Additional Images

Provenance:

Images Art Gallery, Toronto, ON, 6 Oct 1987
The Collection of David Sutherland, Victoria, BC

Note:

The joy of hearing stories told by his mother and grandmother about shamanism and traditional beliefs influenced a young David Ruben Piqtoukun and has spawned images recurring throughout the artist's career. One such image, the image of flight, occurs with particular frequency in the oeuvres of Piqtoukun and his brother Abraham Anghik, and are said to originate in the supposed otherworldly travels of their grandfather and grandmother, reputed shaman.[1] Notably the figure in the present work bears the kakiniit (tattoos) worn by woman of Piqtoukun’s grandmother’s generation.

[1] Darlene Coward Wight, Between Two Worlds: David Ruben Piqtoukun (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Gallery of Art, 1996), 3.

Shaman with Kakiniit (Tattoos), is one of over 20 exceptional works in the present auction from the important lifetime collection of former Northwest Territories Arts and Crafts Development Officer David Sutherland.

An artist in his own right, and former student of the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr Institute), Sutherland developed a lifelong passion for Inuit art, and was an outspoken advocate and author on all matters Inuit, in addition to his role for over 20 years as Northwest Territories Arts and Crafts Development Officer.

Sutherland and his wife Aiko were popular residents in the various locations in which they were posted, including Inuvik, Churchill, and Yellowknife. Successful in his work, he had to decline promotions to be able to stay in the Arctic, where he continued to develop artists’ facilities into environments of creativity and self-discipline—values not reinforced by all of Sutherland’s predecessors.

Sutherland’s work brought him into intimate contact with important artists who he continued to champion after his retirement from his post in 1986, including Marion Tuu'luq, Janet Kigusiuq, John Pangnark, Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, John Kavik, Andy Miki, Luke Iksiktaaryuk, Mathew Aqigaaq and countless others. An avid collector, Sutherland also purchased works, primarily from the Miqsuvik Sewing Shop, and other craft stores in the communities in which he served.

Gunther Abrahamson, “David Sutherland (1931-2004)”, Inuit Art Quarterly. Vol. 20. No. 1, spring, 2025, 43.
Marie Bouchard, Marion Tuu’luq (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2002), 100.