Like Three Narwhal (lot 108), Lukta Qiatsuk’s Arctic Shore Birds demonstrates an especially ambitious approach to printed colour layering. Both bird forms originate from the same stencil, yet through masking and precise control of pigment, Lukta — who also acted as printer [1] — produced two distinct impressions of the bird, with its body compact, wings angled upward, and beak thrust forward in flight. The black hued bird was printed first before being masked to allow the red bird to appear ‘behind’ it. Though a lighter hue laid over a darker base typically sinks into dullness, in this work the red rises forward with remarkable clarity and luminous force. The composition seems to hover between solidity and air, as if two birds drift through the same stream of sky, drawn forth from a single cut form.

1. There is no chop to identify the printer, but Sandra Barz records that Lukta was identified as the printer by members of the co-operative.

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References: This image is reproduced in James A. Houston, Eskimo Prints, (Barre, MA, USA: Barre Publishers, 1967), p. 19; Christine Lalonde and Leslie Boyd Ryan, Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset 1959-2009, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009), no. 41, p. 38.