ABOUT THE SHOW   /  NAPACHIE POOTOOGOOK   /  PITSEOLAK ASHOONA   /  ISUMA COLLECTIVE  / 

---

ABOUT THE SHOW 

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is honoured to present an exhibition of drawings by Napachie Pootoogook and Pitseolak Ashoona from the archives of Dorset Fine Arts.

Although this selection represents the first exhibition in Québec dedicated to Napachie Pootoogook’s (born in 1938, Sako Island Camp, NT, Canada; died in 2002 Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, Canada) drawings, there have have already been important Canadian exhibitions and publications that attest to her unique and significant artistic contributions. 

"In Napachie's autobiographical drawings, the perspective is so intensely personal that there is a sense of culture within a culture - a female world of supporting and, at times, surviving men. There are happy times of working together and playing together while the men are away hunting. There are difficult times of enduring social mores that often did not allow control over such intimate functions as marriage and childbearing. Although the suffering is lonely and frequent, there is also mitigating factor of the wider community that often gives comfort or intervenes. The drawings show a vivid picture of Napachie's life through the syllabic inscriptions, but even more powerfully, through the details, the compositions and the expression of emotion in her work. 

The drawings are filled with details that give realistic portrait of the culture of the Inuit south of Baffin Island, or the Sikusilaarmiuit: the clothing, hairstyles, tools, summer and winter dwelling, and the landscape setting. We do not see the hunt for live animals - the male preoccupation - but we see the resulting skins that women made into clothing." Darlene Coward Wight, "Beyond Narrative" in "Napachie Pootoogook" published by the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2004.

"Some drawings reveal the intimacies of domestic life. Women breastfeed, chew skins to soften them for hide tents, scrape furs, and darn clothing. In each image, Pootoogook emphasizes the tools for the tasks—needles attached to fine sinew for thread, harpoons and hooks for fishing, and the women’s knife, the ulu, always close at hand. Representations of family life and women are infrequent in Inuit art from this period. This series extends the autobiographical perspective first relayed by the artist’s mother, Pitseolak Ashoona, in her 1970 illustrated book, Pictures Out of My Life, and carried forward by Pootoogook’s daughter, Annie Pootoogook." Source: website statement of the Toronto Biennal curated by Candice Hopkins and Tairone Bastien where these drawings were first unveiled at the inaugural through a special collaboration with West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. The texts of the drawings are being presented with French and English translations.

To accompany this exhibition of drawings by Napachie Pootoogook, the gallery is honoured to present six drawings from the sixties by his mother Pitseolak Ashoona and three engravings published by the Kinngait studios. Born in 1904 on Nottingham Island in the Hudson Strait, while her family was en route from Sugluk (now Salluit), on the north coast of Arctic Quebec, to the south coast of Baffin Island, Pitseolak Ashoona spent her childhood in several camps on the south coast of Baffin Island before settling in Cape Dorset, where she died in 1983.

Saputi (Fish Traps) by filmmakers Paulossie Qulitalik, Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn will be featured in the video room. This film was selected specifically with Napachie’s body of work in mind by the Isuma collective. The gallery is very grateful to them.Saputi is part of the Unikaatuatiit (Story Tellers) Series and is the third Isuma recreated fiction made in 1993. As summer ends near Igloolik in the 1930's, three families build a saputi to trap fish going upriver for the winter. The days are getting shorter and young people daydream, while waiting for fish to come. But nature is not always predictable....

Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain is proud to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this unique artists' cooperative by programming special exhibitions of artists from Kinngait including "Clin d'oeil à Shuvinai Ashoona" (November-December 2019) and "A Selection of drawings from 1982 to 2016" by Qavavau Manumie (January - February 2020).

On the subject of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative, William Huffman of Dorset Fine Arts writes: 

"Established in 1959, West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative has enjoyed an international reputation for the exquisite prints, drawings and carvings created by its Inuit artist members. In addition to operation of the Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset, the cooperative maintains a Toronto office, Dorset Fine Arts, which is responsible for interfacing with galleries, museums, cultural professionals, Inuit art enthusiasts and the art market globally. The role of West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative has significantly expanded to include communications, promotion, advocacy, government relations and special projects as related to the Inuit art of Cape Dorset. The cooperative is equally engaged with the business of art sales as it is with functioning as a resource centre and archive while at the same time developing meaningful and ongoing relationships with a variety of organizations across Canada, the United States and Europe. Governed by an all-Inuit Board of Directors, the organization also maintains retail operations in the form of diesel sales, a department store and rental properties.

The history of West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative began as an intervention by the federal government where, under the auspices of James Houston, visual art was identified as a viable economic engine for the region. With more than sixty years of activity, the organization has undergone much change and significant adaptation. Currently, the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative is an artist-centred initiative, which continues to foster the renowned creative expression of Cape Dorset. Today, it is an entirely community owned organization, 90% of Cape Dorset adults are shareholders, and profits are distributed back to the community in the form of annual dividends."

---

NAPACHIE POOTOOGOOK

Untitled (032-4148) 1988- 1989 graphite, crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 50 x 66 cm (19.75” x 26”)		Untitled (032-4197) 1989- 1990 graphite, crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 50.5 x 65.8 cm (19.75” x 25.75”)		Untitled (032-4222) 1989- 1990 graphite, crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 50.8 x 66 cm (20” x 26”)

Untitled (032-4266) 1999- 2000 graphite, crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 50.3 x 66 cm (19.75” x 26”)		Untitled (032-4313) 1990- 1991 graphite, crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 50.9 x 65.8 cm (20.25” x 25.75”)		Untitled (032-4349) 1991- 1992 graphite, crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / graphite, colored pencil and ink on paper 50.6 x 66.2 cm (20” x 26”)

Untitled (032-5148) 1998-1999 crayon de couleur et encre sur papier / coloured pencil and ink on paper 50.8 x 66 cm (20” x 26”)		Untitled (032-5166) 1997- 1998 encre / ink 51 x 66 cm (20” x 26”)		Untitled (032-5167) 1997- 1998 encre / ink 51 x 66 cm (20” x 26”)

Untitled (032-5180) 1997- 1998 encre / ink 50.8 x 66.2 cm (20” x 26”)		Untitled (032-5195) 1997- 1998 encre / ink 50.8 x 66 cm (20" x 26")		Untitled (032-5262) 1998-1999 graphite et encre sur papier / graphite and ink on paper 50.8 x 66 cm (20” x 26”)

Untitled (032-5373) 1999- 2000 encre / ink 50.9 x 61.1 cm (20.25” x 24.25”)		Untitled (032-5385) 1999-2000 encre / ink 51 x 66 cm (20.25” x 26”)

---

PITSEOLAK ASHOONA

Cooking Caribou by Moss Fire 1984 lithograph 38 x 28.2 cm (15 x 11.25”) Ed. 50		Mosquitoes 1982 ithograph 66 x 51 cm (26” x 20.25”) Ed. 50		Gesse Surprised by Man 1965 gravure sur pierre 49.2 x 62.8 cm (19.25” x 24.75”) Éd. 50

Untitled (027-0333) 1959-1965 graphite 45.5 x 61 cm (17.75 x 24.25”)		Untitled (027-0363) 1959-1965 graphite 45.5 x 60.5 cm (17.75 x 23.75”)		Untitled (027-0138) 1959-1965 graphite 45.8 x 61 cm (18.25” x 24.25”)

Untitled (027-0424) 1959-1965 graphite 48 x 60.2 cm (18.75” x 23.75”)		Untitled (027-7248) 1966-1976 graphite 45.8 x 61.4 cm (18.25” x 24.25”)		Untitled (027-7260) 1966-1976 graphite 47.8 x 60.6 cm (18.75" x 23.75")

---

ISUMA COLLECTIVE

Saputi (Pièges à poissons) 1993 30min 35sec HD video