PARR (1893-1969) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
My People, 1961 #82
Printmaker: LUKTA QIATSUK (1928-2004) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET) stonecut, 29.5 x 19.5 in (74.9 x 49.5 cm), framed, sight 18/50

Provenance
Private Collection, Santa Fe, NM.

Perhaps one of his most famous print images, My People shows that Parr, even in his early career, was channeling his artistic talent into images that spoke directly to his own personal experiences. His efforts did not intend to capture a pictorial memory, however. As Marion Jackson explained, “Hunting themes are not depicted as specific instances in time but, rather, are removed from historic time and attain an emblematic quality suggesting timelessness and permanence” [1]. Here, despite the lack of landscape to which we can orient ourselves, a narrative plays across the surface of this print. Four men stand proudly amidst their spoils of their hunting endeavour: three caribou, a seal, and walrus. The raw intensity of Parr’s quick-fire marks and gestures of his graphite pencil are interpreted into print by Lukta Qiatsuk with enormous sensitivity for Parr’s powerful style. The entire composition is so brilliantly executed that even today, almost forty years after its creation, My People offers visible evidence to the message that Parr wished to communicate with those who interacted with his work: “This is who we are and this is how we used to do things.” 1. Marion Jackson, “Parr’s Drawings: The Marks of a Hunter”, 1988, p. 5.

References: My People has been reproduced extensively. See: Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998), frontispiece; Leslie Boyd Ryan, Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective, (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2007), p. 79; Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art,(Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), cat. 74, ; and Norman Vorano, Inuit Prints: Japanese Inspiration, (Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2011), cat. 16. For examples of contemporaneous drawings by Parr see Ingo Hessel, “The Drawings of Parr: A Closer Look,” Inuit Art Quarterly, Fall 1998, Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 14-20.; Marion E. Jackson, Parr: His Drawings, (Halifax: Art Gallery, Mount Saint Vincent University, 1988); and Drew Armour, “Parr: A Unique Canadian Artist” in Canadian Antiques & Art Review, (April 1981), pp. 30-35.