The Yacowar-Petrie Inuit Art Collection

The Yacowar-Petrie Inuit Art Collection, which Waddington’s offers in separate August and October sessions, is the decades-long result of a couple’s shared passion for art. Maurice Yacowar is a retired English professor. His wife Anne Petrie had a distinguished career in Canadian radio/TV journalism and as an author.

Professor Yacowar started his Inuit art collection when he was first a professor at Brock University, then its Dean of Humanities. As there were no commercial Inuit art galleries in St. Catharines, he held regular sales in his home. With optimistic zeal he presented an Inuit exhibition at a Hampstead gallery in London. After only one piece sold, the gallery didn’t invite another. He staged Inuit art exhibitions at Brock University, in Rodman Hall and later – with the late, indefatigable Lorne Balshine – one on Granville Island. He held less frequent home sales when he moved to Vancouver to be Dean of Academic Affairs at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, then in Calgary, where he was Dean of Fine Arts, retiring in 2006.

Though his PhD from The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK, was in English literature, Professor Yacowar’s teaching and research switched to film studies, which Brock University hired him in 1968 to help pioneer in Canada. In addition to his 20-odd books, he wrote film/TV columns in the St Catharines Standard, hosted film series on TV Ontario and BC Open University, and was a regular on the CBC national FM radio show, Stereo Morning. He still writes occasional film analyses on yacowar.blogspot.com. Professor Yacowar also served on Ontario’s Film Review Board. This freelance work supplemented his sales to finance his Inuit art collection.

“At first I bought pieces that just appealed to me. Then I began to read about it. I sought work from all the different communities, then the major artists, then first-generation and women artists. I looked for dramatic variations in theme (e.g., the muskox, mother & child, the humour).”

In Anne Petrie, Professor Yacowar found a spirit kindred in his ardour for theatre, film, art and current affairs. After completing her Master’s Degree in English at UBC, Anne worked as a freelance writer and broadcaster. She hosted the very popular CBC drive-home show Three’s Company, then moved into television, becoming the first anchor person on CBC’s Newsworld. As the first anchor person hired for Newsworld, she hosted national news and current affairs programs out of Calgary.  She also published several books including unique guidebooks to Vancouver and the bestseller, Gone to An Aunt’s, a history of Canada’s postwar homes for ‘unwed mothers.’

After 15 years at Newsworld, Anne took early retirement to pursue her longstanding interest in art, earning a BFA (with distinction) at the Alberta College of Art and Design. She continues her active studio practice since moving to Victoria in 2016. Professor Yacowar considers her his presiding light on their non-Inuit art collection and a sensitive guide on the Inuit art, to which she too became dedicated over their 30-plus years together.

We spoke with Professor Yacowar about his collection in more depth.

Why Inuit art in particular? What first drew you to this field?

My first Inuit piece was my first art purchase, a small bird I bought at a Calgary auction when I was visiting my parents. I tried to meet the auctioneer, Larry Irvine, because he was the guy who in his previous life was the agent who sold us our first home in Calgary, a rooming house on 12 Ave and 3 St SE. I didn’t get to meet him then but I got that piece. I then started to read about the art, followed the Toronto auctions, visiting every gallery I could, and buying more and better. When I started my home sales I focused on Inuit art but included other Canadian and international graphics as well. That first piece was sold long ago, but I still have a small Dorset transformation bird, by that prolific artist Anonymous, that I’m keeping. Its length of service earned its tenure.

Do you have a favourite piece from the collection being offered at Waddington’s? 

Like, which is your favourite child? I guess the one that still speaks to me. The richest on that score is probably my John Pangnark “Owl.” But – that tag-name may not be as true to the work as “Figure” would have been. It could be a bird, or a human, but the “Brancusi of the North” has created a work of rich simplicity, poised surfaces, breathtaking balance and sweep. At once “primitive” and “sophisticated.” No day goes by without my pausing to caress it, by hand or by eye. But like that favourite child, it’s time to release it into the world. So Pangnark is my favourite on the “simple” edge. On the detailed? Axangayak’s “Cariboo,” an amazing work of balance, space and physical detail, and the anonymous dramatisation of a giant ogress about to eat a child. Both are incredible achievements, by any standard.

Is there a piece that you won’t part with, a “crown jewel”?

My first impulse was to release the whole collection. But Anne was reluctant to part with the four living room prints that are so integral to the overall composition we so carefully made when we first hung our new condo walls. So they stay till we have to move out. I also kept five very minor pieces that I’ve had so long and that would not mean nearly as much to anyone else as they do to me.

What do you think is the greatest Inuit artwork ever made? Do you have a favourite Inuit artist?

Hey, my list of five best Hitchcock films runs to 12. My ten best Woody Allens is 20. You can’t choose. Different pieces have their own compelling, distinguishing charms. So many are so rich and perfect — among the smalls as well as the giants — that any absolute superlative is impossible. Often, the one I’m intensely engaged with at that time holds the belt — till the next G.O.A.T.

What makes a good artwork? Has your answer changed over the years?

How to judge a work? How is it different? What separates it from the others like it? What kind of richness does it offer — from the sweep of that Pangnark to the details of a Levi Qumulak? We have eight glass cubes of Inuit carvings in my bathroom. The little Pangnark family is there, the Miki, the Kaviks and Nutaraluks, a few Arluks and Toona Iquliqs, the Rosalie Kopak bird. They earned that pride of place by proving inexhaustible.

If you had to start collecting from scratch — if you could go back in time and tell your younger self something it took you years to learn — what would it be?

Over the years my openness broadened. I sought out more unusual subject matter. I was especially drawn to the most unusual, which is the most personal, especially when I discovered the pieces I now collect as the ‘Inuit Earthy Sense of Humour.’ Where there’s a decorum there’s a spirit bent upon disrupting it, in the Inuit culture as in ours. So my literary penchant towards satire and towards expressing the forbidden turned into my quest for Inuit humour, whimsey, and of course the inevitable verboten – sex and scatology.

Of course I’m sorry to have not bought some pieces over the years, like an Osuitok caribou. Though I do have one of his subtle loons. And a Tiqtaq — that’s the one Master I never landed. But more than missing what I didn’t buy, I miss works that I sold. An Etungat bird, a large Miki caribou, a Kenojuak bird, a Pauta bear, a Barnabas muskox that seemed to be flying, some Parr and Kenojuak prints. I miss them but their memory still affects me. The pleasure of possession survives. Hey, I was a dealer, on however modest a scale. I sold so I could buy and I bought so I could sell. Their departure enabled me to achieve this collection, so I can’t feel regret.

About the first installment of the Yacowar-Petrie Inuit Art Collection:

Presented thematically, the first installment of the Yacowar-Petrie Collection includes ivory and stone sculpture centred around mother and child motifs, views of Inuit interiors, erotica, and humorous works. Notable artists include Oviloo Tunnillie, Davidialuk Alasua Amittu, David Ruben Piqtoukun, Charlie Ugyuk, John Kavik, Eli Sallualu Qinuajua, Elizabeth Nutaraluk Aulatjut, Pierre Karlik, and Zacharias Kunnuk.