We are thrilled to announce Six Decades of Drawing, a landmark exhibition opening Saturday, March 8th. This expansive collection of Inuit drawings features works on paper dating from 1959 to 1965. The exhibition reflects the earliest drawings made in Kinngait, followed by a survey of the artistic development over the subsequent six decades.

In the late 1950s, James Houston—and later, Terry Ryan—encouraged Inuit artists to explore drawing as a new artistic medium. Despite a history of graphic image making, drawing on paper was virtually unknown. The result was an extraordinary outpouring of unique and exquisite graphite drawings, whose subject matter ranged from narrative scenes showing traditional life, to fantastic images of monsters and transformations.

As drawing styles metamorphosed after 1965 with the introduction of colour through wax crayons and coloured pencil, these graphite drawings attracted increasingly less market interest. A vast archive was accumulated in Kinngait which now form the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Archive, currently housed at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

We are delighted to present a fine selection of these early drawings, contextualized by a survey of the development of drawing in Kinngait. Drawings by Pudlo Pudlat, Parr and Kenojuak Ashevak highlight an astonishing outburst of growth through scale and subject matter. This continued development accelerated in the last two decades in works by artists such as Kananginak Pootoogook, Sheojuk Etidlooie, Tim Pitsiulak, Itee Pootoogook and Shuvinai Ashoona.