Creation and Transformation Defining Moments in Inuit Art

by Wight, Darlene Coward

• ISBN13: 9781926812892
• ISBN10: 1926812891
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-09
• Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre

Summary

The treasures of the world's largest public collection of Inuit art are revealed in this seminal history of art from the Arctic. The collection of Inuit art held by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, one of Canada's most important public galleries, is extraordinary by any standard: its geographic range, diverse media and size have brought international renown to the collection of some 11,000 artworks. The wag celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2012-13 and this book, as well as a major exhibition from January 24 to April 17, 2013, will feature many of the gallery's treasures as it marks this important milestone. Creation and Transformationis a major art book that describes the genesis and evolution of contemporary Inuit art from 1949 to the present day: from carvers in the 1950s, such as Johnny Inukpuk, to later storytellers in stone, such as Davidialuk Alasua Amittu, and in whale bone such as Karoo Ashevak; from pioneer graphic artist Jessie Oonark, to graphic artists working today in new and personal idioms, such as Shuvinai Ashoona. The book is a celebration of creativity that has had many transformations over six decades. Organized chronologically, this remarkable volume will constitute a new historical narrative of a contemporary art form as revealed in essays by international authorities led by Winnipeg Art Gallery's curator of Inuit art, Darlene Coward Wight, and explored through the personal insights of the artists themselves. Expertly designed and produced, this book features 150 colour and archival images.

Author Biography

Darlene Coward Wight has curated over 70 group and solo exhibitions of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and has been published in numerous articles and 18 exhibition catalogues. She lives in Winnipeg, MB. Ingo Hessel is the Albrecht Adjunct Curator of Inuit Art at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His publications include the seminal Inuit Art: An Introduction, and Arctic Spirit. Christine Lalonde is the Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Norman Vorano is the Curator of Contemporary Inuit Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. Susan Gustavison, an independent curator in Toronto, was Curator of Inuit and First Nations Art at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario.

Excerpts

The Globalization of Inuit Art in the 1950s and 1960s

It was an inauspicious beginning: a nondescript sign in the
window of a small Montreal crafts shop that read “Eskimo
Carving.”1 Not a single newspaper review.
Such was the extent of the promotion and media coverage of
the first exhibition of Inuit art held at the Canadian Handicrafts
Guild in 1949.2 And yet, by the end of 1956, sculpture from the
communities of Inukjuak, Puvirnituq, Salluit, and Cape Dorset
would be showcased at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the
Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Musée de L’Homme in Paris,
Zurich’s Kunsthaus, the Museum für Völkerkunde in Vienna, and
nearly forty other major galleries and museums across Canada,
the United States, and Europe, along with an astonishing array of
media coverage in print, radio, and television.

This chapter explores the “how” and “why” behind the rapid
globalization of Inuit art in the mid-1950s by tracing the chain
of events that transformed what could have been merely a regional
footnote in the history of postwar Canadian art into one of Canada’s most
iconic and recognizable artistic exports, resonating with
audiences the world over.