Lot 93
KIAKSHUK (1886-1966) m., KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Printmaker: JOANASSIE SALAMONIE (1938-1998) m., TIMOTHY OTTOCHIE (1904-1982), or IYOLA KINGWATSIAK (1933-2000) m., KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Singing Women Sew Kayak, 1960 #29
stonecut (linocut?), 25 x 13 in (63.5 x 33 cm)
41/50
ESTIMATE: $2,500— $3,500
PRICE REALIZED: $4,320
Provenance
Private Collection, Australia.
Kiakshuk was one of the stars of the second annual Cape Dorset collection of 1960, with nine stonecut and stencil prints offered. Interestingly, of the nineteen earliest prints derived from Kiakshuk's beautifully precise graphite drawings (1960 and 1962), few are rendered with the careful attention to detail as this lovely print. Kiakshuk's drawn lines and shading in graphite pencil would have had a lighter touch (see reference), nevertheless the clarity and delicacy of his vision shines through. Strangely, the details of its actually making are imprecise; it is not certain if the carved matrix was a stonecut or linocut, and the division of labour among the printmakers remains unclear.
Reference: For examples of original graphite drawings by Kiakshuk see Marion Jackson and Judith Nasby, Contemporary Inuit Drawings (Guelph: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1987), cats. 16-17.