Annie Pootoogook (1969-2016) was a Canadian artist renowned for her drawings depicting contemporary Inuit life in Northern Canada. A pioneering visual storyteller, her artworks marked an important shift in national consciousness towards contemporary Inuit art and life.
Pootoogook's grandmother (Pitseolak Ashoona) and mother (Napachie Pootoogook) were both prolific and highly respected Inuit artists. Pitseolak Ashoona was one of the first Inuit artists to experiment with the medium of drawing as Inuit communities transitioned from their previous settlements into permanent communities in Northern Canada, where Pootgootook would be raised.
In 1997, Annie Pootoogook began drawing and became a third-generation female Inuit artist. Within a decade she received widespread acclaim for her singular artistic vision. Her distinct drawings depict her own experiences of contemporary Inuit life in Kinngait (previously Cape Dorset), Nunavut. Pootoogook's work offers an unfiltered and unique glimpse into a community rarely depicted in contemporary art.
Challenging notions of traditional Inuit art, Pootoogook chronicled her life and community at its most banal (cooking, watching TV, waiting in line at an ATM) and emotional (relationships, sexuality, spousal abuse, intergenerational trauma, addiction, death). Her art focuses on showcasing domestic life, female gender roles, hardships faced by Northern communities, and the impact of consumerism and technology affecting Inuit communities.
Like her mother and grandmother, Pootgootook worked in the Inuit tradition of sulijuk, which means "it is true". This tradition emphasizes depicting truthful or lived experiences rather than perusing the avant-garde or trends.
"Blue Room" exemplifies Pootoogook's artistic vision and aesthetic. In this drawing, a man is seated at the kitchen table enjoying a snack. Interior domestic settings, such as this work, are among Pootoogook's best-known imagery.
Contemporary housewares play an essential role in Pootoogook's oeuvre, with clocks being a recurring motif. Intimate details, such as the wall clock in the kitchen, and modern goods, such as Reeses and Pepsi, illustrate the increasing consumerism infiltrating the Kinngait communities.
Drawings like this helped shift the national and international narrative and reception of Inuit art. Traditionally, Inuit art featured nomadic ways of life in the pristine white Arctic with hunting and fishing as common motifs. Pootoogook transcended cultural expectations and traditions by presenting a deeper and more personal expression rooted in the shifting cultural identity and social forces surrounding her.
Throughout her career, Pootoogook was the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2006 Pootoogook achieved the remarkable milestone of becoming the first Inuit artist to win the Sobey Art Award. The following year her work was shown at the Montreal Biennale and documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany. Her works are highly sought after by collectors and are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
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Untitled "Blue Room"
Canada, circa 2002-2003
Colored pencil and ink on paper
Signed in syllabics and stamped with the Dorset Fine Arts blindstamp
20"H 26"W (work)
Framed
Very good condition
Literature: Nancy Campbell, Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice, 2017, pg. 80 and 84
Note: The embossed logo in the right corner is the Dorset Fine Arts / West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (WBEC) chop. WBEC is the main studio in Kinngait where Pootoogook's created her works from. The embossed logo (or chop) is used to authenticate all works on paper that are made by the artist members of the WBEC. See the second last image for the chop.
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