Inuit Art

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

This authoritative introduction to Inuit sculpture, prints, drawings,
and textile arts features 120 color and 35 black-and-white photographs
of works chosen from such major collections as the Canadian Museum of
Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of
Ontario, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. In the foreword, George Swinton,
an international expert on Inuit art, notes that the volume is a
celebration of 50 years of contemporary Inuit art—an art that has made
a powerful contribution to Canadian culture.

The color photography, even that depicting pieces carved from black or
greyish stone, invests the works with a special vitality. Many of the
carvings are both earthy and mystical, a powerful combination.
Perceptive and sensitive short texts accompany each photograph. The one
for Augustin Anaittuq’s Caribou (1990) reads: “The assemblage of
materials, hardly carved at all, is astonishing in its simplicity, power
and quiet humour.”

Ingo Hessel has taught courses at the University of Ottawa, curated
exhibitions, and published numerous articles on Inuit art. Dieter Hessel
is a Toronto commercial photographer. Together they have made an
important contribution to the literature on Inuit art.