Jessie Oonark, one of Canada's most important Inuit artists, began
her artistic career when she was in her mid-fifties. Over a span of
twenty years, Oonark made hundreds of drawings and textile works. Her
interest in art was recognized early, and her drawings were the first
works from Baker Lake to be made into prints by the Cape Dorset print
shop in 1960 and 1961 and were featured in each of the Baker Lake Annual
Print Collections catalogues from 1970 to 1985. She was elected to the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and later recognized as a Companion to
the Order of Canada. Oonark's work was featured in numerous group exhibitions
in Canada and internationally, and in 1986, she was honored posthumously
with a solo retrospective at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Manitoba.
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Power of Thought, 1977
Screenprint on paper, 21x25 inches
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Through her art, Oonark was able to explore and re-invent many facets
of her life -- living on the land and the traditional activities, mythology,
intellectual culture, and environment that shaped her artistic vision.
The transition from nomadic life to life in the settlements set the
stage for a new beginning as an artist. The prints in the exhibition
reflect Oonark's personal journey, the psychological soul travel that
allowed her to intellectualize and explore the complex cross-cultural
and social relationships that marked Inuit life at that time.
Oonark's sophisticated visual imagery is most forcefully and clearly
expressed in the print medium. The strong central images and bold designs
that characterize her textiles form some of her most successful images
when isolated on the printed page. Unlike the Cape Dorset artists who
faithfully reproduced her drawings into prints, the Baker Lake printmakers
worked cooperatively to interpret the artist's images, utilizing a strategic
use of space, economy of line, and exaggerated color palette. Prints
such as Young Woman (1971) and Big Woman (1974), which were cover designs
for the Baker Lake Annual Print Collection catalogues, exemplify the
clarity of style and bold shapes that characterize Oonark's work. The
prints also reflect Oonark's preoccupation with the role and importance
of women in Inuit society. The ulu, an essential crescent-shaped
knife used predominantly by women, is used repeatedly by the artist
as a design motif symbolic of womanhood.
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Helped by Spirits, 1970
Stonecut on paper, 11x11 1/2 inches
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Oonark freely explored spiritual aspects of Inuit culture, giving visual
expression to subjects that had been prohibited by missionaries and
others. Helped by Spirits (1970), Lake Spirits Laughing at
Stranded Man (1976), and Flying Woman (1978) all refer to
the traditional belief systems. Although she was a devout Anglican,
Oonark frequently juxtaposed Christian images with images of shamanism,
animism, and the world of spirits. In addition, daily life is represented
in Drying Fish (1970) and Hunting with Bow and Spear (1975),
and the importance of family is seen in Favourite Daughter (1985).
Oonark is perhaps most inventive in her portrayal of the close relationship
between people and animals. Prints such as lqaluk Uluk (1978),
Fish with Ulus (1981), and The Catch (1984) display the
intimacy of this symbiotic relationship.
Power of Thought (1977) and Tarrara (Seeing
Myself) (1981) are perhaps more overt attempts by the artist to
probe metaphysical issues, such as being, identity, time, and space,
that would have concerned her as an artist living and working in a time
of tremendous social and cultural upheaval. This intellectual introspection
informs much of Oonark's imagery. Current research indicates that 108
prints by Oonark were created from 1970 to 1985. The exhibition features
forty prints based on drawings and textiles of Jessie Oonark produced
by Baker Lake printmakers as well as a few of her unreleased prints.
The exhibition, Power of Thought, named after her screenprint of the
same title, provides the first in-depth analysis of the artist's prints.
Marie Bouchard, exhibition curator
The exhibition and national tour are organized by the Marsh Art
Gallery, University of Richmond Museums, Virginia. Guest curated by
Marie Bouchard, the exhibition features prints lent courtesy of Judith
Varney Burch, Arctic Inuit Art, Richmond, Virginia.
