FROM BASEL TO PARIS TO BERLIN MEETING THE FANTASTIC

I am in between two trips. It could be called from Basel to Berlin - via Paris. Today is the hottest day so far and even on my balcony it is 35°. I don’t mind  as the air circulates around the flat. So what would I do? The swimming pool (where of course I would not have been alone) or an exhibition? No comments. Anne had brought me up a small brochure on an Inuit artist, Kenojuak Ashevak. Strange in a way, I don’t often think about going to such cultural centres as this - the Canadian - and perhaps I should see what is going on in all of them more often.

This was to be a solo exhibition of her work. A tribute to an artist who died in January this year at 85. She was a key figure in the well known Inuit cooperative in Cape Dorset located on the south western tip of Baffin Island, Nunavut. This maybe the Arctic but not a part of the world I know, so I googled it. 10° degrees today. An average snow fall of 149 days in the year and the hotest it has been is 25° Just happens to go down to -45° They say that such weather keeps you alive and healthy. It was apparently the case for Kenojuak. I would have been dead in a month.
winter

summer?????

 Her life was anchored in the ancestral life style of the Inuit. When she was 23 she met a James Houston who was working as an administrator on a graphic art's programme. He noticed her talent as she decorated traditional objets, clothing etc. and encouraged her to draw. A medium which was totally unknown to her. She joined a cooperative and soon became noticed because of her own techniques and renewing her way of looking at things. She was very successful in Cape Dorset and moved there permanently in 1966.


1994 Birds braid woman's hair


Many young ravens 1996

"Upiit" Owl

She has virtually exhibited all over the world and I am pretty sure that we saw her work when she came to Paris...or perhaps another country. I had definitely seen it in Canada. It is very recognizable. Especially her birds, owls.


Intruding Raven 2001

Owl and Caterpillar 1995


Ravens'  voyage 2001

Shore birds gather 2005

Three birds 2004



Title lost....

The Visitation  2002

Out from the night 2009
Story telling of ravens 2005


Spirit birds and owl 1982

Spirits 1962

The owl between 1982
Strut 2009
Splash 2002

You could say that her work is repetitive and yet the naivety somehow makes her birds quite sophisticated. The themes are the same, yet every now and again there is ONE bird which struts out valiantly or another with a  colour that is so vibrant  it catches your attention from across the room.

The Sun's return 1993
Autumn Spiritis 2001

Winter Ravens 2002

 

Or perhaps Autumn or Winter birds catch your attention.

I am not so keen on her «human faces» and wonder if they are dreams. She said that no-one would believe her dreams if she recounted them. 

 
Comparing braids  1993
Untitled 1992




 
Spirits at night 1989
Throat singers gathering 1991


In what I see and saw, amongst those 40 pictures, there were at least 30 I really liked. 
If they were dreams, I could participate. 


                             Thank you Anne for this.

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Lo a dit…
Some of her paintings look like some of the Indian petroglyphs we saw in the US.
1/8/13 08:15
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