News

Follow four men traversing the Northwest Passage in a rowboat from Inuvik, Northwest Territories to Pond Inlet, Nunavut (see map) to demonstrate the effects of global warming in the Arctic.  Their bulletins highlight the difficulty of survival in the Arctic, even with high-tech support.  http://www.vancouversun.com/lastfirst/index.html

Kenojuak: Eskimo Artist is a 20-minute film by the National Film Board of Canada that documents the creation of The Arrival of the Sun, one of Kenojuak Ashevak's seminal stonecut prints from 1961. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for documentary short subject.  

Kenojuak, who died earlier this year, was the first woman to be associated with the Cape Dorset print shop, and became one of the foremost Canadian graphic artists.  Her prints were included in every Cape Dorset print collection from 1959 (the first) through 2012 (the most recent).  She was internationally recognized, and received numerous honors.

The earliest graphics from Cape Dorset were either stonecut prints or stencils.  This film shows the process of creating Arrival of the Sun, starting with Kenojuak's sketch, which was then transferred to a stone block, which was then cut (by another artist, Lukta Qiatsuq) to remove the superfluous stone, and inked.  Fifty impressions were then made (in addition to a small number of artist's proofs).

The film also shows how Kenojuak's art was an integral part of her life.

Click here to watch the film.

We have Cape Dorset 2014 Calendars, which feature twelve prints by Kenojuak Ashevak (1927-2013), whose work was included in -- and became a mainstay of -- every annual print collection from Cape Dorset from 1959 through 2012. The prints in this calendar range from 1960's Hare Spirits to 2012's Red Fox.  

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To read about Google Street View's experiences in Iqaluit, see

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/29/google-street-view-braves-canadian-arctic

To read a discussion of international security issues arising from global warming, see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/opinion/preventing-an-arctic-cold-war.html?_r=0 .

Kenojuak Ashevak, diminutive in person but a giant in the art world, died in January. She was represented in the Cape Dorset print collections from the first, in 1959, through the last released during her lifetime, in 2012.  She continued to experiment with new media and techniques right up to the end, sharing her limitless imagination with the world.  Her obituary in the New York Times can be found at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E6DE1639F937A25752C0A9659D8B63 .

DECIPHERING INUKTITUT SIGNATURES

Baffled by those “anonymous” sculptures with lots of markings on the bottom?  We can help you can give them names.

How many times have you been frustrated by seeing an Inuit sculpture described as “anonymous” or “unknown artist,” accompanied by the notation “signed in syllabics”? You don’t have to understand Inuktitut in order to learn how to attribute many of your anonymous pieces. As with any language skill, it takes some practice, but the time is well spent if you are a serious collector of Inuit art. To help you, we have posted a search facility for Inuit art “signatures” on our website.

Click here for an explanation of Inuktitut syllabics and a link to the INUIT ARTIST SEARCH TOOL.