Monday, December 21, 2009





Images courtesy of Carleton University Art Gallery



Director Diana Nemiroff and curator Sandra Dyck continute to take Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) to new heights. The latest evidence being the gallery's most ambitious publication yet: Sanattiaqsimajut: Inuit Art from the Carleton University Art Gallery Collection.

Released this month, the full-colour and richly illustrated hardcover book includes photographs of 125 sculptures and works on paper from the CUAG collection as well as 37 topical essays by an assortment of Inuit art experts.

Designed by the award-winning Mark Timmings, the book was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name curated by Ottawa's Ingo Hessel at CUAG this autumn.

The word Sanattiaqsimajut is Inuktitut for “these things that are finely made,” a guiding thought present throughout the book and in Hessel’s essay exploring important narrative threads from Inuit art.

CUAG's extensive collection of Inuit art features some 1600 works. The first were acquired in 1981 by George Swinton, a famous Inuit art scholar who taught at Carleton at that time. After the founding of CUAG in 1992, “We started exhibiting Inuit art regularly and have presented nearly 50 shows now,” said Dyck.

“The great strength of the collection is works on paper,” Dyck added, “including amazing bodies of work by two of the most important first-generation Inuit artists: Parr of Cape Dorset and Luke Anguhadluq of Baker Lake.”

Begun in January of this year, the book project was a huge undertaking for Dyck, who collaborated with Susan McMaster and Morel McMaster of Sumac Editing. After the editors had arrived at the 37 topics that would give the book structure—e.g., an important artist’s work, an important medium, a significant theme—Dyck set about finding the appropriate experts to pen corresponding 500-word essays.

Contributing writers include Terry Ryan, Cynthia Waye, Norman Vorano, Robert Kardosh, Sally Qimmiunaaq Webster, Dorothy Eber, Marybelle Mitchell, Kenneth Lister, and Darlene Coward Wight.

“A very important part of the project was involving many of our former student curators of Inuit art,” said Dyck. “Many of our students have gone on to work in the field; those who wrote in the book include Christine Lalonde, Linda Grussani, Heather Igloliorte, Melania Medd, and Jennifer Cartwright.”

Sanattiaqsimajut sells for $60 and is available for purchase at the gallery or online through this link: http://www.abcartbookscanada.com/ordiindiv.html.