In Eskimo Leader, the figure’s ample, rounded forms and fluid curves generate a compelling sense of fullness and motion. These shapes are echoed and amplified by the surrounding textured patterns, which enhance the figure’s self-contained power while suggesting an energy that radiates quietly outward. The composition feels grounded, even monumental, its weight not just physical but emotional, rooted in presence, memory, and matrilineal strength.

The face is the visual and conceptual anchor of the work. Divided into two dramatically different halves—one rendered in a deep crimson red, the other in spare, minimal black line, it evokes inevitable comparisons to Picasso [1]. Yet the face holds together in a unified form, its asymmetry suggesting not fragmentation but duality: of past and present, tradition and invention, personal memory and public identity. The stylized facial tattoos, abstracted to almost resemble a mustache, function as more than decorative detail, they are cultural signifiers, clearly identifying the figure as female. Indeed, the subject of the portrait is the artist’s grandmother, Quppa, who raised Pitaloosie Saila from the age of two following the death of her mother [2].

The result is a deeply personal image that resonates on multiple levels. It honours not only a singular woman, but the broader, often unsung centrality of Inuit women as caregivers, cultural stewards, and sources of resilience.

1. Responding to the suggestion that her work was influenced by Picasso, in a 1979 interview with Marion Jackson, Pitaloosie addressed the commentary on the similarity of this work to Picasso stating, “I didn’t know that guy before [...] it’s my own [...] I just followed my heart.” Hear the interview at https://www.historymuseum.ca/capedorsetprints/include/modalArtefact.php?lang=en&code=60)

2. See the artist’s comment in Susan Gustavison and Darlene Coward Wight, Pitaloosie Saila: A Personal Journey, (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2017), p. 27