Stonecuts from Cape Dorset
Friday, January 31 from 4-7 pm
and
Friday, February 14 from 4-7 pm
TheoGanz Studio is pleased to present Stonecuts from Cape Dorset,
on view Friday, January 31 from 4-7 pm and Friday, February 14 from 4-7
pm as well as by appointment by contacting Eleni Smolen at
theoganzstudio@tds.net or 917.318.2239. Additionally, several
lithographs and etchings will be on view. TheoGanz Studio’s Inuit Print
Room is located at 4 DeWindt Street, Beacon, New York 12508.
“Stonecut printing is unique to the Canadian Arctic. The techniques were
borrowed from the Japanese practice of woodblock printing. Instead of
wood, the printmakers of Canada’s north work with the same indigenous
stone used for carving sculptures.
The first step is tracing the original drawing and applying it to the
smooth surface of the prepared stone. Using india ink, the stonecutter
delineates the drawing on the stone and then cuts away the areas that
are not to appear in print, leaving the uncut areas raised, or in
relief. The raised area is inked using rollers and then a thin sheet of
paper - usually fine, handmade Japanese paper - is placed over the inked
surface. A protective sheet of tissue is placed over this sheet, and
the paper is pressed gently against the stone by hand with a small,
padded disc. Only one print can be pulled from each inking of the stone,
so the edition takes time and patience and care.
The West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset has earned a
worldwide reputation for the quality and originality of limited edition
prints made by its member artists. Every year since 1959 the print
making studios (now known as Kinngait Studios) have released an annual
catalogued collection of between 30 and 60 images as well as numerous
commissions and special releases. Kinngait Studios is the longest
continuous running print studio in Canada.
Although the graphic abilities of many Inuit were recognized early on
from incised ornaments and tools as well as appliqued garments and bags,
very little works on paper were done prior to the inception of the
print making program in the late 1950’s.
Much of the success of the formative years of printmaking in Cape Dorset
can be attributed to James Houston, an artist from Toronto who left the
cosmopolitan south with his wife Alma and their two young sons in 1952
and lived the better part of the next 10 years in Cape Dorset.
Apparently James Houston was a heavy smoker and one day Oshweetok
Ipeelie, a skilled hunter and carver of walrus tusks, picked up an empty
cigarette package and remarked upon the supreme patience and skill of
the man who drew with painstaking precision the identical image of a
sailor on each and every pack. Houston tried to explain how multiple
images are made and then began to demonstrate the fundamental principles
of printmaking by rubbing soot over an incised walrus tusk. He then
pressed a few sheets of toilet paper over the image and pulled a few
simple prints whereupon Ipeelie amazed and delighted exclaimed, “We can
do that.” Thus began a quest to find a genuine, indigenous and
appropriate means of printmaking.
Although several small editions of sealskin stencils were produced it
was a cumbersome and limiting process. However it was discovered that
the local carving stone used for sculpture was an ideal medium for
relief printing and eventually the stone cut technique became the most
common media of printmaking in Cape Dorset. Later on the technique of
engraving was introduced and in the 1970’s the first litho press was set
up. In recent times, stone cuts, etchings and lithographs have
comprised the mediums of each collection thus allowing the artists a
greater variety of expression.”
© Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto
dorsetfinearts.com
Dorset Fine Arts, established in 1978, is the marketing arm of the West
Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset and has a vast inventory of
Inuit art in its Toronto showroom and flat files. Inuit art aficionados
are encouraged to visit DFA's online inventory of
available art work and to peruse the many informational videos about
this particular Co-op's history and artists. As one of the listed
galleries affiliated with the Co-op, TheoGanz Studio in Beacon, New York
could acquire any available piece that appeals to you and have it
shipped directly to you from Toronto.
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