Butchering Walrus on Ice Floe, Pauta Saila

Artwork Overview

Pauta Saila, Butchering Walrus on Ice Floe
Pauta Saila, Butchering Walrus on Ice Floe
Pauta Saila
Butchering Walrus on Ice Floe
1967
Butchering Walrus on Ice Floe, 1967
Where object was made: Cape Dorset Commune, Nunavut, Canada
Material/technique: relief print (stone cut)
Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 389 x 595 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 15 5/16 x 23 7/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 25 in
Credit line: Gift of Robert and Marion Mengel
Accession number: 2007.0581
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label: "Climate Change at the Poles," Jan-2009, Kate Meyer, Jennifer Talbott, and Angela Watts In 1957, the art of printmaking was brought to the Arctic when Osuitok Ipeelee, an Inuit carver, noticed the mass-produced images on cigarette packages. Visiting artist James Houston then demonstrated printmaking to him using ink rubbed onto a carved ivory tusk then printed onto paper. After experimenting with different materials, the same stone that artists used for sculpture was adapted for use in the creation of stonecut prints. Printmaking has become another essential part of the Inuit art market, though focused in fewer communities where printmaking shops have been established.

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 186 Apr-2009, Megan Ampe I’m David Cateforis with another art minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. The Canadian Inuit creates stonecut prints using a process developed from Japanese woodcuts. Since wood is extremely scarce in the Arctic, Inuit artists altered the woodcut method to suit their environment and resources by carving stone blocks into templates used to create prints. The Spencer collection includes a stonecut relief print created in 1967 at the Cape Dorset Commune in Nunavut, Canada by Pauta Saila, an Inuit artist well known for his stone carvings of bears and other animals. The 15 x 23 inch print, entitled Butchering Walrus on Ice Floe, presents simply drawn imagery in flattened perspective against a white ground. Two silhouetted figures stand facing each other on an ice floe, each of them bent over a maroon-colored walrus. Maroon emanates from the walruses’ bodies and flows into the ocean below. The rest of the water is colored deep royal-blue, and reaches just past the edges of the ice floe. Depicting a traditional activity in a bold and direct style, Pauta Saila’s composition is a striking example of Inuit creativity. With thanks to Megan Ampe for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.