# Kinngait (Cape Dorset) 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.

- Period: 1957–present
- Where: North America
- Origin: Kinngait (Cape Dorset), southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. James Houston, a Canadian artist and the federal area administrator (in Cape Dorset until 1962), began print trials in late 1957 with Osuitok Ipeelee and Kananginak Pootoogook (on linoleum floor tiles) and studied with the sōsaku-hanga printmaker Un'ichi Hiratsuka in Japan (1958–59). Inuit printmakers then cut relief blocks from the carvers' local stone alongside stencils (catalogued as 'sealskin', mostly wax-stiffened paper or X-ray film); Kenojuak's first print came from the skin appliqué on her own sealskin bag. The West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (1959), whose print studio is Kinngait Studios, has issued them since.
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Cape Dorset prints, Kinngait Studios, West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative prints, Inuit stonecut and stencil prints
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/kinngait-print/

## Use it with care

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.

## How it works

- Float one figure (the brief's subject; in the prints most often a single bird or animal), or a small loose group, on a wide field of unprinted paper, usually with no horizon, border or setting; where a scene is needed, keep it to a few silhouettes spaced across the open paper or along a single ice line, or let the inked stone print a soft mottled ground behind the figure.
- Reduce each form to a flat silhouette in black and one or two colours, and let the outline do the describing: wings, tails, antlers and fronds spread out into the open paper rather than being drawn in.
- Pattern feathers, fur, scales and clothing with repeated cut marks, dots and bands inside the silhouette instead of modelling it with light and shade.
- Cut the edge clean in stone where a shape should be crisp, and tap colour through a stencil with a stiff brush where it should fade, so a shape can darken at its tips and pale towards its middle.
- Keep words out of the picture: no headline, caption or lettering inside or around the figure; in the original prints only small identifying marks sat apart in the margin, and these must not be imitated (see caution).
- Make the print a shared studio work: the artist draws, an Inuit printmaker translates the drawing to stone or stencil and pulls a small numbered edition, and the year's prints are released together with a catalogue.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (defining)
- [Radial & concentric](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/radial-and-concentric/) (occasional)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (occasional)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (defining)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (defining)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (defining)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (characteristic)
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (characteristic)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Biomorphic curves](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/biomorphic-curves/) (characteristic)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Carved line](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/carved-line/) (characteristic)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)
- [Grain & noise](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grain-and-noise/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)

### Medium & production
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (defining)
- [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (characteristic)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Calm & contemplative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/calm-and-contemplative/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (occasional)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Horror vacui, Illusion of depth, Full bleed, Framed panels, Borders & frames, Abundant decoration, Straight photography, Eclectic mixing, Dark ground

Palette: #f3efe3, #1b1a17, #b5352c, #2f6a5a, #2c5a8c, #8f8a80

Typefaces: From the mid-1970s, the artist's pencil signature beneath the image, beside the title and an edition number such as 43/50; up to and sometimes including 1974 the artist's carved chop stood in for the signature (Dorset Fine Arts, Stonecut: Chops). Kenojuak's syllabic signature, ᑭᓄᐊᔪᐊ, on a colour trial proof of The Enchanted Owl was added later (First Arts), 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, Pigiarniq, the Inuktitut syllabics font that Tiro Typeworks designed for the Government of Nunavut, for any accompanying syllabic text

Known for: Kenojuak Ashevak, Rabbit Eating Sea Weed ('sealskin' stencil, one colour, 8 x 22 in; SS-8 in the 1959 catalogue Eskimo Graphic Art; edition of 30, stencil cut by Iyola Kingwatsiak), her first print, enlarged from the contrasting-skin design on her own sealskin bag, its mottled blue deeper along the rabbit's ears and the tips of the fronds; Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl (stonecut, black and one colour, 24 x 26 in; no. 24 of the 1960 collection; edition of 50; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Gr.1961.100, cut and printed by Iyola Kingwatsiak and Eegyvudluk Pootoogook), reproduced on Canada Post's 1970 stamp for the Northwest Territories centenary; Kenojuak Ashevak, Dogs See the Spirits ('sealskin' stencil, black and one colour, 19 x 24 in; no. 19 of the 1960 collection), its shapes darkening at the tips where the stencil brush was worked hardest; Niviaksiak, The Archer ('sealskin' stencil, black and one colour, 24 x 12 in; no. 45 of the 1960 collection) and Arctic Gulls ('sealskin' stencil, two colours, 8 x 22 in; SS-22, 1959); Niviaksiak, Bear Hunter on Sea Ice (stonecut, black and one colour, 12 x 18 in; SC-7, 1959), a dog team and sledge along a single ice line beneath broad flat grey shapes; Kananginak Pootoogook, Three Narwhals ('sealskin' stencil, black, 18 x 24 in; SS-9, 1959; edition of 30; 'Three Narwhal' in First Arts and University of Michigan Museum of Art records), the lower two whales overlapping where one stencil was printed several times on the plain white sheet; Lukta Qiatsuk (Luktak), Owl (stonecut, black, 12 x 18 in; SC-4, 1959; also issued as a stone rubbing, SR-23, in ten copies), its wings and breast patterned with rows of cut feather marks; Tudlik, Bird Dream Forewarning Blizzards (stonecut, black and one colour, 18 x 24 in; SC-16, 1959), a great bird and a small man printed over the mottled grey of the whole inked stone

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ukiyo-e.md) (1670–1900)
- Alike in its design choices: [Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/kalighat-battala.md) (1830–1930), 73% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Gráfica del 68 (Mexican Student Movement Graphics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/grafica-68-mexico.md) (1968), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Japonisme](https://stylogeny.com/styles/japonisme.md) (1860–1910), 65% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Bengali Modernist Book Cover (Prachchhad)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bengali-book-cover.md) (1943–present), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Santiniketan & Bengal School Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/santiniketan-graphics.md) (1905–1954), 58% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Đông Hồ & Hàng Trống Folk Prints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/dong-ho-folk-print.md) (1600–present), 56% alike

## Sources

- Dorset Fine Arts, 'Printmaking in Kinngait' (annual catalogued collection since 1959; sealskin stencils tried and abandoned; stonecut, engraving, lithography from the early 1970s, etching), https://www.dorsetfinearts.com/printmaking
- Dorset Fine Arts, 'Stonecut' (fine handmade Japanese paper pressed by hand; section 'Chops': printers' chops cut from linoleum floor tiles, and artists' chops used instead of signatures up to and sometimes including 1974), https://www.dorsetfinearts.com/stonecut
- West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, Eskimo Graphic Art (catalogue of the 1959 collection; 30-page scan with SS-8, SS-9, SS-22, SC-4, SR-23, SC-7, SC-14, SC-16 and SS-17), https://www.dorsetfinearts.com/s/1959cat.pdf
- West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, Eskimo Graphic Art 1960 (1971 reprint; sealskin stencil and stonecut techniques, 54 impressions per block of which 50 are sold), https://www.dorsetfinearts.com/s/1960001.pdf
- Canadian Museum of History, 'Cape Dorset Prints: History, 1950s' (Houston as Area Administrator for South Baffin Island; printmaking introduced late 1957 with Osuitok Ipeelee and Kananginak Pootoogook using linoleum floor tiles; study with Un'ichi Hiratsuka, a proponent of sōsaku hanga, November 1958 to February 1959; first catalogued collection of 41 works released February 1960), https://www.historymuseum.ca/capedorsetprints/history/1950s.php
- Canadian Museum of History, 'Cape Dorset Prints: History, 1970s' (first lithography press 1972, Wallace Brannen teaching from 1974, first lithographs released 1975; Pudlo Pudlat's lithograph Aeroplane, 1976; etching and aquatint supplant copperplate engraving), https://historymuseum.ca/capedorsetprints/history/1970s.php
- Norman Vorano, Inuit Prints: Japanese Inspiration. Early Printmaking in the Canadian Arctic (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2011), p. 55: 19 of the 40 prints of 1959 listed as sealskin stencils, in reality cut from wax-stiffened paper or discarded X-ray film; quoted in Waddington's, Lukta Qiatsuk, Canada Geese-Nesting Ground, skin stencil, 1959, 25/30, https://www.waddingtons.ca/auction/inuit-art-auction-jun-01-2015/gallery/lot/91A/
- First Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, Rabbit Eating Seaweed, 1958 (1959 #8), sealskin stencil, 4/30 (stencil cut by Iyola Kingwatsiak from the contrasting sealskin designs of her bag; ink deeper at the ears and frond tips), https://firstarts.ca/artworks/4915-kenojuak-ashevak-c.c.-r.c.a.-1927-2013-kinngait-cape-dorset-rabbit-eating-seaweed-1958-1959-8/
- First Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, Sealskin Handbag, c. 1956–57 (appliqué in bleached and unbleached sealskin; 'the early skin appliqué designs by Kenojuak and others'), https://firstarts.ca/artworks/3907-kenojuak-ashevak-c.c.-r.c.a.-1927-2013-kinngait-cape-dorset-sealskin-handbag-c.-1956-57/
- First Arts, Kananginak Pootoogook, Three Narwhal, 1959 #9, sealskin stencil, 19/30, https://firstarts.ca/artworks/18667-kananginak-pootoogook-r.c.a.-1935-2010-kinngait-cape-dorset-three-narwhal-1959-9/
- First Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, Owl's Bouquet, 2007, stonecut and stencil, printmaker Qavavau Manumie, https://firstarts.ca/artworks/30-kenojuak-ashevak-c.c.-r.c.a.-1927-2013-kinngait-cape-dorset-owl-s-bouquet-2007/
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl, 1960, stonecut, 43/50, Gr.1961.100, https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/works/20232/
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Pitseolak Ashoona, Festive Bird, 1970, stonecut, 41/50, Gr.1972.25, https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/works/20325/
- First Arts, Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl, 1960, colour trial proof (signature added later), https://firstarts.ca/artworks/6050-kenojuak-ashevak-c.c.-r.c.a.-1927-2013-kinngait-cape-dorset-the-enchanted-owl-1960/
- Bank of Canada, 'Bank of Canada issues commemorative $10 bank note to mark the 150th anniversary of Confederation', 1 June 2017, https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2017/06/bank-canada-issues-commemorative-10-bank-note/
- Wikipedia, 'West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Baffin_Eskimo_Cooperative
- Wikipedia, 'Kenojuak Ashevak', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenojuak_Ashevak
- Wikipedia, 'James Archibald Houston', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Archibald_Houston
- Wikipedia, 'Sōsaku hanga' (self-drawn, self-carved and self-printed, against the ukiyo-e division of labour), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%8Dsaku_hanga
- Wikipedia, 'Annie Pootoogook' (pen and coloured-pencil drawings of contemporary Inuit life, made at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Pootoogook
- Wikipedia, 'Shuvinai Ashoona' (densely rendered drawings of northern landscapes and contemporary Inuit life; Kinngait Studios), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuvinai_Ashoona
- Wikipedia, 'Inuktitut', section 'The Canadian syllabary' (Pigiarniq fonts by Tiro Typeworks for the Government of Nunavut), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut#The_Canadian_syllabary

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Kinngait (Cape Dorset) Inuit Printmaking”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/kinngait-print/