Cape Dorset Prints A Retrospective

In 1956 artist James Houston came to Cape Dorset as the northern service officer with the Canadian government's Department of Northern Affairs. One of his duties was to foster the production of carvings and other handicrafts by the Inuit residents. By 1959 the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative had been formed, laying the groundwork for a legendary printmaking tradition. Today the annual release of Cape Dorset prints, produced by the Co-operative's Kinngait Studios, is eagerly anticipated by collectors around the world. Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective is the first book to tell the full story of this historic printmaking community. - Publisher.

Cape Dorset Sculpture is an extraordinary collection of 71 outstanding works of contemporary stone sculpture, accented with several related graphics, assembled by the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in collaboration with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. This new collection showcases the community that has had the single greatest impact on the worldwide recognition of Inuit art. Included are contemporary works by 44 leading artists, many of whom were instrumental in shaping the look and direction that Inuit art has taken over the past fifty years, plus pieces from the second- and third-generation sculptors they have inspired. Also shown are a dozen works from the early days. The introduction by Terry Ryan and text by Derek Norton and Nigel Reading provide an overview of the story of art in Cape Dorset.

Ningiukulu Teevee thinks in pictures, and drawing is her language. She is a soft-spoken storyteller, but her message is clear and strong, and with it she is expanding the narrative of the North, breaking new ground for Inuit art. Teevee hails from Cape Dorset, home to a multigenerational community of artists and the Kinngait Studios, the longest continually operating print studios in Canada. Her inventive images first appeared in the studios' annual collection of limited-edition prints in 2004 and have been represented every year since. Her work is rooted in respect for traditional Inuit culture and an abiding love of family, but along with artists such as Tim Pitsiulak and Annie Pootoogook, Teevee has proven unafraid of pushing artistic boundaries. In drawings alive with mischievous charm or weighted by a grittier reality, she often merges traditional Inuit art with contemporary aesthetics, revealing positive and negative changes to life in Arctic communities. In 2009, Teevee's illustrated children's book, Alego, was shortlisted for a Governor General's award. In 2017 Ningiukulu Teevee: Kinngait Stories, curated by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, opened at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, Dithe first major retrospective of Teevee's career to date. Ningiukulu Teevee: Drawings and Prints from Cape Dorset is the first monograph on the artist's work. Presented here are more than eighty reproductions and photographs, with critical context provided by Leslie Boyd, former director of Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto. Teevee's art has been exhibited widely and is in collections around the world, among them the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the National Gallery of Canada.

Only a handful of years into his career, Timmuuti "Tim" Pitsiulak spearheaded a new direction in Inuit art. The nephew of renowned printmaker Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitsiulak reveled in the challenges of art and life in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, just south of the Arctic Circle. His vivid images of polar bears and bowhead whales, ATV-riding families and high-tech research equipment, speak eloquently of the artist and the man. He quietly navigated increasing modernity while honoring his cultural identity. "His love of the land and the hunting lifestyle, along with his astute observation of daily life in the community, inspired him to create an outstanding body of work that would illuminate the new and true North." Cape Dorset is home to a multigenerational community of artists and the Kinngait Studios, the longest continually operating print studios in Canada. The studios are active from fall each year through late spring, at which time editioning is completed and artists take the summer off, making frequent trips to traditional camps on the surrounding land. At the time of his death in 2016, Pitsiulak was a sought-after artist at the height of his career. The first monograph on the artist's work, Tim Pitsiulak: Drawings and Prints from Cape Dorset presents more than seventy reproductions and photographs. Critical context is provided in an essay by Leslie Boyd, former director of Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto. Pitsiulak's art has been exhibited widely and is in many private and public collections around the world, among them the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the National Gallery of Canada.

Soft cover book with staple binding. 8 pages with more than 150 reusable paper stickers (3 each of 50 different designs). Size: 8 x 11 in.

Two generations of Inuit artists challenging the parameters of tradition. Kenojuak Ashevak shot to fame in 1970 when Canada Post printed The Enchanted Owl, a print of a black-and-red plumed nocturnal bird, on a postage stamp. She later became known as the magic-marker-wielding "grandmother of Inuit art," famous for her fluid graphic storytelling and her stunning depictions of wildlife. She was a defining figure in Inuit art and one of the first Indigenous artists to be embraced as a contemporary Canadian artist. Ashevak's legacy inspired her nephew, Timootee (Tim) Pitsiulak, to take up drawing at the Kinngait Studios. In his relatively short career, he became a popular figure, known for drawing animal figures with a hunter's precision and capturing the technological presence of the South in Nunavut. Tunirrusiangit, "their gifts" or "what they gave" in Inuktitut, celebrates the achievements of two remarkable artists who challenged the parameters of tradition while consistently articulating a compelling vision of the Inuit world view. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, opening on 16 June and continuing until late August, Tunirrusiangitfeatures more than 60 reproductions of paintings, drawings, and documentary photographs. Completing the book are essays by contemporary artists and curators Jocelyn Piirainen, Anna Hudson, Georgiana Uhlyarik, Koomuatuk Curley, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, and Taqralik Partridge that address both the past and future of Inuit identity.

This is an illustrated oral biography created from recorded interviews by Dorothy Harley Eber in 1970. In these interviews, and through her drawings and prints, Pitseolak makes what Inuit call the old way come alive, reflecting on life on the land, its pleasure and trials. Her story later became an NFB animated documentary. This second edition, appearing more than 30 years after the first, contains additional drawings and prints by Pitseolak Ashoona and a new introduction by Eber that provides more information about the artist and the circumstances under which her groundbreaking oral biography came about. Pitseolak Ashoona, who died in 1983, was known for lively prints and drawings showing the things we did long ago before there were many white men and for imaginative renderings of spirits and monsters. She began creating prints in the late 1950s after James Houston started printmaking experiments at Cape Dorset, creating several thousand images of traditional Inuit life. Pitseolak Ashoona was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1974 and was also a member of the Order of Canada.

Inuit--sometimes referred to as Eskimo--art is the primary art form of Canada and has a large international following, particularly in the United States, Japan, and Germany. Despite its popularity, the complete history of Inuit art has never been presented. This is the first chronological synthesis of Inuit art, following its development from prehistory, through early American and European exploration, to the recognition of Inuit art as a commercial possibility, and up to the present. There is a particular emphasis on contemporary art and artists, and the years 1950 through 1997 are each given separate, detailed treatment in regard to important shows and events. This history is appropriate both for the beginning admirer of Inuit art and for those already well immersed in it.