February 19, 2010
ESKIMO INUIT PRINTS
Before I get into the plain and simple fact that THIS SHIT IS AMAZING – let me preface by saying that I found this treasure of history and art at my public library. That’s right. You remember those places don’t you? Where they have those things called BOOKS. I recommend both books and libraries.
Ok, so, I found this book on Eskimo printmaking and was shocked to found out that though Inuit sculpture is older than time, printmaking is a relatively new means of art for these people. In fact, it’s as late as 20th century – 1957 to be exact. Apparently a Canadian dude (James Houston) saw an Inuit man comparing logos on his cigarette boxes, showed him what a print was by rubbing ink on a tusk and transfering onto a piece of toilet paper (for real) whereby the Inuit man rightly said, “We can do that.” Amazing. And after the jump are just a few of the hardcore images that some of the wildest and toughest (kinda Canadian) people on Earth came up with:
This print above is called “Man Carying Reluctant Wife.” No joke.
And this is titled, “The Dying Man Becomes the Wolf.” Please, Jesus, let that happen to me. I so want to be a wolf.
And in all seriousness, I think these are beautiful and haunting and inspiring. I also find it kind of funny that a lot of the work we post here on Okay Great looks very similar in terms of the primitive line drawing and vivid color. Interesting, right?
I’ve also posted a few more images, with their incredible titles over on our Flickr page. Check it out!
These are great. Thanks for sharing.
These are so rad. ‘The Dying Man Becomes the Wolf.’ Sounds like the coolest album ever made. Also – is the guy in the third image wearing braces??
These are amazing, Kristy. What’s the date range on these? They looked pretty advanced.
These are 100% awesome. And that first one is a pretty accurate depiction of the kind of day I’ve had.
CANADIAS! PRINTS! YES!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamblyn/sets/72157623234061443/
Glad you like guys!
Armando, excellent question! The prints are from 1960-1970 roughly. The book that I got these from is called Arts of the Eskimo: Prints by Ernest Roch, published in 1975. Woo!!! Nice prints Anenae as well!
Also, who the F gave me 3 out of 5 stars??? Hahhahaha, I kid, I kid.
simply breathtaking
these really are too cool.
Thanks, Eloise. Enjoyed your tumblr too!
The picture “Man Carrying Reluctant Wife” is turned sideways… see the upper right corner with the red logo and thing that looks like a sideways U… well that should look like an upside down U (as in igloo). Turn it counterclockwise one time. Then the print makes sense. I’ve seen alot of Inuit art and it’s easy to mis-orient some of the the images.