Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 color photographs, Celebrating Inuit Art 1948-1970 is an impressive tribute to an art form that was virtually unknown fifty years ago and is now regularly featured in major art exhibitions worldwide.
The works of art in this book are organized by geographic area, to illustrate the strong regional styles of this unique art form. In Nunavik, narrative is emphasized, whereas the works of Baffin artists stress the beauty of the richly textured local stone. In Keewatin, the sculptures look pre-historic yet modern, while the work of the Kitikmeot is distinguished by its shamanic whalebone carvings. Quotes, reminiscences and historic snapshots provide introductions to individual Northern communities.
In a major and invaluable essay, James Houston, a tireless and passionate champion and respected authority on Inuit art, recounts his experiences and observations of fifty years with the Inuit people.
The stunning photos, taken by Museum photographer Harry Foster, illustrate major pieces from the Canadian Museum of Civilization as well as treasures from James Houston's personal collection.
The collection of Inuit art held by the Winnipeg Art Gallery is internationally renowned for its geographic range, diverse media, and size. The WAG celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2012-13, and this book captures the excitement of the Gallery's major 2012 exhibition. Creation and Transformation describes the genesis and evolution of contemporary Inuit art from 1949 to the present day, from carvers in the 1950s to today’s graphic artists.
Inuit art, both ancient and contemporary, has inspired the interest of scholars, collectors and art lovers around the globe. This book examines Inuit art from prehistory to the present with special attention to methodology and aesthetics, exploring the ways in which it has been influenced by and has influenced non-Inuit artists and scholars. Part One gives the history of the main art-producing prehistoric traditions in the North American arctic, concentrating on the Dorset who once flourished in the Canadian region. It also demonstrates the influence of theories such as evolutionism, diffusionism, ethnographic comparison, and shamanism on the interpretation of prehistoric Inuit art.
Part Two demonstrates the influence of such popular theories as nationalism, primitivism, modernism, and postmodernism on the aesthetics and representation of twentieth-century Canadian Inuit art. This discussion is supported by interviews conducted with Inuit artists. A final chapter shows the presence of Inuit art in the mainstream multi-cultural environment, with a discussion of its influence on Canadian artist Nicola Wojewoda. The work also presents various Inuit artists' reactions to Wojewoda's work.
The Inuit are a familiar part of Canadian identity but also exotic residing in the remote Arctic. The mix of the familiar and the exotic has resulted in the creation and perpetuation of a number of "White Lies." These are stories that have been developed over long periods of time, reproduced in classrooms, anthropology and sociology textbooks, and other media, but have been rarely challenged, contributing to misunderstandings that have ultimately, in subtle ways, diminished the stature of Inuit traditional culture.
In this lively book, designed specifically for introductory students, Steckley unpacks three "White Lies"?the myth that there are fifty-two words for snow, that there are blond, blue-eyed Inuit descended from the Vikings, and that the Inuit send off their elders to die on ice floes. Debunking these popular myths allows him to illustrate how knowledge is shaped by Western social science, particularly the anthropology of the "Other," and that it can be flawed. In the process, students learn not only about Inuit culture, but about the difference between popular and scholarly research.
As regards their development when they first became known to modern Europeans, the Eskimo may be classed with the prehistoric races of the age of the ground stone tools with the exceptional use of metals. It has been usual to designate all nations of this kind as "savages;" some authors have even described them as being totally destitute of those mental qualities through which any kind of culture is manifested, such as social order, laws, sciences, arts, and even religion. That those opinions find utterance can scarcely be wondered at when we observe the carelessness with which such important questions are discussed, and see travellers who merely go on shore from a ship and spend a couple of hours with the inhabitants proceed to make inquiries as to their ideas of God and the origin of the world; and also how European settlers among natives whose language they are quite unconversant with pretend to have found them altogether without religion.
249 pages.