ANNIE POOTOOGOOK (1969-2016) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Portrait of My Grandmother Pitseolak, 2011
coloured pencil on paper, 15.25 x 19.75 in (38.7 x 50.2 cm), matted and unframed
signed on verso, "ᐊᓂ ᐳᑐᒍ".

Provenance
Feheley Fine Arts, Toronto;
Acquired from the above John and Joyce Price, Seattle.

Exhibitions

Kingston, Ontario, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Annie Pootoogook: Kinngait Compositions, August - December 2011, cat. 33.

Publications
Jan Allen, Annie Pootoogook: Kinngait Compositions, (Kingston, ON: Queen's University Press, 2011), cat. 33

Annie Pootoogook is considered one of the most influential Inuit and contemporary Canadian artists of this century. Coming from a heritage of extraordinary first- and second-generation artists, she developed a unique style and subject matter that addressed contemporary rather than traditional life in the Canadian Arctic. Her simple depictions of life in the settlement of Kinngait (Cape Dorset) surprised and intrigued the Southern art world. From her first inclusion in a group exhibition in 2001 followed by a first solo show in 2003, Pootoogook would soon be on the trajectory to art stardom. She went on to become the first Inuk to win the Sobey Art Award in 2006, the most prestigious award for contemporary Canadian artists. A year after, her work was included in documenta, a major international contemporary art exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany.

This drawing is one of several that Pootoogook made of her grandmother, the celebrated artist Pitseolak Ashoona. Pitseolak is depicted in bed, surrounded by drawing materials; the image is a familiar scene from Pootoogook’s childhood, and the drawing is very typical of her style. The muted colours of the room, including the bed and the pillows, hold the composition together and create a backdrop that contrasts with Pitseolak’s eclectically patterned blouse and skirt. Pitseolak rolls up a finished drawing, preparing to take it to the Kinngait Studio to sell. While this kind of simple statement about everyday life made Annie Pootoogook’s work a favourite among collectors, she was also instrumental in showing her artist colleagues that they could move away from strictly depicting traditional life and have the freedom to develop their own styles.

References: Other portrait drawings of Pitseolak by the Annie Pootoogook are illustrated in this 2011 publication, see cat nos. 17 and 31. See also Nancy Campbell, Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice, (Toronto: Goose Lane Editions and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2017), pp. 25 and 31. Examples of Annie Pootoogook’s original drawings are also reproduced in Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), pp. 198-199.