Inuit Art: Birds Book of Postcards

Cape Dorset—called Kinngait in the Inuit language, Inuktitut, for the area’s high, rolling hills—is a thriving community on southwestern Baffin Island, in the Canadian Arctic Territory of Nunavut. The community is renowned for the wonderful Inuit art that flows from its cooperatively owned printmaking studios, active since the 1950s.

This book of postcards presents thirty reproductions of lithographs, etchings/aquatints, stonecuts, and stencils from the artists of the Kinngait studios. Elegant, eloquent, and filled with quiet power, they amount—individually and collectively—to a strong and buoyant statement of Inuit cultural traditions.

Images

1. Sheojuk Etidlooie (1929–1999), Qupanuapak (Big Bird)
2. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Guardian Owl
3. Ohotaq Mikkigak (1936–2014), Courtship Dance
4. Sheojuk Etidlooie (1929–1999), Ukpaaraaq (Young Owl)
5. Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958), Little Raven
6. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Preening Owl
7. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Silver Owl
8. Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958), Sheltered Nestling
9. Sheojuk Etidlooie (1929–1999), Raven in Red
10. Pitaloosie Saila (b. 1942), Loon with Young
11. Sheojuk Etidlooie (1929–1999), Mitiq (Eider Duck)
12. Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958), Mating Geese
13. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Tulukkaaraminiit (Many Young Ravens)
14. Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958), Grey Owl
15. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Summer Courtship
16. Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958), Spring Trio
17. Nikotai Mills (1936–2003), Following the Route
18. Nikotai Mills (1936–2003), Bird Song
19. Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010), Raven’s Dance
20. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), The Harbinger
21. Qavavau Manumie (b. 1958), Young Goose Preening
22. Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010), On the Lookout
23. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Tattigaak (Birds)
24. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Illustrious Owl
25. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Naujiit (Seagulls)
26. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Audacious Owl
27. Iyola Kingwatsiak (1933–2000), Loon’s Descent
28. Nikotai Mills (1936–2003), Mother Owl Shelters Young
29. Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013), Riding on Mother Owl
30. Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010), Hawk Prepares for Attack