Kenojuak Ashevak

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Kenojuak Ashevak drawing in the lithoshop of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset (Nunavut Territory, Canada)

Kenojuak Ashevak ( CC ; born October 3, 1927 in Inuit Camp Ikirasaq; † January 8, 2013 in Cape Dorset ) was one of the most important Inuit artists in Canada ; Her works sought after by collectors occupy an excellent place in well-known museums around the world. Designs from her hand adorn Canadian postage stamps and coins.

Life

The artist Kenojuak Ashevak (Inuktitut version: Qinnayuaq Asivaq) was born in an igloo in the (long since abandoned) Inuit camp Ikirasaq on the southwest coast of Baffin Island in 1927 . The course of her life reflects in many details the upheavals and changes that have taken place in the arctic north of Canada since then.

Her family had to move to Mansel Island (located in Hudson Bay west of Ivujivik ) in 1928 because there was no game on Baffin Island. Two years later, her father was murdered by roommates of the camp where the family was staying. Back on Baffin Island, Kenojuak grew up at her grandmother's camp, was married at 19 and had three children. In 1952, the 25-year-old young mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis - a disease that was rampant among the Inuit at the time because they had not developed an immune defense against the disease brought in by non-Inuit (from Qallunaat, "the one with the thick eyebrows"). After spending three years at a lung sanatorium in Québec City , she returned to her home camp, where all of her children had since died of infections or food poisoning. Only her husband, Johnniebo, had survived.

Kenojuak Ashevak and her sons Adamie (left) and Arnaguq (right) in November 2004 in front of the Feheley Fine Arts Gallery, Toronto (Canada)

The two built a new family: in 1956 Arnaguq , now a well-known draftsman, was adopted (a quite common process among the Inuit) and in 1959 their son Adamie , now known as a stone sculptor, was born. Other of her children died in infancy, and so today, in addition to the sons mentioned, five of their children are still alive, two of whom were adopted and one given away for adoption. Kenojuak spent the first half of her life, apart from the stay in the lung sanatorium in Québec, still in the traditional way in camps on the coasts of the Hudson Strait .

In 1951, the Canadian artist James Houston came as a government representative to the Inuit settlement Cape Dorset (in Inuktitut Kinngait , "high mountain") on the island of the same name, which was emerging at the time, in order to encourage the Inuit living there to do artistic and handicraft work as new for them Help form of value creation. When she returned home in 1955, Kenojuak began doing handicrafts under the guidance of James Houston's wife Alma. She had already enjoyed working animal hides and skins at her grandmother's camp, and now she found herself able to use these skills to support the family while her husband continued to hunt.

When James Houston began to convert the Inuit's first drafts of drawings into printmaking in Cape Dorset in 1957 , Kenojuak's design of an application was also printed on a “Rabbit Eating Seaweed” skin bag; it was the first graphic art based on a Kenojuak motif.

In 1959, Kenojuak also tried drawing on paper. She and Pitseolak Ashoona , born in 1904, were the first Inuit women to begin drawing, with growing success.

Kenojuak spent the first years of her artist days in traditional camps and drew her prints in the tent. Last but not least, their children's compulsory schooling prompted them and Johnniebo to move permanently to the Cape Dorset settlement in 1966. In 1972 Johnniebo died.

She died on January 8, 2013 at the age of 85 of complications from lung cancer .

Recognition and honors

The artistic achievements of Kenojuak first found high recognition in North America , but soon also worldwide. The artist received an increasing number of public commissions and received many honors. The most important events are listed below in chronological order:

Stained glass window of the John Bell Chapel at Appleby College in Oakville near Toronto
Kenojuak's star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
  • 1964 Kenojuak is the leading actress in the Oscar- nominated short documentary Eskimo artist Kenojuak ( Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak )
  • In 1967 Kenojuak was awarded the " Order of Canada " in Ottawa .
  • In 1969 she (still together with Johnniebo) was commissioned to design a wall relief for the Canadian pavilion at the 1970 Expo in Osaka.
  • In 1970 her graphic "The Enchanted Owl" from 1960 was chosen as a motif for a 6-cent stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of the Northwest Territories .
  • In 1974 she was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts .
  • In 1980 her graphic "The Return of the Sun" from 1961 forms the motif for a 17-cent stamp from the famous Inuit stamp series of the Canada Post .
  • In 1982 she was named "Companion to the Order of Canada " (which roughly corresponds to the German Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class).
  • In 1991 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the law school of Queen's University in Kingston , ( Ontario ).
  • In 1992 she received her second honorary doctorate, this time from the University of Toronto Law School .
  • In 1993, Kenojuak's 1969 graphic "The Owl" was selected as the motif for an 86-cent stamp in the "Art Canada" series.
  • In 1994 Kenojuak accepted the invitation to open the exhibition "Arctic Spirit - 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art" at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (USA), and she attended the opening of "Isumavut - The Artistic Expression of Nine Cape Dorset Women" Ottawa part.
  • In 1995 she received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award (Lifetime Achievement) in Vancouver .
  • In 1999 - on the occasion of the establishment of the Nunavut Territory on April 1, 1999 - the issue of a 25-cent coin with a Kenojuak motif "Owl and polar bear" and the release of a diptych "Siilavut, Nunavut" (Our Environment, Our Country) in a special edition of 99 copies.
  • In 2001 Kenojuak was honored by being accepted into " Canada's Walk of Fame " in Toronto.
  • In 2002 the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa showed selected works by the artist "Kenojuak Ashevak: To Make Something Beautiful" on the occasion of her 75th birthday.
  • In 2004 Kenojuak (together with Inuit studio manager Jimmy Manning) stayed in Germany for the first time (March 25th to April 4th) - as "Ambassador of their homeland" on the occasion of celebrations for the 5th anniversary of the Canadian territory of Nunavut and the "1st. Exhibition of a selection of works by the artist Kenojuak Ashevak in Germany ”at Vischering Castle . In the same year she designed the first artistic flat glass window designed by Inuit , a church window for the John Bell Chapel of Appleby College in Oakville near Toronto .
  • In 2008 Kenojuak Ashevak received the prestigious $ 25,000 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts from the Canada Council of the Arts.

Information on the artistic work

The number of etchings , stone carvings and lithographs made from your drawings can be determined from the official publications of West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd. (a facility for the distribution of artistic works from Cape Dorset) as follows: Kenojuak has been represented with over 300 graphics in the cooperative's highly sought-after annual collections since 1959. Since her works are sought after by museums and are also of great interest among collectors, the usual editions of 50 copies are generally sold out quickly and can only be acquired at auctions, which is correspondingly expensive. While the prices set by the Co-op in the annual catalogs for Kenojuak graphics have recently ranged from 600 to 1,200 Canadian dollars, the stone carving “The Enchanted Owl” from 1960 (red -black version, edition: 25) at that time still provided with a fixed price of 75 Canadian dollars. But after just twenty years, art auctions were selling $ 10 to $ 15,000. The stone carving achieved its highest price to date in November 2001: In Toronto, the well-known auction house Waddington's was awarded the auction hammer with a bid of 51,000 Canadian dollars (that's around 36,000 euros plus auction fees).

But not only drawings and graphics made Kenojuak famous. Her relatively rare serpentine sculptures are also sought after by connoisseurs. The artist's activity in the field of “flat glass design” is mentioned above.

Well-known artists from the family

  • Johnniebo Ashevak (1923–1972), husband of Kenojuak Ashevak
  • Arnaguq Ashevak (1956–2009), adopted son of Kenojuak Ashevak
  • Adamie Ashevak (* 1959), son of Kenojuak Ashevak
  • Adamie Alariaq (1928–1990), brother of Kenojuak Ashevak

See also

literature

  • Jean Blodgett: Kenojuak . Firefly Books, Toronto 1985. ISBN 0-920668-31-3
  • Ansgar Walk: Kenojuak - life story of an important Inuit artist . Pendragon Verlag, Bielefeld 2003. ISBN 3-934872-51-4
  • Anna Füller: The Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak and the development of Inuit graphic art. GRIN Verlag , Munich 2016

Web links

Commons : Kenojuak Ashevak  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Sandra Martin: Visionary Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak dies at 85 ( Memento from February 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Globe and Mail , January 8, 2013.
  2. Biographical data of Kenojuak Ashevak in: Colors , Volume 4, Four Colors Productions, Incorporated, 1995, page 51