What Gets Lost

The Canadian Eskimo Arts Council's Rejected Prints

When it was founded in 1961, the Canadian Eskimo Arts Committee (later Canadian Eskimo Arts Council) sought to support the Inuit art market by ensuring that works met particular standards before they were made available for sale to the public. There are no extant review guidelines produced by the committee, composed at the outset exclusively of arts professionals from the South. Rather, judgments were based on committee members’ personal aesthetic tastes and what they felt would be marketable within Canada and internationally.

From its inception, the CEAC was controversial. Collectors and media outlets in the South saw the CEAC’s oversight as “directing” artists and “corrupting” traditional Inuit culture. It is also significant to note that there was no Inuit representation on the council until 1973, twelve years after its inception, when Joanasie Salomonie (1938–1977) and Armand Tagoona (1926–1991) (who resigned before actually attending a meeting) were the first appointed Inuit members. From these appointments until the CEAC eventually disbanded in 1989, a number of other Inuit, mostly artists, held positions on the committee. 

Though the council advised on many art-related matters over its near thirty-year existence, the most significant aspect of its legacy is tied to the reviewing of prints. Beginning in the early 1960s, print collections produced by communities across the Canadian Arctic were submitted to the CEAC for review. Accepted prints would be stamped in ink with the CEAC’s own chop, though later this was changed to a blind stamp. Those not approved were rejected outright. Rejected prints were not to be sold, marketed or circulated in any way.

In 1961, 36 of 40 prints produced by artists in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, QC, were rejected, though the following year 76 stonecuts were approved and released as part of the inaugural Puvirnituq Print Collection. [1] Similarly, prints produced in Ulukhaktok (Holman), Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, in 1962 and 1963 were rejected, with the council claiming they bore too much Southern influence. However, later efforts from the community were enthusiastically approved and they began releasing annual print collections in 1965. Though prints from Kinngait often received very favourable judgements from the CEAC, in this early period, a handful of works were rejected for use of “strong colours” or “unfortunate cuteness” as well as the “handling [of] elements of form and space.” Though twenty experimental prints from Qamani’tuaq (Baker Laker), NU, presented in 1965 were enthusiastically reviewed, six prints presented in 1969 were rejected because of “poor printing and cutting.” 

In March 1973, 131 prints from communities across Nunavik were presented to the CEAC while only 39 were recommended for sale. It was around this time that the Council stopped referring to prints as being “rejected” and began referring to them as “disapproved” or “withheld.” The disapproval of 70 per cent of the collection was devastating to the artists of Nunavik, as many prints were already editioned in full sets of 30, meaning that an incredible investment of resources, time and materials had been made and could not be earned back. Astonishingly, artists from Nunavik continued to produce prints and submit them to the CEAC for review. A second collection of Nunavik prints was presented in October 1973. This time 49 of 55 works were approved. 

Members of the CEAC identified that one of their motives for rejecting or withholding prints was to protect the art market from over saturation, and to maintain high prices for quality works in hopes that printmaking could be a viable source of income for northern communities. In an attempt to protect the market though, many things were lost. Prints depicting legends, traditional ways of life and stories of personal experiences were censored. Reams of paper, gallons of ink, hours of labour and sparks of imagination were carefully piled and tucked away in drawers, cabinets and back rooms, hidden from public view, or destroyed entirely. Some artists’ entire output was rejected, discouraging them from ever making graphics again. 

In 1989, shortly before it disbanded, the CEAC identified that “the need for the formal southern jurying of annual print collections is no longer necessary.” In the years and decades that followed, the once rejected or withheld prints began to make their way to market, assembled in special releases and other sales. Yet, today many still remain out of public view or have been lost altogether. 

Looking carefully at the role of the CEAC and the artists and artworks affected by their decisions, there is an impulse to question choices made some 50 years ago. Tastes have changed, power has shifted, yet the artworks themselves remain. And, there is still much that can be learned from them. In the following Portfolio, we hear from contemporary artists and arts workers from across the North and South responding to a selection of these withheld works in hopes of recovering some of what was lost.

  • Loons Curing the Blind

    IAQ’s John Geoghegan takes a closes look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints: “Loons Curing the Blind” by May Lonsdale
  • Birds and Dog Feeding

    Couzyn Van Heuvelen takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints, “Birds and Dog Feeding” by Ikayukta Tunnillie.
  • Drum Dance in the Igloo

    Mark Igloliorte takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints, “Drum Dance in the Igloo” by Paul Uta’naaq
  • Untitled (1976)

    Janice Grey takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints, “Untitled” by Thomassie Echalook
  • Untitled (7 Geese, 4 People, 2 Dogs)

    Mark London takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s Rejected Prints, “Untitled (7 Geese, 4 People, 2 Dogs)” by Parr.
  • Woman in Labour

    Linda Grussani takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints: “Woman in Labour” by Janet Kigusiuq.
  • Man and Woman Going After Walrus

    Richard Murdoch takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints: “Man and Woman Going after Walrus” by Leah Qumaaluk.
  • Walrus Surprises Hunter

    Heather Campbell takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints, “Walrus Surprises Hunter” by Napachie Pootoogook.
  • Birth of Jesus

    Alysa Procida takes a closer look at one of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council’s rejected prints, “Birth of Jesus” by Harry Egotak.
NOTE

1. Virginia J. Watt, The Role of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council (Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1987), 1. All other quotations taken from CEAC meeting minutes and annual reports, recently digitized as part of Library and Archives Canada “We Are Here: Sharing Stories” initiative.

This Portfolio first appeared in the Fall 2019 Issue of the 
Inuit Art Quarterly.