KIAKSHUK (1886-1966) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)

Eskimo Wrestling Two Spirts,1960 #30

Printmaker: KANANGINAK POOTOOGOOK, R.C.A. (1935-2010) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)

stencil, 17.75 x 23.5 in (45.1 x 59.7 cm)

42/50

Provenance



As Jean Blodgett suggests in Grasp Tight the Old Ways (AGO, 1983), the source of Kiakshuk’s imagery in Eskimo Wrestling Two Spirits stems from the artist’s personal history. In addition to being a revered hunter, Kiakshuk was also recognized as a shaman. “Shamans, such as Kiakshuk,” Blodgett writes, “knew only too well the omnipotent and omnipresent character of other-worldly beings and spirits” (p. 98). “Strange and even terrifying” is how Blodgett describes this scene (ibid.). Using his intimate knowledge of shamanism, and possibly fragments of his personal narrative, Kiakshuk creates a gripping image of an Inuk engaged in combat with two long-eared spirits. The two malevolent spirits attacking our central hero are remarkable and rather subtle syntheses of the grotesque and humanoid; it takes us a moment to register these sinister blue figures as supernatural beings.

Literature: This image is reproduced in Edward Field, Eskimo Songs and Stories [: Collected by Knud Rasmussen on the fifth Thule Expedition. Selected and translated by Edward Field. With illus. by Kiakshuk and Pudlo], (New York : Delacorte Press/S. Lawrence, 1973), p. 77. Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), p. 99.