About Inuit Art from Cape Dorset

In 1956, artist James Houston came with his wife, Alma, to Cape Dorset as the northern service officer with the Canadian government’s Department of Northern Affairs. One of his duties was to foster the production of carvings and other handicrafts by the Inuit residents. By 1959, the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative had been formed, laying the groundwork for a legendary printmaking tradition. Today, the annual release of Cape Dorset prints, produced by the Co-operative’s Kinngait Studios, is eagerly anticipated by collectors from around the world.

Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective is the first book to tell the full story of this historic printmaking community. Essays by a dozen participants—including Terrence Ryan, who took over the helm from James Houston in 1960, and Kenojuak Ashevak (pictured above), perhaps the best known of the Cape Dorset artists—present different perspectives on the artistic, economic, and social developments that, in a mere fifty years, have brought international prominence to this Arctic hamlet.

Photograph by Ansgar Walk.

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