ITEE POOTOOGOOK (1951-2014) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
The Anglican Mission in Cape Dorset, 2006
graphite on paper, 20 x 26 in (50.8 x 66 cm)
titled, signed, and dated, "The Anglican Mission in Cape Dorset / ITEE POOTOOGOOK / 2006".

ESTIMATE: $3,000 — $5,000

Provenance
Collection of John and Joyce Price, Seattle.

Exhibited
Nancy Campbell, Itee Pootoogook: Hymns to the Silence, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario, May 21 – September 2, 2019. Catalogue: (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions / Kleinburg: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2019), ill. p. 24.

Among the most sublime of Itee Pootoogook’s drawings are those created in graphite pencil. Despite the lack of colour – or perhaps because of it – the artist was able to capture the ‘essence’ of his subject, here the Anglican Mission house, now long gone, on a dark winter’s day. The soft strokes of the pencil suggest a warm building, from which a lone figure gazes out at the snowy afternoon. The Anglican Mission house, completed in 1961, provided a welcoming ‘drop in’ centre for the whole community, providing warmth, companionship, tea, and cookies. This atmospheric drawing is redolent of Pootoogook’s memory: a warm haven on cold days.