Collecting Inuit Art

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Jeannie and Jobie Inukpuk, “Untitled,” 1970s

grass, stone, fur, sealskin, caribou bone and leather, 9” x 15” diameter (photo by Paul Gessell)

The Inuit woman sits on a round grass mat weaving a basket. A young child rests in the hood of her amauti or fur parka. Beside them, a man carves stone.

This charming domestic scene, just nine inches high and 15 inches in diameter, is an example of art imitating life by the husband-and-wife team of Jobie and Jeannie Inukpuk, from the northern Quebec community of Inujuaq, formerly called Port Harrison.

Jobie was a well-known stone carver. Jeannie, a weaver, is less recognized. She created the grass mat and parts of the fur-clad figures, while Jobie carved their faces.

Their untitled, clearly autobiographical work from the 1970s is now in the holdings of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., thanks to a bequest from the late Margaret Perkins Hess, a prominent Alberta collector, art historian, businesswoman, philanthropist and aficionado of cowboy culture.

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Margaret (Marmie) Hess at her Spencer Creek Ranch near Cochrane, Alta. (photo courtesy of the Alberta Order of Excellence)

Announced in February, her gift includes 750 sculptures, 120 works on paper and 25 artifacts that date from 1950 to 1980.

Linda Grussani, the museum’s Indigenous curator, was especially pleased to receive a work by the Inukpuks. The museum already has work by Jobie, but this is the first by Jeannie.

It’s emblematic of Hess, who made a special effort to acquire art by lesser-known female artists from across the Arctic.

When Hess died at age 100 in 2016, the Calgary Herald published a lengthy obituary honouring a woman known simply as Marmie.

“Marmie introduced Calgarians and Canadians to Inuit art by establishing Calgary Galleries Ltd. in 1970,” the obituary says. “She also helped establish the Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary.”

The obituary also notes that the federal government recognized her contributions in 1988 by naming an archeological site on the Ekkalluk River as the Hess Site.

At the request of Galleries West, Grussani selected a handful of particularly interesting works from the Hess collection.

At only two inches in height, Nesting Birds on Cliff is a gem. The tiny piece of carved whalebone resembles a rock cliff with ledges for birds to nest. The birds, made of walrus ivory, are as small as the fingernail parings from a baby. The work was created in 1976 by Gino Akka, of Kuugaarjuk (Pelly Bay), Nunavut, and is his first piece in the museum’s collection.

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Paniluk Qarmanirq, “Walrus on Ice Flow,” 1969

steatite with iron pyrite, 6” x 8” x 4” (photo by Paul Gessell)

Grussani also showed off a stone carving, Walrus on Ice Floe, by Paniluk Qarmanirq, from the Baffin Island community of Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay). Qarmanirq, born in 1935, was one of the first Inuit women to find success in the male-dominated craft.

The stone used in this 1969 carving, which is almost six inches high and eight inches wide, is steatite, or soapstone, with iron pyrite. The artist has taken advantage of its coloured swirls to create a shape that evokes a walrus.

Hess classifies it as an “abstract” in her voluminous and meticulous collection documents, but Grussani says that term was shunned by the artist.

A much smaller stone carving that fits into the palm of one hand is titled Woman Dogspirit/Transformation by Peggy Ekagina, from Kugluktuk (Coppermine), in western Nunavut.

Carved from chlorite with red pyrite, it depicts a dog with a woman’s face, a creature found in various Inuit stories

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Karoo Ashevak, “Two-Faced Spirit,” 1971

whale bone and slate, 9” x 14” x 8” (right) and Anaija Sakkiassee “Spirit,” 1974, whale bone, walrus ivory and slate, 6” x 18” x 8” (photo by Paul Gessell)

Grussani also selected two spirit whalebone carvings done by different artists in the community of Talurjuaq (Spence Bay), Nunavut.

One is by Karoo Ashevak (Two-Faced Spirit) and the other by Anaija Sakkiassee (Spirit). Both are suitably spooky to accompany the telling of ghost stories during the Arctic’s long winter nights.

The Canadian Museum of History, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, the University of Calgary, and other Alberta institutions with ties to Hess are planning to meet later this year to discuss a possible touring exhibition to honour Hess, as well as a later show of the Inuit art she collected.

Inuit art was just one of her bequests. She also donated works by Canadian artists such as Tom Thomson, Emily Carr and Alex Janvier to the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery. UBC’s Museum of Anthropology received a collection of West Coast art, including early works by Haida artist Bill Reid.

Hess displayed many Inuit works in her home. A special room above her garage held Indigenous art that was always available for loans to galleries and museums.

“It was important to Marmie that her collection be open and accessible to the broadest audiences possible and also be used to support education, teaching and research,” Dale Boniface and Richard Haskayne, co-executors of the Hess estate, said when the Lethbridge donation was announced.

Stories for the Collection, an exhibition of some of those works, along with art created by students in response to them, is on view at the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery until June 6. ■