James Houston and the Making of Inuit Art

by John Ayre

Overview

In 1954, eager buyers lined up three abreast for over half a block to get into the Canadian Handicrafts Guild in Montreal where, once inside, they wrestled and argued to purchase stone sculptures carved by Inuit artists. In a short span, interest in Inuit carving became a worldwide phenomenon and a major source of income for the Inuit. Their sculptures, tapestries and prints later became the unofficial national art of Canada, gracing homes, corporate offices, postage stamps and international art showcases.

This is the story of how Inuit art came to be regarded as some of the best Indigenous art of the twentieth century. James Houston, an artist as well as a brilliant raconteur and lecturer, was unquestionably instrumental in its development. His enthralling Arctic stories were a gift to journalists, but his inconsistencies became a major hurdle for historians. This book portrays the unusual alliance between James Houston and early Inuit art enthusiasts, the Canadian Handicrafts Guild and the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs. Through painstaking research, it presents their adventures, management, concerns and successes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476688176
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	10/20/2022
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.49(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late John Ayre was an award winning writer and wrote numerous articles on Inuit art for the Inuit Art Quarterly. His degree in cultural anthropology, experience as a literary and art journalist, and personal interest in the Arctic and Inuit art were all brought to bear in his writing of this book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface Mary Ann Evans 1

Abbreviations in the References 5

Terminology and Place-Names 6

Introduction: Getting to Houston 7

1 Early Interest 13

2 Houston's Early Life 18

3 Flying to Port Harrison, 1948 25

4 Second Sale 32

5 West Hudson Bay, 1950 38

6 A Book of Instruction 41

7 South Baffin Island, 1951 44

8 Back South, 1951 51

9 New York and Mexico, 1952 58

10 Fort Chimo and Cape Dorset, 1952 61

11 Recovery 67

12 The North Matters 78

13 Houstons of the Arctic 86

14 A Canadian Art 91

15 Feverish Interest 96

16 Future Plans 99

17 Making Inuit Art 103

Betweeen pages 110 and 111 are 8 color plates containing 9 photographs

18 George Swinton and Edmund Carpenter: The Critics 111

19 Problems of Success 116

20 Highly Saleable Objects 121

21 Cape Dorset Experiments 126

22 Prints in Winnipeg and Japan 134

23 Back Home, 1959 139

24 New Yorkers and Tellick Bay 142

25 Stratford, 1959 146

26 Breakthrough Prints 152

27 Exceeding Wildest Hopes, 1960 157

28 A Summer of Journalists 161

29 Leaving Cape Dorset, 1962 171

30 The Canadian Eskimo Art Committee 175

31 New York Life 183

32 Escoheag, Rhode Island, 1974 188

33 Stonington, Connecticut, 1987 193

34 Cape Dorset, 1992 198

Appendix: Inuit Artists' Names Mary Ann Evans 205

Bibliography 213

Index 219