Provenance:

Estate of W.A. Ross MacFadden, Toronto, ON

Note:

Pitseolak Ashoona's art career began with sewing and embroidering in an arts and crafts program initiated by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. For two years she made primarily sewn works until the Kinngait (Cape Dorset) graphics studio was established in 1959. Inspired by works made by her cousin Kiakshuk, Pitseolak began drawing, and quickly became recognized for her work in graphite, and later print media. [1] An early practitioner of engraving following its introduction by Terry Ryan (1922-2017) to Kinngait in 1961, Pitseolak’s drawing style of shading through rapid line movements seems to have found perfect expression in the medium of engraving with its capacity to express wiry thin lines. [2]

A highly acclaimed artist even in her own lifetime, Pitseolak Ashoona was also the mother of important artists Kiawak, Kaka, Koomwartok, Ottochie, and Napatchie Pootoogook.

Women with Geese from 1967 depicts a joyful mother with child walking two tethered, striding geese. The scene is rendered in Pitseolak Ashoona’s distinctive motif of rhythmic parallel lines.

Of the relatively small number of early engravings produced by Pitseolak, we are very pleased to offer nine in this auction (see lots 14 through 22).


Published:

Eber, Dorothy, Pitseolak: Pictures out of my life, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977.

West Baffin Co-operative, Eskimo Graphic Art / Les Arts Graphiques Esquimaux 1967, Cape Dorset, N.W.T.: West Baffin Co-operative, 1967. pl. 71.

References:

1. Lalonde, Christone, “Pitseolak Ashoona, Life and Work”, Art Canada Institute. Accessed February 21, 2022. Click here to read more

2. Eber, Dorothy Harley, Pitseolak Ashoona in Pictures Out of My Life, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003, p. 102.