New Kinngait (Cape Dorset) 2009 prints collection
The new Kinngait (Cape Dorset) 2009 prints collection has just arrived down south and is now available in our gallery !
The 2009 collection of Kinngait count thirty six prints, made out of different techniques of making prints : stonecut, lithograph, serigraph, aquatint, etching, stencil. Itee Pootoogook, Kananginak Pootoogook, Kavavaow Mannomee, Kenojuak Ashevak, Mayoreak Ashoona, Ningeokuluk Teevee, Ohotaq Mikkigak, Pitaloosie Saila, Suvinai Ashoona, Tim Pitsiulak made the original drawings ; and, Kavavaow Mannomee, Niviaksie Quvianaqtuliaq, Pitseolak Niviaqsi and Qiatsuq Niviaqsi realized the prints.
A 2009 special releases is added to the thirty six prints, with drawings made by Kenojuak Ashevak, Meelia Kelly and Pudlo Pudlat when Kavavaow Mannomee, Kooyoo Simiga and Iyola Kingwatsiak made the prints.
These prints show how the artistic sphere from the Canadian Arctic is still dynamic with the artworks made by Inuit elders and younger artists. Although many birds are well represented by the artists in the 2009 collection, all of them are different through their subjects (it could be snow owls, loons, geese, ptarmigans, ducks or ravens), theirs styles and the way of drawing them.
Other Arctic animals are not only illustrated as caribous, muskox, seals, walrus, polar bears, whales and fishes, but also landscapes and myths from the oral tradition. Each print is unique and reveals drawers’ and printmakers’ know-how, with their own artistic styles.
Celebrating 50th anniversary of making prints in Kinngait
Kinngait, an Inuit community located in Nunavut more known as Cape Dorset (its English name) and commonly called “Dorset”, is well-known as the artistic capital among Inuit circumpolar territories (Alaska, Canada and Greenland) on the international art market.
This year, its inhabitants, called Kinngaimmiut, celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative’s establishment. The Co-operative was established in 1959 by Inuit people who lived in Kinngait, in order to organize and control the artworks’ distribution on the international artistic sphere, but also to give income to the artists and locally share the profit of sold prints; all Kinngaimmiut would enjoy.
Thus, the new 2009 Kinngait prints collection coincide with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative’s fiftieth anniversary. In order to underline this event, an exhibition takes place at the National museum of Canada from October 2009 to January 2010 : « Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset Celebrates 50 Years of Printmaking ».
Link :
http://www.gallery.ca/english/592.htm
References :
Ryan, Leslie Boyd, 2007, Cape Dorset prints, a retrospective : fifty years of printmaking at the Kinngait studios, San Francisco, Pomegranate.
West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, 2009, Cape Dorset prints. Celebrating 50, 1959-2009, catalogue annuel d’estampe de Cape Dorset 2009.
(Please, contact us to get these books)
