Napatchie Pootoogook, My New Accordion
Napatchie Pootoogook
1938-2002
Inuit
Date
1989
Medium Specific
Lithograph on wove, rag paper watermark
Edition / State
1/50
Printer
Arches/France printed by Pitseolak Niviaqsi (1947-)
Classification
Print
Dimensions
44 x 31 1/2 in. (111.8 x 80 cm)
Accession Number
2016.35.20.329
Credit
Gift of Gloria and Selig Kaplan
Memo / Artist Statement
"It was difficult to depict a person playing accordion...I felt a great joy in completing it. It required my efforts most compared to all the other drawings I have made." 1991 Interview with Odette Leroux (p.151, Inuit Women Artists).
"My drawing of accordion playing was a small drawing, so later on I found it too small and then I was trying to copy it to make it look bigger, but I had a hard time making the same one just with the pencil. That was when I was asked to make it look bigger, then I tried my best to draw it again just with the pencil first. Then when I had to do it on the lithograph, it was really hard work. My first drawing was much smaller than this one. It was very difficult...it is very hard even trying to make a copy of your own work." 1992 Interview with Marion E. Jackson and Odette Leroux (p.151, Inuit Women Artists).
Cape Dorset cover Print #23: black, red, brown, purple, green, yellow, blue. Rcpt. Tag. Bought with #291 (print). Female B: 1938. Picture: pg. 3/prf. Hessel: "Napatchie inherited her mother Pitseolak's interest in depicting Inuit traditions from a personal perspective, but recent attempts to depict landscape settings indicate a generational difference."
Leroux, 1994 "Napachie concentrates on drawings and prints, with some ventures into sculpture and acrylic painting. Much of her art has a narrative base, drawn from personal experience, historical events or social commentary. Her style has developed in five distinct phase--from 1960 early works, to stories, to imaginary and fanciful, to intimate works on women in Inuit society (1989 and 1990), and studies in a realist-abstract style."
Blodgett: "In a departure from usual procedure, Napatchie's final version of My New Accordion was preceded by a number of sketches and the use of a live model. Making multiple drawings for a print is still extremely rare in CD, as is Napatchie's use of a model. Her husband went south and returned with the accordion for her. Back then a lot of people didn't have this sort of thing available, so I was really proud to have it." Inuit Art Quarterly 2000, D. Speak: "A Retrospective Look at Cape Dorset Print Making" illustrates this print after 1985 as one of the several works of...
Dorset Cat. '89 cover, #23 pg.3.
Inuit Art Quarterly'92 vol. 7: 2:40, Inuit Art Quarterly '2000:vol.15:2:48
McMichael Canadian Art Collection:reproduced "My New Accordion" on card from the original design. Leroux,Jackson, Freeman "Inuit Women Artists" cover, pgsl133-157
Bk: Blodgett "In Cape Dorset We Do It This Way" 120-121a,b (New Accordion"--sketch and litho)
BK: Ryan,l. "Cape Dorset Prints --A Retrospective" MY New Accordion, pg.223
"My drawing of accordion playing was a small drawing, so later on I found it too small and then I was trying to copy it to make it look bigger, but I had a hard time making the same one just with the pencil. That was when I was asked to make it look bigger, then I tried my best to draw it again just with the pencil first. Then when I had to do it on the lithograph, it was really hard work. My first drawing was much smaller than this one. It was very difficult...it is very hard even trying to make a copy of your own work." 1992 Interview with Marion E. Jackson and Odette Leroux (p.151, Inuit Women Artists).
Cape Dorset cover Print #23: black, red, brown, purple, green, yellow, blue. Rcpt. Tag. Bought with #291 (print). Female B: 1938. Picture: pg. 3/prf. Hessel: "Napatchie inherited her mother Pitseolak's interest in depicting Inuit traditions from a personal perspective, but recent attempts to depict landscape settings indicate a generational difference."
Leroux, 1994 "Napachie concentrates on drawings and prints, with some ventures into sculpture and acrylic painting. Much of her art has a narrative base, drawn from personal experience, historical events or social commentary. Her style has developed in five distinct phase--from 1960 early works, to stories, to imaginary and fanciful, to intimate works on women in Inuit society (1989 and 1990), and studies in a realist-abstract style."
Blodgett: "In a departure from usual procedure, Napatchie's final version of My New Accordion was preceded by a number of sketches and the use of a live model. Making multiple drawings for a print is still extremely rare in CD, as is Napatchie's use of a model. Her husband went south and returned with the accordion for her. Back then a lot of people didn't have this sort of thing available, so I was really proud to have it." Inuit Art Quarterly 2000, D. Speak: "A Retrospective Look at Cape Dorset Print Making" illustrates this print after 1985 as one of the several works of...
Dorset Cat. '89 cover, #23 pg.3.
Inuit Art Quarterly'92 vol. 7: 2:40, Inuit Art Quarterly '2000:vol.15:2:48
McMichael Canadian Art Collection:reproduced "My New Accordion" on card from the original design. Leroux,Jackson, Freeman "Inuit Women Artists" cover, pgsl133-157
Bk: Blodgett "In Cape Dorset We Do It This Way" 120-121a,b (New Accordion"--sketch and litho)
BK: Ryan,l. "Cape Dorset Prints --A Retrospective" MY New Accordion, pg.223
Biography
Napachie Pootoogook was a highly acclaimed artist from the Qikiqtaaluk region of Nunavut. Pootoogook's artistic career in drawing and printmaking began during the late 1950s. Pootoogook's early works focus on depictions of Inuit spirituality and stories while her later works record Inuit traditional life, clothing and community history, particularly on the experiences of women. Her prints have been included in almost every Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection since the 1960s until her death in 2002. During her lifetime, Pootoogook created over five thousand drawings and was included in numerous solo shows and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe.
https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/iad/artist/Napachie-Pootoogook
https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/iad/artist/Napachie-Pootoogook
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