Kananginak Pootoogook RCA

(1935-2010)

Kananginak Pootoogook attained an international reputation for his abilities as a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor. He was one of the first in Cape Dorset to actively participate in the first experimental attempts (later the West Baffin Co-operative) at fine art printing introduced to the community by James Houston in 1957. Since that time, Kananginak’s work has been included in almost every annual Cape Dorset collection.

Kananginak continued as a printmaker until 1978, working in all media including stonecut, stencil, etching, copper engraving, and silkscreen on fabric. Later he became proficient in lithography including executing his own drawings directly on the stone, proofing and editioning his own work.

He established an international reputation as an artist for his close observation of nature and his sensitive rendering of animals and birds. From the beginning, Kananginak represented Arctic wildlife in his work, often monumental in scale. He was especially capable at drawing the many species of birds that frequent the Arctic. He also did many memorable images illustrating the material culture of the Inuit, and narrative drawings of camp and hunting scenes. For Kananginak Pootoogook, art - whether his sculptures or his hundreds of drawings and prints - was a means of keeping his Inuit traditions alive in the face of tremendous cultural pressures and change.

Kananginak and his siblings grew up in different camp areas on south Baffin Island. Their main camp was Ikirisaq where their father, Pootoogook, was the respected camp leader. Kananginak married Shooyoo from Cape Dorset in the mid-1950's. They lived at Ikirisaq until 1958 when they moved to Cape Dorset because of Pootoogook's failing health.

Kananginak was a prominent community leader. He was instrumental in the formation of the West Baffin Eskimo Co­operative, and served for many years as President of its Board of Directors. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts in 1980. In 1978, the World Wildlife Commission released a limited edition portfolio of works in which four of Kananginak’s images were included. His work was featured in numerous exhibitions, in both public institutions and commercial galleries. He was also a notable sculptor. In 1997, the Governor General of Canada, Romeo Leblanc, commissioned Kananginak to construct an inuksuq in Cape Dorset, which was then dismantled and shipped to Ottawa. Kananginak and his son Johnny were then invited to Ottawa to re-assemble the inuksuq on the grounds of Rideau Hall as part of a tribute to Native people in Canada.