Like other stylistically similar “silhouette” print images by Kenojuak from the early 1960s — which recall the shadow games played inside a tent or igloo — Vision in Autumn makes an immediate visual impact with its bold simplicity. With this image Kenojuak's mastery of fluid, rhythmic design is on full display. Arctic animals radiate in all directions from a central hooded figure, their bodies defined solely by their lyrical silhouettes. The absence of interior detail creates an inherent tension between what is visible and what remains unseen. Set against a brilliant yellow-orange background, the figures emerge like forms against a glowing sunset.

Dorothy Eber’s interviews with Kenojuak reveal that the artist first created cardboard cut-out patterns for her sealskin designs in the 1950s, which later informed her earliest drawings. [1] This technique evolved into the fluid, interconnected forms for which Kenojuak is justly famous. These have been described by curator Dorothy LaBarge as ones where “birds, fish, and human figures were departure points for abstract designs." [2]

1. Discussed in Jean Blodgett, Kenojuak, 1985, p. 39.

2. See Dorothy LaBarge, From Drawing to Print: Perception and Process in Cape Dorset Art, 1986, p. 22.