The evolution of Inuit art is perhaps no better embodied than in this fact; Canadian Inuit visual artist Annie Pootoogook was invited to participate in last year’s documenta 12, the world’s most prestigious invitational contemporary art show, which takes place in Kassel, Germany, once every five years. Previously considered ‘primitive,’ Inuit art has today become a force to be reckoned with.
Composition (Sewing a Coat), Pencil, Crayon & Ink, Cape Dorset, 2003/04 by Annie Pootoogook. Image reproduced with permission of Dorset Fine Arts (www.dorsetfinearts.com)
While emerging artists continue to work in ‘traditional’ materials like stone, and continue to create graphic works with traditional subject matter, Pootoogook is one of a smaller but growing group that has turned to drawings. Diverting from the conventional subject matter of Arctic animals, shamanic imagery, and images of hunting and the nomadic life, Annie Pootoogook portrays in her drawings issues of contemporary Inuit life – social service interventions, interior scenes of mundane life, and images of domestic violence. Her revelation of modern Inuit society – a people struggling to adapt to contemporary life from a life dependent on the land – has propelled her onto the international art scene. Though produced as early as the 50s, some drawings are only now seeing prices that are considered equitable to their quality, but this will change as artists like Annie Pootoogook draw even more attention to the already growing market for Inuit art.
The Inuit first populated the Arctic in the form of the Dorset Culture (c.600 BC-1000 AD), a people who produced figurative pieces in wood, bone, ivory and antler primarily for shamanic rituals or in the form of amulets. The Dorset people were replaced by the Thule Culture (1000-1600 AD), members of which ornamented their everyday, utilitarian objects for what are also believed to be magico-religious purposes. The Thule people existed until the 16th century, which marks first contact with foreign whalers, missionaries, and explorers; it is from the Thule that the present day Inuit are descended.
There was, historically, no formal recognition of the concept of art for the Inuit. Yet, sustained contact with Western peoples in the Arctic created an initial market for Inuit household items (oil dishes, snow-goggles, traditional skin clothing and carved ivory goods, and ulus, ‘all-purpose’ womens’ implements used to scrape seal skin and cut food). These items of everyday life were highly sought after by visiting missionaries, traders and explorers as fascinating ‘souvenir’ items to take home. As Inuit society increasingly came to rely on traded or bartered goods such as rifles, knives, or tobacco, carved goods came to be tailored more to the demands of their Western consumers and the Inuit began creating certain items purely for trade.
It wasn’t until the 1940s, however, that the development of contemporary Inuit art began in earnest. The catalyst for the development of the works we enjoy today was the combined efforts of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild in Montreal, the Hudson’s Bay Company and other co-operatives, and those of an enterprising artist named James Houston, all of whom zealously marketed Inuit art to the world.
By the mid 20th century Inuit culture had transitioned from a nomadic, hunting-and-gathering society to one of permanent dwellings and forced reliance upon a market-based economy. With the penetration of Western culture, the demise of the fur trade and considerable efforts of the Canadian government to assimilate these peoples, the traditional way of life could no longer provide food, shelter and clothing. It was in this climate of change that the Inuit art market emerged as an alternate way to provide for daily existence.
Inuit sculpture and graphics form the nucleus of the market; sculptures in ivory and stone were the first creations to be marketed to southern Canada and the US, quickly followed by the release of an annual print run out of Cape Dorset (Nunavut) by the early 50s. Once market interest had proven successful, both carving and print production spread to other communities throughout the Arctic.
"The Enchanted Owl," Stonecut, Cape Dorset, 1960 by Kenojuak Ashevak. Image reproduced with the permission of Dorset Fine Arts (www.dorsetfinearts.com)
It is these ‘early’ works – the sculpture and graphics of the 50s, 60s and 70s – that are most sought after by collectors and for which the highest prices are now being paid at both auction and private galleries. Many of the early works in ivory and stone were unsigned and are unattributable; nevertheless, the quality of carving, as well as the style, condition and subject matter keep collector interest and prices high.
It is the last decade in particular that works produced in the early years have begun to command ever-rising prices on both the secondary and primary markets. Works by early sculptors such as Judas Ullulaq (1937-1999), John Tiktak (1916-1981) and Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974) are achieving prices often in excess of $25,000, figures previously unheard of. Pauta Saila’s (b. 1916) iconic dancing bears regularly fetch tens of thousands of dollars on the secondary market and even more on the primary market. A carving titled “Migration” by Joe Talirunilli (1893-1976) featuring arctic animals paddling an umiak (boat) sold for more than $275,000 at a Canadian auction house in 2006, surpassing a previous record for the artist of just over $85,000.
“The Migration," Soapstone, Povungnituk, date unknown, by Joe Talirunilli. Image reproduced with permission of La Federation des Cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec (www.inuit.pail.ca/fcnq.htm) and Waddington's Auctioneers.
Inuit graphic prints are also enjoying a surge in value and international interest. Though not obtaining the prices paid for sculpture, the stencils, stonecuts, engravings and lithographs are selling to collectors for increasingly large sums of money. Works by such renowned artists as Kenojuak Ashevak (b. 1927) and Parr (1883-1969) are fetching several thousands on the secondary market; The Enchanted Owl (1960), a stonecut produced by Kenojuak in an edition of 50, sold for over $58,000 at a Canadian auction house in 2001 making it a record sale for an Inuit graphic artwork. Another of this edition, part of the collection of Ann Landers, sold for $45,000 in the US the following year; not a bad return on investment for a work originally retailing at $75. (Of the 50 prints produced, 25 were pulled in red and 25 in green with the red version being more highly sought after.)
While these types of values are not typical for all sculpture and graphic works produced by Inuit artists, they are representative of the expanding interest in Inuit art from all corners of the globe. Purchasers from the UK, Switzerland and Japan regularly join collectors from Canada, the US and Germany to drive prices upward.
While collectors do favor the earlier works, they are actively developing a new market for contemporary Inuit art; an upcoming generation of artists has already established itself in the marketplace. The translucent alabaster carvings and print works of David Ruben Piqtoukun and the stylized creations in silver and in stone manufactured by Michael Massie have long attracted the interest of Inuit art collectors.
documenta 12 closed in Kassel, Germany in September of this year and while her Toronto-based dealer reports a surge of requests for Annie’s work to be shown internationally, the full impact of Pootoogook’s participation in that prestigious event has yet to unfold. Certain however, is the fact that it is a milestone in the evolution of art of the Inuit people.
