Tattooed Sun reminds us of a similar image by Kenojuak, the iconic stonecut The Woman Who Lives in the Sun of 1960 (see First Arts, May 2019, Lot 15). As with its early counterpart, this anthropomorphized image presents the sun as a woman, easily distinguished here by the almost hypnotic rows of dots that depict her spectacular facial tattoos. Tattooed Sun is a beautiful and powerful evocation of the notion of the life-giving sun as feminine or maternal.

The gendered depiction may have its origins in the traditional Inuit story of a woman who, upon realizing that she had unknowingly committed incest with her brother, fled in shame with her lit torch. The woman was chased by her brother, who in his pursuit, had his own torch snuffed out. The pair eventually reached the heavens where the woman was transformed into the sun and, the brother, into the moon.

References: Image reproduced in Leslie Boyd Ryan, et al., Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective, (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2007), p. 268. For other works by the artist that feature the tattooed face motif, see the important print The Woman Who Lives in the Sun of 1960 (see First Arts, Toronto, 28 May 2019, Lot 15), as well as Taliillajuuqpaujaaluk (Great Big Sedna), 2001. For the probable preparatory drawing for this print, see Anna Hudson, ‎Jocelyn Piirainen, ‎& Georgiana Uhlyarik, Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak, exh. cat., (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2018), no cat. no., p. 59.

*title inscribed on print / title in catalogue.