Art inuit

The term “ Inuit ” is the plural of “ inuk ” meaning “anybody, owner, occupant, human being”, if this term refers to a universality of humanity it is however employed like the whole of the people of the world of the inuit. The expression art inuit is a heterodesignation defining the whole of the productions, the activities and the artistic currents of the Civilization inuit. It is gathered in the " arts first " who is the whole of arts of the not-Western companies with oral tradition, term making debate but which very used by the press in particular since the construction of the museum of civilizations - Quay Branly.

“Art inuit” a discussed expression

The expression art inuit is problematic because the concept “art” which seems to be according to the ethnologists properly Western, in any case not exit of the world inuit is applied here to another civilization. This hétéro-designation must include/understand like a European classification i.e. a way of naming something of another civilization with our own language. It thus should well be understood that art inuit is not defined directly by this civilization. There does not exist generic word gathering touy what we could call of practice artistic like the word “French art”, from where need for speaking about precise practice. In the world inuit it with the sanannguagaq it is there the “sculpture”, minguarsimajuq which correspond to the “painting” and qimiqrunguaq which corresponds to the “drawing, print”.

Use of the term of art in connection with the inuit productions

When one is interested in the productions Bi and three-dimensional of Inuits, we realize that there exists current of thought which wants that the concept of art which would be properly Western that is to say applicable to the whole of the phenomena concerning the identity inuit. This concept not used by them, not secreted by them would thus seem by this reason inappropriate. The ethnologists who use the term of creation thus prefer to stick on the identity inuit a term which in the beginning comes from Poïen meaning to make emerge nothing. This term implies not only the concept of chaos but also the dualistic concept of Substantialité/Insubstantialité. Thus the Sème S implied by him would apply to the sows S inuit. Moreover than Inuits regard their activity as making emerge something of chaos according to the dires sculptors and painter-draftsman seems completely false since they generally qualify their work of “revelation”. Moreover it appears obvious that to say that the concept of art does not exist in the identity inuit at least two conditions should then be met:

Premièrement to know what defines the term “art”, thing that no philosopher of Article
Deuxièmement it would be necessary that the concept of art belongs properly to the Occidental culture i.e. it is not universal; for that the term of art should then define discernible and limitable elements. In this logic art would be thus limitable and would constitute a unit.

It thus seems important to realize that deciding them of the use of the term of art are attached to a notion of art coming from the history from Article. According to the remarks of Beardsley in Aesthétics (1981):

“It goes from there from art like language: a work, whatever is nature, is a “proposal”, with the direction where something is proposed there with comprehension and the appreciation. ”

There is thus also art where there is a public to judge or to speak about it. Thus in this design it is not the producer who decides to classify his production under the art term but well what George Dickie call the “ Artworld ”. Moreover, to be with more close, of the various speeches on the " inuit" creations; , for the ethnologists, and " work of art" , for the historians of art, we will use the term of “production” or “Artifact”.

The morpheme “- nnguaq”

The Infix “- nnguaq” brings a concept of imitation of the things from of which the product with either a nature different, or a different function (a different goal). Moreover one can also notice that it treats the dialectical one between being and appearing and will have as a role to indicate the things of which to appear it does not agree with their being, the best example is the indicating syntagm “piujunnguaq” what appears to be good but which actually is not it. What is interesting and which is undoubtedly due to the relations between Inuit and Qallunaat it is that with time this infix tends to indicate activities carried out with an only aim of the pleasure which them realization gets. The decomposable syntagm “maujarannguatuq” in: “maujarartuq” meaning to jump of an ice floe of drift ice to another, infix “- nnguaq” that one determines normally by “imitation” and the third nobody of the singular of attributive “- the tuq”. We see that here the infix one “- nnguaq” brings a concept pleasure of getting for the simple fact of the realization of the act, of play.

It is important to include/understand well this infix present in the majority of the syntagms indicating the artistic activities.

A short history of art inuit

According to the specialists in the field it is necessary to divide the history of art inuit into five periods: “pre-Dorset”, “Dorset”, “Thulé”, “first contacts with the white” and “contemporary period” (known as modern). Sleep and already, the bond between history of art and history are essential because the majority of the historians classify the various periods of the Inuit history according to this classification. Doesn't it make only follow the classification of the history inuit? Is it really significant to define the various artistic periods? A history of formal art inuit would undoubtedly be more relevant.

Pre-Dorset period

The pre-Dorset period that one goes back to 2500 with 1000 before Jesus-Christ (majority of the authors not being in agreement for the dating it will be necessary us to try to take into account the greatest number of different theories, some consider that the period going of 5000 with 1000 front J-C corresponds to the settlement of the Arctique) is characterized by a culture of hunter whose principal preys were the caribou and the marine mammals. They used for that a Harpon with tilting point.

Dorset period

Then the period Dorset which extends up to 1000 after Jesus-Christ corresponds to that of the predominance of the culture of Dorsets which mainly developed on the Baffin Island and which one calls the Tuniit . It is a culture of hunting also but one especially differentiate it from the first by the improvement of the weapons and from the tools which testify to an esthetic direction and knowledge to make because the practical objects of the life of the every day receive an esthetic value by carved decorations. The masks out of wooden paints that one found date of this period. The excavations made it possible to find a great number of figurines out of ivory, tine, wooden, stone and other elements having an implication magico-nun used at the time of the rites chamanic concerned with the macabre one, i.e. surfaces are covered with deep incisions evoking the skeletons of the beings illustrated with marks in X engraved in precise places (head and articulations). The site of Short prop Not on the island of Bylot provided a great number of objects of this type, mainly of the small figurines out of wooden, headstocks carrying in the chest of the wood glares. Their sculpture which is of large size, as on the masks, or tiny, especially of the realistic sculptures of animals, shows an extreme meticulousness. A great number of objects are thus decorated with an aim undoubtedly magic to attract the chance, but it is also necessary to note the presence of a great number of complex three-dimensional productions with faces with the strange expressions especially the human faces seeming to be hybrids between the man and the animal. Moreover, apart from what can be regarded as properly artistic they manufactured kayaks, houses of snows and soap oil lamps.

Period of Thulés

The Thulés of which the period goes from 1000 to 1800 were a population originating in the Alaska which colonized the imposing Arctique in Dorsétiens their lifestyle primarily based on hunting for the whale of which the methods of survival were more advanced. The kayak, Qajaq , are replaced by the oumiak (we put here the C-W communication present in the majority of the French-speaking works although it is inaccurate), Umiaq , and they import the sledges with attachments of dogs and the drills with bow. The tents pass then to a stone association and bone of whales. In this context an art nouveau is profiled, qualified by some of less advanced because more decorative of share its aiming of an esthetic elegance through all these small stylized reasons, where the people venerated the ivory and wood sculptures. We can see there women without aspects, glazes of reasons made up of dotted lines carried out thanks to the drill with bow. These decorations are as a large majority on the combs, the safety goggles or the handles of drills with arc. Thus these ornaments of the linear type can sometimes represent scenes of hunting. The nonlinear reasons most frequent are a woman who swims or a bird.

First contacts with the white

Before last period is that of the contacts with the white in particular for the trade. The culture inuit having evolved/moved at different intervals according to the areas, with regard to art, Qallunaat will have to make with a heterogeneous esthetics. The main feature of this period is the progressive installation of artistic techniques imported by the white which will be réappropriées by the inuit in order to mix them with their traditional techniques.

Birth of the modern art inuit

Then one dates the modern period starting from the Second world war. This one starts with the voyage of James Houston, living with Ontario, in the territories inuit in 1948, which by seeing the two-dimensional productions inuit understood that they could be a source of revenue for Inujjuaq . Thanks to the support of the Canadian Guild of the trades of art they will sell a little more than 1000 objects with Montreal during their first marketing year of Article It will be the first exposure of art inuit. In front of this success the governments of the Territory of the North-West and Nouveau Quebec will recognize the lucrative aspect of art for the inuit and will start to subsidize the Guild so that its program of prospection extends to the greatest number of villages inuit. Develops thus a co-operative movement allowing the marketing of art inuit but also developing the democratization of the artistic activities at the inuit in particular by facilitating the access to average the techniques. The commercial aspect consisting mainly of the promotion of their artistic productions in the South of Canada i.e. the sale of those with the Qallunaat . This movement contains the hope of an economic independence transcended by an identity assertion. Finally art inuit will be made known in the world in entirety thanks to the World Fair to Montreal of 1967.

Three-dimensional productions answering our concept of sculpture: sanannguagaq

The term of sanannguagaq is a composition starting from the morpheme sanatorium which means " to manufacture, façonner" constituted of the affixes:

- nnguaq , that we studied previously, it brings a concept of imitation here, of reduction;

- gaq which is a mark of the liability, that one can coarsely translate by " what est" (this affix usually brings also a concept, of “what is usually”).

Thus “what is worked by reduction, by imitation” is a sculpture. This artistic practice seem to be ancestral at the inuit since that there are traces since the period of Dorsets. One can however see two tendencies according to the materials used, whose first, the use of natural materials, is most traditional.

Sculpture on natural materials

In the sculpture resulting in particular from the ancestral culture the natural materials are numerous:

- ivory of Morse or narval;

- the wood of caribou (tine) or it wood of floatation constitutes especially elements in the composite sculptures;

- the bone of whale fossilized in order to exploit the anatomical texture and forms;

- skins can also be used as element in the sculpture.

It should however be noted that since the application of the convention of Washington (QUOTE), the export and the marketing of ivory and bone of marine mammals is very regulated.

Sculpture on stone

Under the strong demand of the Westerners of works and the reduction in natural materials, the inuit are little by little concentrate on the stone.

technique: The stone is directly extracted from the layers close to the localizations, from where the dominating use of certain stones according to those. Then it is trimmed with the hatchet before passing to more meticulous work by the followed use of files and graters, by a polishing to the emery and sandpaper. Finally the completion consists in passing from animal grease in order to give a brilliant aspect.

various stones: The most used stone is steatite, but there is also the serpentine one, the peridotite, and one can note that the sculpture develops lately on the marble, alabaster and certain metals.

Two-dimensional productions, the drawing and the print: qimiqrunguaq

They developed especially after 1950 and are characterized by a mixture of techniques in order to make in order to carry out complex works.

The drawing

Contrary to our company or concept of " dessin" remain still close to that of " dessain" , for the inuit this one constitutes a work with whole share whose techniques are especially the colored pencils, the black lead and the felt. Here the narrative aspect is prevalent that it relates to the myths where the description of the daily newspaper and generally integrates text written in spelling-books corresponding to what is shown. The forms are very simplified and show the assertion of a position opposed to that of the figurative one.

The print

It is the form of graphic art most developed in the world inuit because it was considered like a Community work completely adapting to the cultural system inuit contrary to the sculpture or the drawing asking a certain loneliness.

The team are composes in general of a woman who draws. She conceives the reason which is then ink and covered with a sheet of mulberry tree as well as thicker sheet. Then they rub surface with a plug to finish by a phase of drying.

The topics as for the other productions are: imaginary animals, more particularly birds, beings, life in camping.

The composition of the productions is based primarily by a reflection on the color, explaining its characteristic asymmetry suggesting a movement, few plans different and a certain rejection from the prospect. The plans are made by a juxtaposition of the characters the ones over the others and a reduction of the scale increasing the impression of vastness of surrounding nature.

Atarnajuat: the world inuit enters the cinema

Zacharias Kunuk is the realizer of a film entitled Atarnajuat the legend of the fast man , thus gaining the Gold Camera to the International festival of film of Cannes in 2001, thanks to the team Isuma production. One can translate isuma by the spirit, the thought, the conscience, the affects and the memory. Name sticking completely to a team producing a film which wants to be the memory, the testimony of their culture by the cinematographic narration.

General characteristics

We can through the history of art inuit and our morphological analyzes to return account to us which art inuit exists indeed. It is characterized mainly by the interaction between the identity will of assertion in particular through the persistence of ancestral topics but also of traditional materials, and an insatiable curiosity to adapt novel methods, new materials thus creating productions where reign this interaction. This mixture of modernity and traditional ends in creation, of forms and unexpected contrasts being able to result only from this confrontation of two cultures, which approaches much more post-modern design of art that art first. The term of art first being attached well too to the culture of the producers and not taking into account its creative process which raises much more singular art that because of being a company with oral tradition. This term thus differentiates two types of artists according to the oral tradition or written of their civilization which appears to be well far from the creative process because the use of such a term would require that one shows the consequences of a culture with oral tradition or written on the artistic productions.

Plastic characteristics

The various inuit productions are especially characterized by the composition i.e. the capacity to associate various elements together, of with an artistic process centered on the creativity. Thus one can find on the same sculpture of the stone, ivory, pieces of tires of cars…, as many materials whose bond is not obvious, if it is not the fact of being all of the elements constituting the daily world which surround the life of the sculptor. The plastic treatment when with him on the level of the forms, or the relative naivety, is characterized by the roundness and especially the fact of having to be the expression of what matter contains in it. It is not attached to a style, of a “artist”, but is the expression even of the matter, the concept of individuality being not very present in the production which is supposed being the expression of a culture. Consequently the productions are not figurative, and do not proceed of a desire of imitation of what the eye but rather of a capacity to include/understand can see the forms which can emerge from the matter.

Topics

It is clear that the inuit do not produce in a search spiritual to answer esthetic questions but the share of object of exchange is very present for them whose art is the independent source of incomes. The topics are thus often to impose by the purchasers and are relating to the world inuit. Recurring are:

- the representation of the animals often in a style naturalist;

- narration of what constitutes the daily newspaper;

- myths often in a decorative style;

- a relative abstraction of the subject, in particular in the community of Arviat, by a simplification of the forms, leaving side the anecdotic aspect for a more timeless aspect calling in question the concept even of “art inuit”.

Known artists

Sculpture

Ashevak Tunnillie
John Tik Tak
Nuna Parr
Lucy Tasseor
Barnabus
Aqsangayuk Shaa
Davie Atchealak
Osuitok Ipeelee
Ohito Ashoona
Pauta Saila
Kaka Ashoona
Qiawak Ashoona
Manasie Akpaliak
George Arlook
Karoo Ashevak
Johnny Inukpuk
Peter Sevoga
Oopik Pitsiulak
Charlie Ugjuk
Jhon Pangnark
Alex Alikashuak
Timaigia
Kellypalik Quimirpik

Drawing

Nigiyok Mabel
Palvik Peter
Mary Okheena
Elsie Klengenberg
Josie Sivuarapik (painter)
German Arnaktauyok
Kananginak Pootoogook

Stamp

Workshop of Kinngait
Joe Talirunili (draftsman)
Davidialuk Alasuaq Amittuq
Simon Tookoome
William Noah
Jessie Oonark
Andrew Karpik
Peter Palvik

Realizer

Zacharias Kunuk

See too

misleading Appearances , Giulia Bogliolo Bruna, foreword of Jean Malaurie, Yvelinédition, Montigny Bretonneux, 2007

Art - Anthropology of art - History of art - Work of art - Art first
Inuit - North America - Siberia - Greenland

External bonds

Museum of the Art schools of Canada: collection of arts inuit.
Center of art inuit: program ministry for the Indian Businesses and Canadian North (MAINC).
art Inuit of Canada: site specailized in art Inuit
the igloo ESKIMO ART

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