Elsewhere we have discussed the flowing and imaginative designs of Kenojuak Ashevak’s early graphic works, noting the ways in which the artist’s fluidity and natural sense of balance added a rhythmic quality and sense of weightlessness to her works so that they appear like the ethereal figures of a shadow game played inside a tent. There is, perhaps, no more suitable image for this kind of “lighter than air” quality than Geese Frightened by Fox. In this print, the birds alight and soar — with their wings dramatically upswept or furiously flapping — as they make their frenzied ascent away from the nimble arctic fox. Even this intruding light-footed predator leaps on its hindquarters, seemingly unaffected by any gravitational pull of the earth, toward the gosling at lower left. The overall buoyancy of the image, in addition to its success at rendering how a scene of such a predator and prey would play out, gives the composition a sprightly and lively sense of drama. We can practically hear the chorus of fevered honks and hissing escape the sheet.

Negative space places a clear role in the image. To delineate the separation of the birds, which are apparent in Kenojuak’s graphite drawing (reproduced in Jean Blodgett’s 1985 monograph on the artist) printmaker Lukta Qiatsuk employs the use of a thin, carved band to divide their forms. He has also added a hollow oval on the belly of the front-facing goose, which exposes the lilac tint of the rolled ground. This furthers the sense of airiness to the scene and adds an interesting visual element of texture.

It is interesting to note the change from drawing to print. In Keonjuak’s graphite drawing, we see that the gosling has not yet opened its wings as the predator bounds toward it. In the printed image, however, the young bird appears with its feathers raised to begin its flight, suggesting it has a fighting chance to make a narrow escape.

References: This important print has been reproduced in several texts, including in Irene Baird, “Land of Lively Arts,” The Beaver, Autumn 1961, p. 21; Dorothy LaBarge, From Drawing to Print: Perception and Process in Cape Dorset Art, (Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1986), p. 27; See this print image next to Kenojuak’s original graphite drawing in Jean Blodgett, Kenojuak, (Toronto: Firefly Books / Mintmark Press Ltd., 1985), fig. xiv, p. 56. For other examples of the rolled ground and silhouetted images by the artist, see Complex of Birds, 1960 #17 and Vision in Autumn, 1960 #21, See First Arts, July 2020, Lots 14 & 25 for our discussion on these works.