Additional Images

Provenance:

The Innuit Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1971;
Estate of W.A. Ross MacFadden, Toronto, ON

Exhibited:

Jessie Oonark, A Retrospective, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1986-1987, cat. 39

Note:

Jessie Oonark is the most celebrated Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake) artist, a master in both graphic and textile arts. Her many drawings, prints and wall hangings can be found in the most important public and private collections of Inuit art worldwide. Her work, regardless of the scale, is always deeply intimate. Oonark's genius for narrative, exceptional in its seamless inclusion of both symbolic and purely decorative elements, is both nostalgic and at times bracingly lively.

In this early masterwork of nivingajuliat (tapestry, or wall-hanging) dating circa 1970, Oonark has created a vibrant composition of colour and form. Drawing heavily from imagery revisited by the artist throughout her career, in a 1971 interview in Toronto, she said of this work that it was inspired by “dreams and memories”. [2.]

Figures in the nivingajuliat seem to both radiate outward from and border a sun-like central face whose surface bristles with depictions of natural life, as well as the crescent shaped ulu knives so strongly associated with the duties of women. The central figure bears a facial tattoo of the type already old-fashioned at the time of Oonark’s youth, and which the artist herself refused to receive.[1, 3]

This lot is accompanied by an Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art invoice, 1971; a newspaper clipping from the Globe and Mail pertaining to the exhibition of the work, 1971; and a photocopy of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada record of Inuit art in public and private collections document, ref. no. A-3-5.

Published:

Blodgett, Jean, and Marie Bouchard. Jessie Oonark: A Retrospective. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1986. p113, pl. 39.

References:

1. Blodgett, Jean, and Marie Bouchard. Jessie Oonark: A Retrospective. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1986. p. 9.

2. Carson, Jo. “Toronto Atmosphere Offends The Artist from Baker Lakes”, The Globe and Mail, April, 3, 1971.

3. Krutak, Lars.Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity. Volendam: LM Publishers, 2014. p. 19.