Lot 243
Pitseolak Ashoona ᐱᓯᐅᓚ ᐊᓱᓇ, OC, RCA (1904-1983)
Provenance:
Private Collection, Australia
Note:
A masterwork of concision, Tattooed Woman, drawn by Pitseolak Ashoona, is perhaps only matched among early Cape Dorset prints by Tudlik’s iconic 1959 Division of Meat for its use of direct and economical line to communicate its subject. The drawings for both works were translated into prints by Lukta Qiatsuk.
Notably, Pitseolak Ashoona’s original graphite drawing for Tattooed Woman featured scattershot shading throughout the body and face of the figure that was considerably more graphically conventional than the use of line in the finalized print. However, the original drawing also exhibits the fluid overlapping outline of the parka, emphasized in the final Tattooed Woman. The decision to pare back to this feature gives the representation the graphic intensity of kakiniit (traditional monochromatic Inuit tattooing), a connection which may not have been lost on Lukta, since tattoos are present on the subject of the image, and are the feature for which the print was subsequently named.