Lot 25
KENOJUAK ASHEVAK, C.C., R.C.A. (1927-2013) f., KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Printmaker: LUKTA QIATSUK (1928- 2004) m. or JOANASSIE SALAMONIE (1938-1998) m., KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Vision in Autumn, 1960 #21
stonecut, 19 x 24 in (48.3 x 61 cm)
23/50
ESTIMATE: $8,000 — $12,000
PRICE REALIZED: $12,000
Provenance
Private Collection, Australia.
Jean Blodgett discusses oral historian Dorothy Eber's interviews with Kenojuak, in which the artist explained that she made cardboard cut-out patterns, first for her sealskin designs in the 1950s and later, because she though they would also help with her earliest drawings [1]. Blodgett also illustrates one of Kenojuak's sealskin handbags, decorated with an image surprisingly similar to this print [2]. However, Vision in Autumn is a much more fluid image; clearly Kenojuak used these patterns merely as points of departure. As curator Dorothy LaBarge suggests: "As her forms began to interconnect, Kenojuak's characteristic fluid line and innate sense of balance lent a rhythmic, decorative quality to her works … For Kenojuak, birds, fish, and human figures were departure points for abstract designs" [3].
As with other prints in the 1960 Cape Dorset print collection such as Complex of Birds (see Lot 14), Birds from the Sea, and Night Spirits, here we are witness to Kenojuak's brand new idiom of expression. In this wonderfully fresh copy of Vision in Autumn the lively silhouetted pattern of rhythmically interconnected figures overlays a particularly vibrant coloured background. Arctic animals spring out in all directions from the central hooded figure, their lyrical shapes set against a brilliant yellow-orange. The effect is almost overwhelming; it's like an abstract symphony of forms set against a dazzling sunset. Brilliant, quite literally.
1. Discussed in Jean Blodgett, Kenojuak (Toronto: Firefly Books, 1985), p. 39.
2. Ibid. p. 34.
3. Dorothy LaBarge, From Drawing to Print: Perception and Process in Cape Dorset Art (Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1986), p. 22.
References: For a red version of this print (probably a proof) see Kenojuak (Toronto: Firefly Books, 1985), fig. 8; for a green-gold version see Walker's Auctions, May 2017, Lot 19.