Full Description
In 1954, eager buyers lined up three abreast for over half a block to get into the Canadian Handicrafts Guild in Montreal where, once inside, they wrestled and argued to purchase stone sculptures carved by Inuit artists. In a short span, interest in Inuit carving became a worldwide phenomenon and a major source of income for the Inuit. Their sculptures, tapestries and prints later became the unofficial national art of Canada, gracing homes, corporate offices, postage stamps and international art showcases.
This is the story of how Inuit art came to be regarded as some of the best Indigenous art of the twentieth century. James Houston, an artist as well as a brilliant raconteur and lecturer, was unquestionably instrumental in its development. His enthralling Arctic stories were a gift to journalists, but his inconsistencies became a major hurdle for historians. This book portrays the unusual alliance between James Houston and early Inuit art enthusiasts, the Canadian Handicrafts Guild and the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs. Through painstaking research, it presents their adventures, management, concerns and successes.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface by Mary Ann Evans
Abbreviations in the References
Terminology and Place-Names
Introduction: Getting to Houston
1. Early Interest
2. Houston's Early Life
3. Flying to Port Harrison, 1948
4. Second Sale
5. West Hudson Bay, 1950
6. A Book of Instruction
7. South Baffin Island, 1951
8. Back South, 1951
9. New York and Mexico, 1952
10. Fort Chimo and Cape Dorset, 1952
11. Recovery
12. The North Matters
13. Houstons of the Arctic
14. A Canadian Art
15. Feverish Interest
16. Future Plans
17. Making Inuit Art
Betweeen pages 110 and 111 are 8 color plates containing 9 photographs
18. George Swinton and Edmund Carpenter: The Critics
19. Problems of Success
20. Highly Saleable Objects
21. Cape Dorset Experiments
22. Prints in Winnipeg and Japan
23. Back Home, 1959
24. New Yorkers and Tellick Bay
25. Stratford, 1959
26. Breakthrough Prints
27. Exceeding Wildest Hopes, 1960
28. A Summer of Journalists
29. Leaving Cape Dorset, 1962
30. The Canadian Eskimo Art Committee
31. New York Life
32. Escoheag, Rhode Island, 1974
33. Stonington, Connecticut, 1987
34. Cape Dorset, 1992
Appendix: Inuit Artists' Names by Mary Ann Evans
Bibliography
Index
