Last semester I took a course on North American Indigenous art history, in which I wrote an essay on contemporary Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona. After doing research for the essay, I got a little obsessed with Inuit graphic arts. I was fascinated with the subject matter, the style, and the history behind it. In recent decades, Inuit graphic art has become one of the most recognizable and popular forms of Canadian art. However, modern forms of graphic arts, especially printmaking, have only been practiced by Inuit artists since the 1950s.
While visual arts in the Arctic have existed for thousands of years, graphic art as we know it today is a relatively recent addition to Inuit artistic practice. However, in the past 50 years or so, graphic arts have become an extremely popular art form for Inuit artists, simultaneously evoking traditional practices and designs and experimenting with modern styles and themes.
Inuit Graphic Arts – Historical Period
It’s important to note that older forms of graphic arts have existed for centuries, perhaps even millennia, in the Arctic. Traditional Inuit graphic arts included bone engraving, inlay work on animal skins, and women’s facial tattooing. Printmaking, especially on paper, as we know it today, had no exact historical counterpart, but techniques used for these media inform many modern Inuit graphic artists’ work. During the historical period (which lasted roughly from the 1770s-1940s), Inuit artists began to have access to paper for drawing and painting as well, through contact with Europeans.
Tattooing
For the Inuit, tattoos were traditionally a woman’s art form. Girls weren’t marriageable until they received tattoos, which marked that they had learned essential women’s skills. Tatooists were usually older women, and sessions could last entire days. The practices were painful, but necessary: women could not enter the afterlife without tattoos, and were banished to Noqurmiut, the “land of the crestfallen”. This practice existed for thousands of years, with evidence of indigenous Arctic tattooing dating 3,500 years ago. However, with the arrival of Europeans, tattoos and other traditional religious practices were banned by missionaries for their shamanistic origins.
Bone Engraving
Ivory, bone, stone, antler and horn carving is one of the most iconic forms of Inuit art, and a practice that has existed since pre-history. Besides carving, Inuit artists also used incising and engraving techniques in this media of art, both of which have informed methods of modern Inuit printmaking and drawing. These carvings had both utilitarian and decorative purposes, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, carvings became a source of income, sold or traded to European or American whalers. Besides carving, the technique of engraving narrative scenes on bone or ivory seems have been introduced to Inuit artists by outsiders, though bone engraving has existed in the Arctic since prehistoric times. These designs often depicted hunting scenes and depictions of animals, though Inuit artists began to depict foreign subject matter as well.
Textiles
Another feminine artistic domain, textiles were one of the most important art forms for survival in the Arctic. Stitching designs evolved to incorporate beading and other attachments, adding personal touches to traditional clothing. Women began to sell or trade clothing and other textiles to Europeans and Americans, including “skin pictures”: inset or appliquéd sealskin cutouts of animals and objects on a background of bleached skin. Textile decoration was symbolic, and indicated the gender and regional background of the wearer. Additionally, in the early stages of printmaking, artists experimented with animal skins, and used techniques like stencilling to create scenes with ink. However, their unwieldiness and usefulness in other contexts caused them to soon be abandoned for this style of art. Additionally, many modern graphic artists, such as Jessie Oonark, use textiles such as wall hangings as media.
1950s: Drawing and Printmaking
Though some versions existed, two-dimensional art has been historically less common in traditional Inuit art than sculpture and textile arts. Engraving was less of its own art form than a way to increase the power of carved objects, just as clothing decorations were embellishments to the more important practices of sewing and skin preparation.
Despite European presence in North America since the 1400s, the Arctic had a significantly smaller settler presence until several centuries later. In the early to mid-19th century, Inuit communities experienced an influx of European settlers, and with them came epidemics, resource scarcity, religious conversion, social and political change, and residential schools. Previously nomadic people, the Inuit were forced to live in settlements and rely on trade with Europeans. While Inuit arts have long been affected by European contact, this period in particular brought about many new media and practices.
In 1956 in Kinngait, artist and administrator James Houston initiated a graphic arts program in various Arctic communities, approved by chiefs Pootoogook and Kiaksuk. This project aimed to build on existing Inuit graphic and textile traditions, and found great success. This created a thriving graphic arts community of Kinngait, specifically at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative’s arts sector, Kinngait Studios. Houston brought stonecut techniques based on the Japanese Ukiyo-e method, as well as stencil. Some of the first printmakers he trained were Iyola Kingwatsiak (1933-2000), Lukta Qiatsuk (1928-2004), Eegyvudluk Pootoogook (1931-2000), and Kananginak Pootoogook (1935-2010).
Process
Artists began to experiment with media and designs. Printmakers, many of whom at the time were also sculptors, utilized the textures of skins and stones to add to the uniqueness of their prints. For ink, in the early stages of experimentation, artists used seal oil and lamp black, but those were soon replaced for printer’s ink.
The process, influenced by that of ukiyo-e, was collaborative: artists would create and sell their drawings for small prices to the print shop throughout the year, arts advisors and printmakers (who were salaried employees of the print shop) would choose drawings for printing, and then the printmakers would translate these drawings onto blocks, plates, or stencils. Artists were often consulted during various stages of printing, and some artists and printmakers were both drawers and printers. The prints would usually be signed both by the artist and printer, in Inuktitut syllabics and English letters. Additionally, the print would also contain a pictographic symbol to mark which co-operative it came from. Some of the most successful co-ops include Kinngait, Baker Lake (Qamani-tuaq), and Pangnirtung.
Both men and women have contributed to printmaking cooperatives; Inuit women were widely accepted and empowered as artists as a result of the more equitable nature of labour distribution in traditional Inuit culture.
Many artists have experimented with various styles and techniques. Prints also differ in subject matter depending on the artist. Many older prints often depicted animals from the Arctic, religious practices and legends, and traditional Inuit life. Some artists include motifs from contemporary life. Styles also differ depending on the artist, but many worked in a mixture of abstraction and figuration, and use flat images and patterns to form their art.
Artists
Interestingly, though graphic arts were popularized in the 1950s, an artist named Nungusuituq (1890-1950), born in Baffin Island, produced a series of drawings that were made into prints between 1913 and 1914. These were possibly the earliest prints made by an Inuk artist. Mostly stone lithograph prints, the collection comprised of small figurative silhouettes against stark, plain paper landscapes. Nungusuituq drew hunting and travel scenes, games, and other aspects of traditional Inuit life. The prints were produced by Robert J. Flaherty, who was commissioned to conduct a geological survey on the east coast of Tasiujarjuaq (Hudson’s Bay), during which Nungusuituq served as his guide.
Kenojuak Ashevak (1927-2013) was born on South Baffin Island. She was the first woman to get involved with the Kinngait printmaking shop. She grew up in the traditional nomadic lifestyle, and got interested in art while in hospital for tuberculosis in the early 1950s. After her discharge, she was continued making art and joined the West Baffin Co-operative. Her style is bold and stylized, often featuring birds and other animals in states of transformation. Besides graphic arts, she also was a carver and blanket designer and created murals.
An artist from Baker Lake, Jessie Oonark (1906-1985) was one of the most famous and trailblazing graphic artists. Oonark first got involved with art after seeing children drawing and remarking “I could draw better than that”. In 1960, she sent some of her drawings to a Northern Services Officer, who then sent them to James Houston at the West Baffin Co-Operative. Oonark was also a textile artist, and made several wall hangings as well as prints and drawings. Her work is bold, emotive, and narrative. Her art often addresses themes of Inuit traditional life and femininity.
Pudlo Pudlat (1916-1992) was born on Baffin Island, and was one of the first contemporary Inuit artists. Having witnessed the transformation from traditional nomadic life to a settled lifestyle, his art incorporates juxtaposes modern technology with the Arctic landscape and animals. In the late 1950s, he moved to Kiaqtuq, near Kinngait, and began making art after meeting James Houston.
Since the beginning of widespread printmaking in the Arctic, more than 400 artists and 150 printers and assistants have participated. Inuit graphic arts have found national and international success, carving their own niche into the history of contemporary art. I’m hoping to talk about more of these artists in another post, so if that interests you, let me know! Also, if you’d like to find out more, check out the links below for more resources:
- https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/inuit-printmaking
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit_art (for a list of artists to check out)
- https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/inuit-art-quarterly
- https://www.aci-iac.ca
- https://katilvik.com
I hope you enjoyed this post! As always, if you have any thoughts, criticisms, or concerns, leave a comment below!
