Style combination · Contrasts

Kinngait Inuit Printmaking × Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Houston studied with the sōsaku-hanga printmaker Un'ichi Hiratsuka in 1958–59, and Kinngait shares ukiyo-e's hand-rubbed relief, Japanese paper, margin seals and a split between designer, cutter and printer (which sōsaku hanga itself rejected); but ukiyo-e fills a cropped scene inside a carved keyline with cartouche text, while Kinngait usually floats a few silhouettes on open paper, so use ukiyo-e for a full scene and Kinngait for a lone presence.

From the research on Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Inuit Printmaking

Mix them and make something Kinngait Inuit Printmaking Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Kinngait Inuit Printmaking, their arrangement from Kinngait Inuit Printmaking, the finish from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Inuit Printmaking Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Type from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Kinngait Inuit Printmaking: Limited spot colours
Flat fields
Form from Kinngait Inuit Printmaking: Stylised figuration
Biomorphic curves
Composition from Kinngait Inuit Printmaking: Isolated object
Generous white space
Surface from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Ours

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Brush-written kana and kanji titles (gyōsho and sōsho hands)

Text · Kinngait Inuit Printmaking

Prints from the Inuit co-operative studio at Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut, with a catalogued collection every year since 1959. Inuit artists draw; Inuit printmakers cut the drawing in stone or a stencil and print it by hand in editions of thirty (1959) and then fifty. A single figure, most often a bird or animal, floats as a flat silhouette in one to three inks on unprinted paper, and stencil daubing grades the colour inside it. This is the classic idiom; lithographs and etchings followed from the 1970s, and Annie Pootoogook, Shuvinai Ashoona and others have drawn contemporary Inuit life.

Caveat; Kinngait Inuit Printmaking used From the mid-1970s, the artist's pencil signature beneath the image, beside the title and an edition number such as 43/50 and Small carved chops of artist and printer, often cut from linoleum floor tile, stacked with the studio's mark in a vertical column in the margin of the stonecuts and stencils, as reproduced in the 1959 and 1960 catalogues

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Kinngait Inuit Printmaking, with a counter-accent from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Inuit Printmaking Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

#f3efe3 ground · 36%
#1b1a17 ink · 14%
#b5352c accent · 18%
#2c5a8c accent · 14%
#d4a64a accent · 10%
#2f6a5a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f3efe3;
  --ink: #1b1a17;
  --accent-1: #b5352c;
  --accent-2: #2c5a8c;
  --accent-3: #d4a64a;
  --accent-4: #2f6a5a;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Caveat", cursive;
}

Use it with care

Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Inuit Printmaking: Kinngait printmaking is the living, collectively run art of an Inuit community, and its images belong to named Inuit artists and printmakers whose copyright the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative manages as their agent: license or commission work through the co-operative or Dorset Fine Arts rather than tracing a print. Borrow the system (a lone silhouette floating on open paper, one to three inks, stencil-graded colour, stone-cut edges), not a particular artist's owl, sun or hand. Do not invent Inuit spirit beings, shamans, the sea goddess or hunting rites as decoration; picture the subject the brief supplies. Never add a syllabic signature, artist's or printer's chops, the studio's mark, an edition number or the igloo authenticity symbol to generated work, and never present it as a Kinngait or Inuit print. Say 'Inuit', not 'Eskimo', except in historical names such as the co-operative's, and do not let Kinngait stand for all Inuit art: other communities, such as Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), have their own print studios and styles.