Kârale Andreassen

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Kârale Andreassen (born May 15, 1890 as Sugdluitsoq or Kâvkajik in Ammassalik , Greenland ; † February 26, 1934 in Copenhagen , Denmark ), Kârale for short (also spelled Kaarale ), was a Greenlandic painter, draftsman and catechist . His works are dedicated to Inuit culture and the world of Greenlandic sagas and legends.

Life

The old church of Ammassalik now houses a folklore museum.

The offspring of an Inuit family was born in Ammassalik, East Greenland, in 1890 . He came from a line of shamans and grew up under the strong influence of Greenlandic legends and traditions. In April 1899 he was the first East Greenlander to be baptized in the course of Christianization and was given the name Kârale. After the baptismal name of his father Andreas, he was later named Kârale Andreassen.

In 1905, Kârale met William Thalbitzer and his wife, the sculptor Ellen Locher Thalbitzer , who spent two years in Ammassalik. Together with his friend Peter Rosing , he helped the ethnologist with the collection of Greenlandic legends and made some pencil drawings for the young artist. Efforts to send the talented young draftsman to the Copenhagen Art Academy failed. Instead, he went to Godthåb in 1910 and began training as a catechist , which he did not complete. After his return in 1914, he was appointed first catechist on the east coast and worked as a missionary in the colony for a year . In 1915 he founded the Kuummiut mission station , where he worked as a catechist and gained great recognition from his fellow human beings through cultural and educational work. He also married the hunter's daughter Johanne (1898–1973), with whom he soon started a family. The writer and social worker Elisa Maĸe was his daughter.

Kârale worked closely with Knud Rasmussen . For the polar explorer, he illustrated the first volume, the publication of which was Myter og Sagn fra Grønland (1921). In 1933 he also acted as a technical advisor for the feature film Palos brudefærd . In the same year he moved with his family to Copenhagen to deepen his work with Rasmussen, but died after a short stay in the Danish capital in February 1934.

plant

The gut-robber who tries to elicit a laugh from the shaman on his journey to the moon (ca.1920).

Kârale dedicated his works to the Inuit and their culture, whereby the family relationship to shamanism was often clearly noticeable. Much of his oeuvre can be assigned to a naive realism , while elements of mysticism and horror are also represented. In this way, Kârale gave his art a distinctly surreal touch.

Mythical giant polar bear emerges from the polar sea.

Henrik Lund and Ellen Locher Thalbitzer were among his earliest artistic role models . His early work consists of small format drawings that are characterized by a simple but expressive, detailed style. Presumably, as early as 1906, he designed sensitive and realistic portraits of his fellow human beings, which he perfected over the next ten years. In later drawings, Kârale blurred the natural with the imagination, creating a mythical world. From 1922 on, inspired by his childhood friend, priest and painter Peter Rosing, he increasingly painted oil paintings and watercolors . In the late 1920s, in addition to pencil drawings, he increasingly turned his art into ink and Indian ink .

After Thalbitzer and Rasmussen, numerous publications with his drawings appeared after the Greenlander's death, including Ove Baks Kujavarsiks Rejse til månen (1977) and Troldbjørnen (1979). Many of his pictures are now in the possession of the Danish Royal Library or the etching collection of the Danish National Museum . Kârale always signed his creations with his initials KA

Ink drawings

  • Dog sledding between icebergs

  • Drum dance with singing

  • Bird hunting with a stick snare

  • Kayaker harpooned a tupilak

  • Woman on a rock

  • Kayaker harpooned a diving seal

Illustrations (selection)

  • Knud Rasmussen : Myter og Sagn fra Grønland 1: Østgrønlændere ("Myths and legends of Greenland 1: East Greenlanders"). Gyldendal , Copenhagen 1921.
  • Ove Bak: Kujavarsiks rejse til månen ("Kujavarsiks journey to the moon"). Hernov, Copenhagen 1977, 94 pp. ISBN 978-8772156200 .
  • Ove Bak: Troldbjørnen. Også isbjørne har en sjæl. Beretninger and fortællinger fra Grønland. ("Troll bear. Polar bears also have a soul. Reports and stories from Greenland"). Hernov, Copenhagen 1979, 108 pp. ISBN 978-8772158556 .

literature

  • Ib Geertsen: Kârale Andreassen. En østgrønlandsk kunstner . Atuakkiorfik, Nuuk 1990. ISBN 87-558-0514-0 . (Danish)

Web links

Commons : Kârale Andreassen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Mads Lidegaard: Kârale (Dansk Biografisk Leksikon). Gyldendal , accessed October 24, 2016 (Danish).
  2. ↑ a b c Sys Hartmann: Kaarale Andreassen - Biography (Weilbach's Kunstnerleksikon). Retrieved October 24, 2016 (Danish).
  3. ↑ a b Kaarale (Dansk Biografisk Leksikon). Gyldendal , accessed October 24, 2016 (Danish).
personal data
SURNAME Andreassen, Kârale
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kârale (stage name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greenlandic painter, draftsman and catechist
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Ammassalik
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1934
Place of death Copenhagen