KIAKSHUK (1886-1966) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)

Summer Caribou Hunt,1961 #31

Printmaker: LUKTA QIATSUK (1928-2004) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)

stonecut, 13 x 24 (33.3 x 60.7 cm)

42/50

Provenance

Private Collection, Australia.

Already a sculptor of some repute, Kiakshuk was in his seventies when, at the invitation of James Houston, he began to draw for the newly developed Kinngait printmaking cooperative. In the 1964-65 Cape Dorset print catalogue, Kiakshuk’s biographical note extolled the artist’s ability to distill his intimate knowledge of the land and traditional way of living into his drawings and prints. Summer Caribou Hunt, Kiakshuk’s reminiscence of a lone and obviously practiced Inuk, steadying his bow and arrow as he tracks two caribou, has been translated into print by his son, Lukta. Set against a vibrant red orange background, this compelling image is based on one of Kiakshuk’s earliest drawings.

Literature: Summer Caribou Hunt is reproduced in Edward Field, Eskimo Songs and Stories [: Collected by Knud Rasmussen on the fifth Thule Expedition. Selected and translated by Edward Field. With illus. by Kiakshuk and Pudlo], (New York : Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence, 1973), p. 61; Ernst Roch ed., Arts of the Eskimo: Prints (Montreal: Signum/Oxford, 1974), pp. 40-41; Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1985), p. 58, no. 17.