended Nunavut Arctic College where she took courses on jewellery making. As a member of the IAF’s Board of Directors, she advocated for artist safety and encouraged young people to take up carving, including her son Jamassee Pitseolak, who, like his mother, has developed his own unique style. “My art is not just for my own benefit,” Okpik once said of her ambition as an artist. “It is of value to our relatives, our children [and] our grandchildren. I am confident that what I do as an individual is of great value to others.” In 1999 Okpik, alongside Pootoogook Qiatsuk, completed a tuberculosis memorial in Kinngait. Her sculptures can be found in the Government of Nunavut Collection, the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, ON, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Quebec and the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba. She will be remembered for her beautiful, tender and personal works and for her dedication to and fierce advocacy for Inuit artists.

Aqjangajuk Shaa (1937–2019)

Inuit Art Quarterly

With a career spanning over six decades, renowned Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, artist Aqjangajuk Shaa, RCA, was an incredible force. Born in 1937 at Satuqitu a camp east of Kinngait, he began carving in the mid-1950s, following in the path of his grandfather Kiakshuk (1886– 1966). Shaa sold his first carving, a seal, to James Houston when he was about 17 years old and continued carving for the rest of his life. In the years that followed, Shaa developed a decidedly personal style characterized by powerful figures—animal and human—that radiate strength and warmth. Though others have carved the subject, the dancing walrus has become synonymous with Shaa. The artist saw walruses, enormous and lumbering, and made them graceful—delicate even. Often balancing on one flipper, his walruses twist and contort with limbs outstretched, full of playfulness and movement. Although known mostly for stone sculpture, Shaa produced two dynamic stonecuts, Wounded Caribou in 1961 and Playful Caribou in 2018, revealing that in addition to carving he was also a talented graphic artist with a remarkable sense of line. The artist’s first solo exhibition was held at the Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art in Toronto in 1970. In the years that followed, a total of 12 solo exhibitions of his work were mounted across Canada, the United States and Europe. His works can be found in the collections of the Government of Nunavut, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, ON, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Quebec and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, ON, among others. Shaa will be deeply missed by his family and community, and remembered for his unique ability to reveal the elegance and charm of his subjects. 70

Fall 2019

2019 CAPE DORSET ANNUAL PRINT COLLECTION

OCT.19.2019

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Chasing a Bowhead Whale by Elisapee Ishulutaq and Josea Maniapik

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NEWS

Updates and highlights from the world of Inuit art and culture

Bart Hanna Kappianaq and the Honourable Geoff Regan, Speaker of the House of Commons, at the unveiling of Sedna (2019) in Ottawa, ON © HOUSE OF COMMONS COLLECTION, OTTAWA, CANADA

Kablusiak Shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award Calgary-based Inuvialuk artist and curator Kablusiak is among the five artists shortlisted for the 2019 Sobey Art Award, the most prestigious art prize in Canada, presented annually to an artist under 40. They are the second Inuk and first Inuvialuk artist to be shortlisted for the accolade, after the celebrated graphic artist Annie Pootoogook won in 2006. “Kablusiak is such an amazing, exciting artist,” notes Lindsey Sharman, Curator at the Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) in Edmonton and jury member. The AGA will host an exhibition of works by the five artists from October 5, 2019, to January 5, 2020, with the $100,000 grand prize winner announced at a gala event at the gallery on November 15, 2019. Alootook Ipellie Inducted into the Cartoonist Hall of Fame

Bart Hanna Kappianaq Unveils Sculpture at Parliament Hill

On the morning of Monday, April 8, 2019, the high relief, sculptural tympanum Sedna by renowned Iglulik-based sculptor Bart Hanna Kappianaq, featuring the central figure of Sedna surrounded by a walrus, whale and narwhal on the rippling Arctic waters, was unveiled at the Canadian Parliamentary complex in Ottawa, ON. “I feel very honoured that my piece will be a part of the Parliament Buildings,” Kappianaq said, “and that the generations to come—my grandsons and granddaughters —will be able to see it, even when I’m not around.” In summer 2018, Kappianaq was an artist-in-residence working on the completion of the sculpture, which took roughly four months to carve and which coincides with Inuit Art Quarterly

the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the creation of Nunavut as a territory as well as the closing of Centre Block for significant renovations. The final piece was presented during a ceremony at Centre Block with the Honourable Geoff Regan, Speaker of the House of Commons, and will be displayed in West Block until its permanent installation in the House of Commons Foyer following the restorations. 72

Celebrated graphic artist, writer, editor and illustrator Alootook Ipellie was inducted into the Giants of the North: Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame at a ceremony on May 11, 2019, in Toronto, ON. This posthumous accolade comes on the heels of Ipellie’s first touring retrospective Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border (2018–19). Founded in 2005, the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame honours significant, lifelong contributions to the art of cartooning in Canada. Ipellie was selected alongside Toronto-based illustrator Fiona Smyth and is the first Inuk to be appointed. Shuvinai Ashoona Awarded Gershon Iskowitz Prize Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, graphic artist Shuvinai Ashoona, RCA, has won the esteemed Gershon Iskowitz Prize, presented annually to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to the visual arts in Canada. As the first Inuk recipient of the $50,000 award, the Art Gallery of Ontario Fall 2019

NEWS

in Toronto will mount a solo exhibition of her work within the next two years. “Shuvinai has earned this award, not just won it,” asserts Dr. Nancy Campbell, curator of ᓄᓇᙳᐊᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᙳᐊᓂᒃ Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, the artist’s most recent solo exhibition. “She joins the fantastic company of recipients through the generosity of the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation.” Inuit Curators Appointed at Provincial Institutions Museums in Nunavut and Manitoba announced recent additions to their director ship and curatorial staff respectively in late March 2019. Archivist Jessica Kotierk has been hired as Manager and Curator of the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, NU, while curator, photographer and filmmaker Jocelyn Piirainen has joined the Winnipeg Art Gallery as the inaugural Assistant Curator of Inuit Art. “Museum work is the type of work I enjoy doing, and in this position I hope to connect artists with the public, organize and identify objects from the permanent collection and share information about Inuit, art and history,” Kotierk said about her appointment. “I am very much looking forward to working alongside the curatorial team at the gallery, as well as working with such an extensive collection of Inuit art,” echoed Piirainen about her new role. Canadian Museum of History Acquires Major Donation The Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, QC, announced the major donation of over 750 contemporary sculptures, 120 works on paper and 25 examples of historical material from the estate of Dr. Margaret Perkins Hess on February 5, 2019. “We are honoured and thankful that Dr. Hess chose to bequeath a portion of her remarkable collection of Inuit art to the Canadian Museum of History, which will cherish this legacy for generations to come,” Mark O’Neill, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of History, stated. An internationally recognized art historian, lecturer, philanthropist, business person and rancher, Hess was an avid collector of Inuit art and the donation spans first- and second-generation artists from the 1950s through to the 1980s, from almost 30 communities across Inuit Nunangat.

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Two Artists Share Nunavut Commissioner’s Art Award Iglulik-based multidisciplinary artist Susan Angutautuq Avingaq and accomplished Panniqtuuq-based carver Jaco Ishulutaq have jointly received the 2018 Nunavut Commissioner’s Art Award. With a career spanning over 25 years, Avingaq has worked as an author, storyteller, performer, seamstress and set designer. Since the age of 16, Ishulutaq has been producing dynamic and arresting works crafted from antler, ivory, whalebone and stone that relay stories from his life and community. “It is such an honour to recognize Ms. Avingaq and Mr. Ishulutaq for their outstanding contribution to Nunavut’s visual arts,” Nunavut’s Commissioner Nellie Taptaqut Kusugak relayed in a press release. Launched in 2007, the accolade recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the visual arts across the territory with a certificate and $5,000 award. Inuit Art Centre Receives $2M Gift The Winnipeg Art Gallery announced a significant gift of $2 million to the Inuit Art Centre (IAC) from the North West Company at a press conference in Winnipeg, MB, on June 12, 2019. The donation will fund an outdoor community plaza adjacent to the IAC. As an “inviting welcome into the centre,” the public space will host two permanent commissioned works by two Inuit artists. “We see the Inuit Art Centre playing an important role towards this goal, for Inuit and other Indigenous peoples, for all Canadians and for people around the world who will be exposed to the IAC,” President and CEO of the North West Company Edward S. Kennedy explains. The IAC slated to open to the public in mid-2020 with this sponsorship bringing the current total of funds raised to $56 million. Talirunili Sculpture Breaks Records at Auction At the inaugural sale by First Arts, a new venture by partners Patricia Feheley, Ingo Hessel, Mark London and Waddington’s, on May 29, 2019, in Toronto, ON, a sculpture by Joe Talirunili broke the record for the highest price paid for a work by an Inuk artist at public auction. Migration Boat, created in the early to mid-1970s, sold for $408,000 to an unknown telephone bidder, significantly exceeding its $150,000 to $250,000 estimate. The sale broke the existing record set by The Migration, a different example 73

of the same subject by Talirunili, which sold for $290,000 at Waddington’s in 2012. IAF Organizes Arctic Arts Summit Delegation In partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts through the Creating, Knowing and Sharing stream, the IAF organized a delegation of Inuit artists, along with Mi’kmaq artist Jordan Bennett, to attend the second Arctic Arts Summit in Rovaniemi, Finland, from June 3 to 5, 2019. Singer-songwriter Beatrice Deer, artist, jeweller and writer Tarralik Duffy, actor Vinnie Karetak and filmmaker and producer Jerri Thrasher joined IAQ Editor-at-Large Taqralik Partridge on a series of panels on contemporary practice in the circumpolar North. Participation by delegation members in this international conference keeps with recommendations in the recent Cultural Diplomacy at the Front Stage of Canada’s Foreign Policy report by the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and Inter national Trade, which highlights the importance of Indigenous art and artist on the global stage, noting that “Indigenous artists are ‘essential’ to Canadian diversity and its distinct image abroad.” Senate Committee on the Arctic Emphasizes Artistic Support In addition to Senate publications identifying the significance of Indigenous artists in Canadian cultural diplomacy, IAF Executive Director and Publisher Alysa Procida emphasized the importance of support for emerging and established artists from the Arctic in the Special Senate Committee on the Arctic’s report Northern Lights: A Wake-Up Call for the Future of Canada. The report recommended that “the Government of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts work with Indigenous and Arctic arts organizations, to provide local outreach to Arctic and northern artists, including specific support to emerging artists in such areas as building capacity to apply for grants and to exhibit their work.” The report follows testimony given by Procida as well as representatives from Parks Canada, the Nunatsiavut Government and the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in late 2018.

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Quvianaqtuk Pudlat Kinngait

If there is any creature that can move between two worlds—between what is known and what is a mystery—it must be a fox. A fox spotted in town in the North causes a considerable uproar due to the danger of rabies. People drop whatever they are doing to chase it, and every dog in the neighbourhood joins its bay to a frantic soundtrack that accompanies the chase. This is a serious event, yet it still seems remarkable that such a small animal can mobilize a whole community. Kiviuq’s fox-wife of Inuit stories can slip her pelt and walk about as a person. She can escape an igloo through the smallest crack. And, though she is shy, there is a sense that she may have the upper hand. Agile Fox is master of the page, like Kiviuq’s companion she knows herself. She moves through space as neither solid nor liquid. We understand that she is diving earthward only because of the orientation of the print. Her forepaws point with intent, almost forming the face of some other unnamed creature. Still more unseen creatures are implied by the shapes at her flanks—two ghostly foxheads meet her serpentine tail. Quvianaqtuk Pudlat’s signature style is to depict animals in ways that lean towards dance: his prints—a number of which have been brought to life by master printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi—feature birds, walruses, bears and caribou with limbs curved in a grace not usually associated with some larger animals. Agile Fox, however, presents only as herself. She needs no accessory, no emphasis of movement, no fancy surroundings. We can only imagine the look on her face—perhaps there is even a twinkle in her eye.

Quvianaqtuk Pudlat (b. 1962 Kinngait) — Agile Fox 2019 Printmaker Qiatsuq Niviaqsi Stonecut 83.8 × 58.5 cm © DORSET FINE ARTS

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Visit the newly named TD Gallery of Indigenous Art in Toronto The TD Gallery of Indigenous Art is a rotating exhibition space with the goal of presenting work from the TD Art Collection. Reflecting on important community conversations, the formerly named TD Gallery of Inuit Art has expanded to include narratives and perspectives from Canadian Indigenous communities. The TD Gallery of Indigenous Art is a rotating exhibition space that will feature work from the TD Art Collection, with the goal of amplifying Indigenous voices from all regions of Canada. Image Credit: Brian Jungen, Walk This Way (echo), 2016, Nike Air Jordans, 30 x 32 x 20 in TD Bank Corporate Art Collection. Learn more at td.com/art.

Visit TD Gallery of Indigenous Art at 79 Wellington St. West in Toronto. ÂŽ The TD logo and other TD trade-marks are the property of the Toronto-Domion Bank.