Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 14
Pitseolak AshoonaLunik House1971
1971
$1,550
£1,166.27
€1,347.40
CA$2,176.17
A$2,350.97
CHF 1,250.74
MX$28,288.60
NOK 15,837.01
SEK 14,483.38
DKK 10,065.77
About the Item
This artwork titled "Lunik Home" 1971, is an original stone cut on thin handmade paper by noted Inuit artist Pitseolak Ashoona, 1904-1983. It is hand signed, dated, titled, numbered 10/50 and inscribed Dorset in pencil by the artist. With the artist blind stamp at the lower right corner. The artwork (image) size is 15 x 17.5 inches, framed size is 25 x 29 inches. Custom framed in original light brown wood frame, with of-white color matting. It is in excellent condition, the frame have some very small minor restoration, barely visible.
About the artist:
Pitseolak was born to Timungiak and Oootochie on Nottingham Island in the Northwest Territories now Nunavut. Her name means "sea pigeon" in Inuktitut. She grew up in the traditional life of her people, with food dependent on hunting and gathering. Her culture relied on angakuit.
In 1922 (or 1923), Pitseolak married Ashoona, a hunter, in the Foxe Peninsula of Baffin Island.[3] They had 17 children, though only six (Namoonie, Qaqaq, Kumwartok, Kiugak, Napachie, and Ottochie) lived with Pitseolak until adulthood. Some died in childhood, and others were adopted out according to custom, and raised by other Inuit families.
After her husband died at the age of 40 from a viral sickness, Pitseolak raised four of the children, Kumwartok, Qaqaq, Kiawak or Kiugak, and daughter Napachie Pootoogook, herself. Years of hardship followed the death of Ashoona, which occurred sometime in the early to mid 1940s. He died in the early years of the Second World War, a time of decline in the market for furs.
Over time the loss of Ashoona led Pitseolak to become an artist. Making prints eased her loneliness and she described her art as what made her "the happiest since he died". Pitseolak's artwork later enabled her to support her family. Though her art arose from painful circumstances, it expressed mostly positive memories and experiences. As Christine Lalonde notes in Pitseolak Ashoona: Life
Work: "scenes of deprivation and suffering almost never appear in her drawings, though certain images convey sadness and longing" about the passing of Ashoona.
Pitseolak is recognized as one of the first Inuit artists to create autobiographical works. Her art contained images of traditional Inuit life and contributed to the establishment of a modern `Inuit art form, one that transmitted traditional knowledge and values while at the same time achieving worldwide popular and commercial success.
Pitseolak died on May 28, 1983, in Cape Dorset now Kinngait. She was survived by a large family of artists, including:
Pitseolak Ashoona was one of the first artists in the 1960s to make drawings for the print studio in Cape Dorset. She was a self-taught artist, who worked out solutions to artistic problems through what Lalonde described as "a self directed-program of repetitious drawing".
Initially Pitseolak worked sewing and embroidering goods for sale as part of the arts and crafts program. It was initiated by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources as a way for Inuit to earn money. It was introduced by James Archibald Houston and Alma Houston at Cape Dorset in 1956. Upon seeing the work of her cousin Kiakshuk (1886–1966), who was part of the Cape Dorset graphic studio, Pitseolak decided to take up drawing. Her early work was well received and she soon became one of the most popular artists among those creating images for the Cape Dorset print collection.
First working with graphite pencil, Pitseolak would later move on to coloured pencil and felt-tip pens. Lalonde said these became her favoured medium because their "rich and vibrant colours" best expressed "the joyfulness that characterizes her work".
Pitseolak's cousin, Kiakshuk, and Houston both inspired her to try her hand at drawing. She also worked on copper plates, but did not enjoy this technique.
In the last two decades of her life, from 1960 onwards, she produced a collection of more than 7,000 images, 233 of which were created as prints in her Cape Dorset Collection. She said these illustrated life pre-contact, "the things we did long ago before there were many white men.
Her artwork focuses on both daily life and legends, or Taleelayu. Pitseolak was inspired by other artists in her community who started before her, saying: "I don't know who did the first print, but Kiakshuk, Niviaksiak, Oshawetok and Tudlik were all drawing at the beginning. I liked the first prints ... because they were truly Eskimo. Pitseolak was accepted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1974 and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1977 for her work.
Through the following decade and until her death in 1983, Pitseolak continued to draw, and to work with new media. An arts grant awarded to her in 1975 sparked experimentation in a new medium – acrylic paint on canvas. Initially, she approached painting like drawing, outlining in pencil and then filling in with colour. As she gradually adapted to the nuances of the medium, she began laying down bold colours side by side to achieve her vivid affect.
Pitseolak found prints to be the most challenging, as she said in Dorothy Harley Eber's book Pitseolak: Pictures of My Life; "To make prints is not easy. You must think first and this is hard to do. But I am happy doing the prints." Though not active as a printmaker, Pitseolak experimented with drawing directly on copper plates and, to a lesser degree, lithographic stones.[4]
In 1973 she narrated her story in the National Film Board's animated documentary Pictures out of My Life, directed by Bozenna Heczko and based on interviews from Eber's book.[13][14] Pitseolak was also featured on a stamp, issued on March 8, 1993, and designed by Heather J. Cooper, in commemoration of International Women's Day.
Pitseolak's work has been featured in exhibitions at Canadian museums, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian museum of civilizations, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1975 she had a retrospective at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., organized by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
- Creator:Pitseolak Ashoona (1904 - 1981, Canadian)
- Creation Year:1971
- Dimensions:Height: 25 in (63.5 cm)Width: 29 in (73.66 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:San Francisco, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: ash/lun/hou/011stDibs: LU666317439692
About the Seller
5.0
Platinum Seller
Premium sellers with a 4.7+ rating and 24-hour response times
Established in 1999
1stDibs seller since 2017
877 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: San Francisco, CA
- Return Policy
More From This Seller
View AllSea Spirit
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Sea Spirit" 1965 is an original stonecut on thin paper by Eskimo artist Egevadluq (Eegyvudluk) Ragee, 1920-1983. It is hand signed, titled, dated, described and numbered 20/50 in pencil by the artist. With the blind stamp of the artist at the lower right corner. It is in excellent condition. it has a minor thin crease at the middle center, at the edge of the sheet, barely visible, see picture #4
About the artist:
Eegyvudluk Ragee was the oldest child born to Pamiaktok and Sorisolutu at the small campsite of Ikarasak, on the southern tip of Baffin Island in 1920.
When Egevadluq travelled to Cape Dorset (Kinngait) to trade for supplies, she would buy graphite pencil and paper from the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. Her early works filled entire sheets of paper, mythical creatures, bird-animal-human transformations, and images from reality - all randomly intermingled . By the mid-1960s, Eegyvudluk was using wax crayons, or coloured felt pens on paper.
In 1967, improved housing in Cape Dorset resulted in the Inuit abandoning most of the campsites. Eegyvudluk moved into the settlement, and by the early 1970s, explored the use of arcrylic washes, on which she drew her well-known figures and birds.
"I started drawing because I was 'tususkuk' (when I saw other people doing it, I wanted to do the same things)...When I start to make a drawing, I have a picture in my mind, but when I try to put that picture on paper, my hands won't do what my mind wants. When I have the picture in my head, I can't get it out by my hands. Sometimes I find it hard to draw when my children are in the house; I find it hard to think with so much noise around me. I make the kids go outside." Eegyvudluk, Cape Dorset Print Catalogue, 1978.
Exhibitions
Alaska Eskimo Dolls/Inuit Prints, Provincial Museum of Alberta, sponsored by the Alaska State Council on the Arts
ART ESKIMO, Galerie de France
Art Inuit, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Galerie Akenaton
Art Inuit: Autour de la Collection de Cape Dorset 1991, Presented by l'Iglou Art Esquimau, Douai at Le Colombier
Art/Facts, McMaster Art Gallery
Art/Facts, McMaster Art Gallery
Canadian Eskimo Art...
Category
Mid-20th Century Folk Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Other Medium
Winter Dream
By Pudlo Pudlat
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Winter Dream" 1989 is an original stonecut on thin tissue paper by noted Canadian/Inuit artist Pudlo Pudlat, 1916-1992. It is hand signed, titled, dated. describ...
Category
Late 20th Century Other Art Style Animal Prints
Materials
Other Medium
Untitled III
By Sunol Alvar
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Alvar
Title: Untitled III
Year: c.1990
Medium: Color lithograph with embossing
Edition: Numbered 148/225 in pencil
Paper: Arches
Image size: 16.5 x 22.5 inches
Framed s...
Category
Late 20th Century Romantic Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Silent Hunter
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Silent Hunter" 2002 is an original color stonecut on beige Japan paper by noted Canadian/Inuit artist Kananginak Pootoogook, 1935-2010. It is hand signed, dated, titled, located, described and numbered 22/50 in pencil by the artist. The image size is 15 x 11.75 inches, framed size is 23.35 x 20 inches. Custom framed in a wooden dark green frame, with green matting. It is in excellent condition.
About the artist:
Kananginak Pootoogook was an Inuit sculptor and printmaker who lived in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, in Canada. He died as a result of complications related to surgery for lung cancer.
Pootoogook was born at a traditional Inuit camp called Ikerasak, near Cape Dorset, Nunavut (then in the Northwest Territories) to Josephie Pootoogook, leader of the camp, and Sarah Ningeokuluk. The family lived a traditional lifestyle hunting and trapping while living in an iglu in the winter and a sod house in the summer and did not move into their first southern style house until 1942. In 1957 Pootoogook married Shooyoo, moved to Cape Dorset and began work for James Houston.
Originally, Pootoogook did some carving, made prints and lithographs for other artists. At the same time he was a leader in setting up the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, the first Inuit owned co-op, now part of the Arctic Co-operatives Limited and served from 1959 until 1964 as the president. Although Kananginak had worked with his father, Josephie, in 1959, it was not until the 1970s that Kananginak began work as a full-time artist producing drawings, carvings and prints. According to Terry Ryan, former Co-op manager, Pootoogook was both influenced by and an admirer of the works of his uncle, photographer and historian Peter Pitseolak.
The World Wildlife Commission released a limited edition set in 1977 that included four of Pootoogook's images and in 1980 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1997 Pootoogook built a 6 ft (1.8 m) inukshuk in Cape Dorset for former Governor General of Canada, Roméo LeBlanc. The inukshuk was dismantled and shipped to Ottawa and with the assistance of his son, Johnny, it was rebuilt at Rideau Hall and unveiled on 21 June, National Aboriginal Day.
Pootoogook had several exhibitions and showings of his work. In 2010, he went to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics and to open a showing of his work at the Marion Scott Gallery. He also had a showing of his work, his first solo exhibition at a public institution, at the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto from February to May 2010. He also received a 2010 National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the arts category from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation.
While working on his final, and unfinished, drawing of a Peterhead owned by his father, he was struck by coughing spells, which he declared was cancer. Along with his wife, Shooyoo, he flew to Ottawa, staying at the Larga Baffin home, and was diagnosed with lung cancer. In October 2010, he underwent surgery and did not recover. He died 23 November 2010 in Ottawa. The work of Kananginak Pootoogook is held in numerous collections and museums, includingThe McCord Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, Musee National des Baux Arts...
Category
Late 20th Century Other Art Style Figurative Prints
Materials
Other Medium
Horses #I
By Hoi Lebadang
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "titled "Horses #1" 1974 is an original color lithograph, with embossing by French/Vietnamese artist Hoi Lebadang, 1922-2015. It is hand signed and numbered 32/275 in pe...
Category
Late 20th Century Modern Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Pastourelle
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork titled "Pastourelle" c.1990 is a color etching and aquatint by French artist Charlotte Reine, b.1956. It is hand signed, titled and number...
Category
Late 20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
You May Also Like
Landscape
By Sami Burhan
Located in Roma, IT
Hand signed and numbered. Edition of 20 prints in Roman Numerals.
Artist's proof. Trimmed margins.
Image Dimensions: 46.5 x 37 cm
Category
1960s Contemporary Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Chinese Contemporary Art by Hongda - Aurora Tribe
Located in Paris, IDF
Oil on sailcloth
Hongda is a Chinese artist born in 1984 who lives and works in Beijing, China. He is graduated from Jingdezhen Ceramic University in 2007. He deconstructs and resha...
Category
2010s Abstract Paintings
Materials
Sailcloth, Oil
BITS AND PIECES OF A CULTURE
Located in Aventura, FL
Lithograph on paper. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Edition of 300.
Certificate of Authenticity Included. Artwork in Excellent Condition. All reasonable offers will be ...
Category
Late 20th Century Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
$80 Sale Price
36% Off
Untitled
Located in Barcelona, BARCELONA
The painting is being offered with a work and authenticity certificate
Category
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Engraving
No title
By Riccardo Licata
Located in Paris, FR
Print, 1988
Edition : X/XX
49.50 cm. x 70.00 cm. 19.49 in. x 27.56 in. (paper)
33.00 cm. x 42.00 cm. 12.99 in. x 16.54 in. (image)
Handsigned by the artist in pencil
Ref : LCD2878
Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Untitled
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Jae Kon Park. "Untitled" is an abstract painting, oil on canvas in blues, oranges, and greens by Korean, Post-War artist Jae Kon Park. The artwork is signed in the lowe...
Category
Late 20th Century Post-War Abstract Paintings
Materials
Oil
$24,000