Lot 84
JESSIE OONARK ᔪᓯ ᐃᓇ, O.C., R.C.A. (1906-1985)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private collection, Yukon
Note:
Rich in detail, and vibrant in colour, the present work is an outstanding example of nivingajuliat (wall hanging) likely dating to the artist’s early 1970s period. A master of symmetry and compositional balance, Oonark loses little if any of the power of her larger works in this intimate and striking textile.
An artist whose imagery often reflected events and objects from her childhood, she sometimes cited memory as inspiration for her work, evident here in the inclusion of facial tattoos of a type already old-fashioned at the time of Oonark’s youth, and which the artist herself refused to receive.[1, 2]
(1) Jean Blodgett and Marie Bouchard. Jessie Oonark: A Retrospective. (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1986), 9.
(2) Lars Krutak, Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity, (Volendam: LM Publishers, 2014), 19.