Osuitok ipeelee biography definition

Polar Bear With Captured Seal Calendar, Indspire Award, Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Suggest An Edit. Osuitok Ipeelee. Osuitok Ipeelee est un artiste originaire du camp de Neeouleeutalikwas. Osuitok Ipeelee Standing Caribou c. Osuitok Ipeelee Muskox c. Osuitok Ipeelee Caribou c. The artist's earliest extant works are ivory miniatures of hunting equipment, typical of the historic period of Inuit art , that date from the s.

Before Houston's expedition, Ipeelee was already regionally known as the greatest carver on Baffin Island. Under Houston's influence he began to carve sculptures in soapstone, which had a reliable market in the south. Exhibits of Inuit art at the National Gallery of Canada in and included his work, crediting him as "Oshaweetuk B". With recognition he began to receive official commissions.

In he directed a team of craftsmen in the creation of the official mace for the Council of the Northwest Territories , and in he was asked to create a sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II , which was presented to the Queen upon her visit to Canada that year. The idea of a Cape Dorset printmaking program developed from a winter conversation between Houston and Ipeelee.

As Houston recalled:. Osuitok Ipeelee sat near me one evening studying the sailor-head trademarks on a number of identical cigarette packages. My explanation was far from successful Looking around to find some way to demonstrate printing, I saw an ivory walrus tusk that Osuitok had recently engraved Taking an old tin of writing ink I laid a piece of toilet paper on the inked surface and rubbed the top lightly, then quickly stripped the paper from the tusk.

Osuitok ipeelee biography definition

I saw that by mere good fortune, I had pulled a fairly good negative of Osuitok's incised design. And so we did. Despite this, Ipeelee only contributed a total of four prints to the annual print collections, two in and two in Ipeelee remarked that the inua, or caribou spirits, were quite fragile and were known for being able to make themselves look "handsomer and heavier" when they realized humans were looking at them.

Ipeelee ensured that his sculpture would stand balanced by using a carpenter's level. He made the base of the sculpture thicker than it would be in the final product so that he had enough material to work with in the finishing process. Commenting on the beginning of carving in Cape Dorset Ipeelee, in , observed: "Before the government came up here there was only one way of making money.

People could make money from fox furs and the other things we used to bring in, but only a little money. Then it was learned that carvings here in the Arctic have a price and when there were no jobs available people quickly learned their value. That is why they have tried so hard at it". Contact Us About Us Appraisals. Osuitok Ipeelee, R.