OSUITOK IPEELEE, R.C.A. (1922 or 1923-2005) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Eskimo Legend: Owl, Fox and Hare/Owl, Fox and Hare Legend, 1958 (1959 #21)
Printmaker: OSUITOK IPEELEE, R.C.A. (1923-2005) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
sealskin stencil, 24 x 18 in (61 x 45.7 cm)
7/30

Provenance
Collection of John and Joyce Price, Seattle, WA.

As both draughtsman and printmaker, Osuitok focused on inking the images to display subtle differences in colour and texture. Brilliant passages of the untouched sheet, which represent the contour and white fur and feathers of the animals, interweave with the fragmentary opalescent blues and purples. This technique of blending inks through stencils is reported to have been achieved using Houston’s shaving brush. Stencilling had not been employed in the experimental years of printmaking in Kinngait and as such, the concept of using registration marks to line up the stencils was seemingly not utilized. As a result, in the 30 numbered editions of the present print, one can see slight variations in the placement of stencils.

Although the figures and their silhouetted surroundings are dramatically layered atop one another in an effect that suggests perspectival depth there is no confusion of forms and each element overflows with vitality.

Despite the almost mythical importance of Osuitok’s contributions to the first printmaking experiments in Kinngait, after the 1959 inaugural print collection none featured him as an artist. Osuitok would, of course, go on to become Cape Dorset’s greatest sculptor.

References: Image reproduced in Norman Vorano, Inuit Prints: Japanese Inspiration, (Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2011), cat 18, reproduced on the cover and p. 77, as “Owl, Fox and Hare Legend.” For discussions on Osuitok’s short drawing career, see Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), p. 114; and Christine Lalonde and Leslie Boyd Ryan, Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset 1959-2009, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009), p. 28. Although there is no printer’s chop, Sandra Barz identified the printer as Osuitok. She likewise purports that the image was created by James Houston. Houston, May 1996, stated that he collaborated with Osuitok to create the image.