Contemporary Inuit Drawing
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Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Contemporary Inuit Drawing Nancy Campbell A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ART HISTORY, YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO. January 2017 © Nancy Campbell, 2017 Abstract The importance of the artist’s voice in art historical scholarship is essential as we emerge from post-colonial and feminist cultural theory and its impact on curation, art history, and visual culture. Inuit art has moved from its origins as an art representing an imaginary Canadian identity and a yearning for a romantic pristine North to a practice that presents Inuit identity in their new reality. This socially conscious contemporary work that touches on the environment, religion, pop culture, and alcoholism proves that Inuit artists can respond and are responding to the changing realities in the North. On the other side of the coin, the categories that have held Inuit art to its origins must be reconsidered and integrated into the categories of contemporary art, Indigenous or otherwise, in museums that consider work produced in the past twenty years to be contemporary as such. Holding Inuit artists to a not-so-distant past is limiting for the artists producing art today and locks them in a history that may or may not affect their work directly. This dissertation examines this critical shift in contemporary Inuit art, specifically drawing, over the past twenty years, known as the contemporary period. The second chapter is a review of the community of Kinngait and the role of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative in the dissemination of arts and crafts. Chapter three is a review of the literature in the field in of writing on Inuit art and exposes the dearth of material in this area of study. Chapters four and five are each Case Studies on two prominent female artists from Kinngait. Numerous key drawings of two third- generation Kinngait women, Shuvinai Ashoona and Annie Pootoogook, form the basis of each case study from which examples, analyses, and observations are based on the drawings and first ii person interviews. These women are critical in bringing the medium of drawing and contemporary renewed content to a larger audience. These two artists were chosen for in-depth analysis because their work has most dramatically bridged the solitudes of Inuit art and internationally recognized contemporary art. By focusing on these artists from Kinngait, I underscore the unbroken lineage between Ashoona and Pootoogook’s ground-breaking contributions to what is known as the “Dorset experiment,” which first linked the market economy in the North to avant-garde art practice over fifty years ago. Chapter Six is an overview of the exhibition, criticism and dissemination of contemporary Inuit art, focusing on the period beginning in 1990. This chapter proposes a variety of scholarly voices in the field of exhibition and criticism, both Inuit, Indigenous and other. Conclusions are drawn in the final chapter that encourages the addition of Inuit voices to the discussion, rather than relegate the artists to the role of silent partners in a complicated trade agreement between the co-operative system, dealers, and middlemen. iii Acknowledgements Many people have been instrumental to the writing of this dissertation. I would like to thank York University’s Visual Art and Art History Department, with my advisors Dr. Anna Hudson, Dr. Sarah Parsons and Dr. Gerald McMaster. Thank you to Pamela Martin for excellent copy editing. My colleagues at the Art Gallery of Ontario, The University of Toronto Art Museums and The Power Plant have offered me many opportunities to present the work of Inuit artists. Special thanks to Patricia Feheley and Brad van der Zanden at Feheley Fine Arts for their knowledge, assistance and encouragement. The people at Dorset Fine Arts have been an invaluable resource as well as my colleagues at the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative in Kinngait for continued support. A special thanks to William Ritchie for his valuable insight and deep experience. Thank you to Annie Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona for their honesty and friendship. Artists are at the core of all curatorial work. Thank you to my family, Doug Laxdal, Ford Laxdal, Kai Laxdal and Reid Laxdal and many friends for their patience. Special thank you to my parents, Dr. Bruce and Lesley Campbell for instilling the love of learning and their continued support. iv Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 Kinngait and the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative .................................................... 13 The Co-operative System Realized ........................................................................................... 16 Notes on the Annual Cape Dorset Print Collection .................................................................. 19 Kinngait Studios Today ............................................................................................................ 20 Independent Vision ................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 3 Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 4 Exhibition and Criticism .............................................................................................. 35 Scholarship ................................................................................................................................ 45 Collaboration............................................................................................................................. 47 World Art Studies ..................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 5 Annie Pootoogook ........................................................................................................ 52 Early Life .............................................................................................................................. 52 Earning a Living ................................................................................................................... 54 Rapid Trajectory ................................................................................................................... 59 Key Works ................................................................................................................................ 64 Early Work ............................................................................................................................ 64 Social Commentary ............................................................................................................... 67 On the Land........................................................................................................................... 72 Popular Culture ..................................................................................................................... 76 Monsters ................................................................................................................................ 81 Sexuality ............................................................................................................................... 85 Museum Scale Drawing and its Effect.................................................................................. 89 The Sobey Award ................................................................................................................. 92 Montreal ................................................................................................................................ 94 Chapter 6 Shuvinai Ashoona ........................................................................................................ 99 Early Years.......................................................................................................................... 100 A Family of Artists ............................................................................................................. 102 v Magical Thinking ................................................................................................................ 103 International Artist .............................................................................................................. 105 Key Works .............................................................................................................................. 106 Early Works ........................................................................................................................ 106 Bird’s Eye View .................................................................................................................. 109 Life on the Land .................................................................................................................. 112 Three Cousins