SHEOJUK ETIDLOOIE (1932-1999) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
etching and aquatint, sheet, sight 18.25 x 17 in (46.4 x 43.2 cm), plate 11.5 x 11.5 in (29.2 x 29.2 cm)
20/50
ESTIMATE: $800 — $1,200
Further images
In a banner year for Sheojuk Etidlooie, Kiinanguaq (Like a Face) was one of nine of her images selected for the 1997 Annual Print Collection. Five of her contributions that year were etching and aquatint, a process that suited her way of building an image through soft bands of tone and controlled depth.
Working in close collaboration, Paul Machnik introduced steel plates that could hold a broader range of tonal passages than the copper plates then common in the studio. He also applied colour directly onto the plate, so that when the paper was laid down and run through the press, light seems to bloom from within the forms, with colour settling into the image as a stain, not a surface.
Kiinanguaq has a texture that can fool the viewer into thinking this print could be a multi-media work, the layers of subtle shading providing a wonderful illusion of light and shadow.
Provenance
Like many of Sheojuk’s drawings and prints, Kiinanguaq is a deceptively simple image. Brilliantly printed by Studio PM in Montreal, the work is enigmatic as well. Below the abstracted and boldly executed image of a bird (almost certainly an owl), is the much smaller and fainter face of what might be a young human child. The work brings to mind the charming sculptures of another beloved Cape Dorset artist, Latcholassie Akesuk, whose stone depictions of owls and owl-people are well-known to collectors.