Tim Pitsiulak

Book excerpt: Only a handful of years into his career, Timmuuti "Tim" Pitsiulak spearheaded a new direction in Inuit art. The nephew of renowned printmaker Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitsiulak reveled in the challenges of art and life in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, just south of the Arctic Circle. His vivid images of polar bears and bowhead whales, ATV-riding families and high-tech research equipment, speak eloquently of the artist and the man. He quietly navigated increasing modernity while honoring his cultural identity. "His love of the land and the hunting lifestyle, along with his astute observation of daily life in the community, inspired him to create an outstanding body of work that would illuminate the new and true North." Cape Dorset is home to a multigenerational community of artists and the Kinngait Studios, the longest continually operating print studios in Canada. The studios are active from fall each year through late spring, at which time editioning is completed and artists take the summer off, making frequent trips to traditional camps on the surrounding land. At the time of his death in 2016, Pitsiulak was a sought-after artist at the height of his career. The first monograph on the artist's work, Tim Pitsiulak: Drawings and Prints from Cape Dorset presents more than seventy reproductions and photographs. Critical context is provided in an essay by Leslie Boyd, former director of Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto. Pitsiulak's art has been exhibited widely and is in many private and public collections around the world, among them the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the National Gallery of Canada.