Showing Now! Itee Pootoogook: Hymns to the Silence

by Shelby Smith

Coloured pencil and graphite drawing by artist Itee Pootoogook (1951 ‑ 2014) titled "Four Women Working on the Polar Bear Skin" dated 2011.

Itee Pootoogook (1951 ‑ 2014). Four Women Working on the Polar Bear Skin. 2011. Coloured pencil and graphite on black paper. 56.2 x 76.2 cm. Gift of Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron. McMichael Canadian Art Collection. 2018.7.33.

We are excited to have the travelling exhibition Itee Pootoogook: Hymns to the Silence on display at the Douglas Family Art Centre until April 2, 2022.

This exhibition of the art of Itee Pootoogook (1951–2014) gathers together more than 50 drawings from the late artist’s body of work and is the first full-scale retrospective of his art. As one of the key members of the third generation of Inuit artists from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Itee contributed to the transformation of the creative traditions inherited from his elders at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative’s Kinngait Studios.

Known as a meticulous draftsperson and an inventive landscapist, Itee looked primarily to contemporary Northern life for his subject matter. These understated images celebrate the mundane moments that make up the everyday but also the flashes of unrivalled natural beauty that are the delight of all who live in the North.

This exhibition was organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and guest curated by Dr. Nancy Campbell.

Did you know?

Kenora was once claimed by Ontario and by Manitoba. Both provinces claimed the area between 1878 and 1884. The case was resolved in 1884 by Queen Victoria’s Privy Council, the highest court in the world at the time.