Inuit Prints exhibit now showing at the Audain Gallery

  • 2011-07-16
The exhibit Inuit Prints: James Houston, Ur’ichi Hiratsuka and the Inuit Print Tradition is now showing at the Audain Gallery in the Museum of Anthropology located in Vancouver; the exhibit will be running until September 25, 2011 and will most likely draw visitors from nearby cities such as Richmond. Inuit art and its printing techniques is a huge part of the Canadian culture and Inuit prints are often highlighted on a Canadian stamp, poster or postcard.

James Hudson is credited as being the “discoverer” of Inuit art. He also influenced the art itself by sharing techniques he had learned in Japan in the 1950s and ‘60s. Hudson travelled to Japan to learn from master printmaker Ur’ichi Hiratsuka, a leader in the “Creative Print” movement. The main lesson he taught Hudson was direct transfer Print techniques. When he returned to Cape Dorset, Nunavit James Hudson passed on his knowledge to Inuit printmakers such as Osuitok Ipeelee and Eegwudiuk Pootoogook. The Cape Dorset group soon began releasing an annual collection using the Japanese techniques Hudson had learned.

The Inuit Prints exhibit compares the work of the Cape Dorset group to the original Japanese prints and examines how the influences were passed on. The exhibit shows how globalization influences art work; that there is no truly unique work of art and that all artists learn from each other regardless of their style or country of origin. What makes a work of art unique is how the artist translates each cultural reference into his or her own style; the Inuit Prints exhibit highlights how these references are translated.
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