Woman at Work, Hunter in Kayak by Juanisialu Irqumia

$480.00

Artist:                  Juanisialu Irqumia

Community:       Povungituk – Puvirnituq 

Year:                    1972

Media:                 Stonecut

Dimension:       24.5″ x 34″ — 62.2 x 86.4 cm.

In stock

Description

“Woman at Work, Hunter in Kayak by Juanisialu Irqumia” from Povingnituk, is a great example of Juanisialu’s printing approach: fully rooted in realism. Juanisialuk Irqumia, one of the original inhabitants of Puvirnituq, Juanisialuk Irqumia was born in 1917.

MEDIA

Sculpture, printmaking, drawing.

HOW HE WORKED

An introverted person, Irqumia preferred to carve alone at home. He carved directly onto his stone-blocks, without the aid of a drawing.

THEMES

Families, birds, hunting scenes, and people at work were favourite subjects for Irqumia. Firmly rooted in realism, his work rarely addresses Inuit mythology, although one of his 1959 sculptures depicts The Legend of Lumak.

UNIQUENESS

A participant in the fateful “migration” often depicted in fellow artist Joe Talirunili’s sculptures, Irqumia was one of 40 people once stranded on a melting ice floe. Many people drowned during the ordeal, including Irqumia’s sister Annie and her two children. The survivors were adrift at sea for several days before they reached land. Irqumia was said to have suffered from a rare affliction known as “kayak anxiety,” probably a form of agoraphobia that caused him to become disoriented in open spaces. He did not go out in a kayak in open water for fear of losing consciousness and drowning. Perhaps this anxiety also influenced his artistic practice; scholars noted that “he avoids an open plane by using the boundary of the stone or landscape to circumscribe his subjects. His prints always have more than one figure . . . all firmly anchored in defined space” (Mitchell 1975:13).

SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENTS

Irqumia’s work has been exhibited at the international level in important venues in New York, Germany, and Sweden. His work has also been exhibited widely throughout North America and is included in some of the country’s best collections of Inuit art.

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT

Although it is quite likely that Irqumia began carving prior to 1956, few examples from this time period exist. His carvings from the 1960s are particularly accomplished, however, and suggest a certain maturity as an artist. Irqumia’s family scenes, which are particularly poignant, often incorporate a sophisticated use of negative space. Figures stand clearly defined as individuals by the space surrounding them, although family members may embrace or work side by side. Typically, each piece is carved from one stone, with individual elements linked by a common base.

Primarily a carver at the beginning of his career, Irqumia did not begin to work with stonecut prints until 1962. That year, under the leadership of a new technical advisor, Victor Tinkl, the Povungnituk Co-operative undertook printmaking as a profit-generating venture. With assistance from the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, the first-ever collection of Puvirnituq prints was released to the public alongside the annual Cape Dorset collection. Easily transferring his skills as a carver to the more two-dimensional nature of preparing stone-blocks for printing, Irqumia’s printwork was competent from the onset.

Similar to his beautifully carved sculptures of people at work, Irqumia’s prints often feature people as they go about their daily chores: men hunt; women dry skins; families travel across the land in search of food. Unlike his figurative carvings, however, Irqumia’s prints intermittently feature animated compositions of various animals devoid of human presence. His lyrical depictions of caribou are especially noteworthy, and are reminiscent of the elegant stags and unicorns featured in medieval tapestries. The stonecut medium also allowed for the integration of more detailed elements into Irqumia’s work. For example, clothing details and landscape elements such as waves and grasses are denoted by carefully etched lines in the original stone block, as are elaborate facial expressions. Perhaps driven to include explanatory textual elements for the sake of posterity, Irqumia also began to include syllabic descriptions in many of his prints. Working consistently until 1976, one year before his passing, Irqumia’s latest pieces are especially didactic.

FIRST GAINED ATTENTION

Irqumia’s work was presented to a public audience with the first annual release of the Puvirnituq Print Collection in 1962. One of 24 artists chosen to represent Puvirnituq in this landmark print release, nine of Irqumia’s prints were selected. His work was featured regularly in these releases until his death in 1977, and posthumously in 1980.

Irqumia’s carvings first gained attention in 1967, when his work was included in the groundbreaking exhibition, The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto–Dominion Bank. Conceived as a celebration of Canada’s centennial, the show was curated by experts in the field who sought to assemble “the best collection possible” (Ribkoff 2011).

REFERENCES

Canadian Eskimo Arts Council

1962 Eskimo Graphic Art (Cape Dorset and Povungnituk print catalogue). Ottawa: Canadian Eskimo Arts Council

Myers [Mitchell], Marybelle, ed.

1975 Povungnituk 1975 Prints (catalogue). Montreal: La Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec.
1980 Povungnituk 1980 (catalogue). Montreal: La Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec.

Ribkoff, Natalie

2011 “About the Collection.” www.td.com/inuitart/gallery/inuit-gallery.html.

From: http://art.avataq.qc.ca/artists/profile/juanisialuk-irqumia

“Woman at Work, Hunter in Kayak by Juanisialu Irqumia”  is a wonderful older print, representing a significant episode in the Povungnituk Print making history.

Additional information

Dimensions 24.5 × 34 in

Biography Juanisialu Irqumia

Juanisialu Irqumia
Settlement: Povungnituk / Puvirnituq
(1912-1977) — E9-1407

Artist’s other names:

Juanasialuk
Iqqumiaq
Irqumiak
Juanasialuk
Yuanisialuk
Juanasialu
Juanisaluk
Joanessaluk

Exhibitions

Arctic Mirror
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Arctic Quebec Print Collection *74
(annual collection)
Arctic Quebec Print Collection II *74
(annual collection)
Canadian Eskimo Art: a representative exhibition from the collection of Professor and Mrs. Philip Gray
Fine Arts Gallery, Montana State University
Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art of Canada
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ottawa, presented at the General Assembly Building, United Nations
Contemporary Inuit Drawings
Muscarelle Museum of Art College of William and Mary
Die Kunst aus der Arktis
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, presented by Commerzbank
Hunters of Old
Inukshuk Galleries Inc.
Hunting in the Arctic
Alberta Provincial Museum and Archives
Im Schatten der Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada/In the Shadow of the Sun: Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art in Canada
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Inoonoot Eskima: Grafik och Skulptur fran Cape Dorset och Povungnituk
Konstframjandet
Inuit Art From the Glenbow Collection
Glenbow Museum
Inuit Art: A Selection of Inuit Art from the Collection of the National Museum of Man, Ottawa, and the Rothmans Permanent Collection of Inuit Sculpture, Canada
National Museum of Man, Ottawa and Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd.
Inuit Art: Tradition and Regeneration
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Inuit Graphics Through the Year: Rare Prints from the Arctic
Arctic Artistry
Inuitkonst fran Kanada – skulptor och grafik
Millesgarden
Les Inuit du Nouveau-Quebec
Musee du Quebec
Povungnituk
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Povungnituk Print Collection *62
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *64
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *65
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *66
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *68
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *69 (for catalogue see Povungnituk Prints 1960-1970 Retrospective)
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *72
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *73
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *75
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *76
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *77
(annual collection)
Povungnituk Print Collection *80
(annual collection)
Prints from Povungnituk 1962-1988
Albers Gallery of Inuit Art
Takamit – Canadian Eskimo Art: Selections from Private Collections and the Government of Canada
Organized by La Federation des Cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University
The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Inuit Print/L’estampe inuit
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the National Museum of Man
The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Things Made by Inuit
La Federation des Cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec
Ulu/Inua: Form and Fantasy in Eskimo Art
Casino Gallery, Ravinia Park
Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection of Inuit Art
Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec

Public Collections

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University
Kingston
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art
Fort Worth
Art Gallery of Windsor
Windsor
Avataq Cultural Institute
Montreal
Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
Montreal
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Hull
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Cleveland
Confederation des caisses populaires et d’economie Desjardins
Levis
Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College
Traverse City
Glenbow Museum
Calgary
Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal
Montreal
Musee de la civilisation
Quebec City
Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal
Montreal
Musee du Quebec
Quebec City
National Gallery of Canada
Ottawa
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Yellowknife
Red Deer and District Museum and Archives
Red Deer
Toronto-Dominion Bank Collection
Toronto
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Banff
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg

Publications

MOVING TOWARDS AN INUIT MUSEUM.
Author: Brummel, Janett
Publication: (1986)

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