Full Text:

NATURE AND TRANSFORMATION: INUIT ART

(with one photo)

BOSTON, MASS. -- Pucker Gallery will open "Nature and Transformation: Inuit

Art," a collection of Inuit stone sculptures from the Cape Dorset and Lake

Harbour regions of northwestern Canada, with a reception on January 9, from 3

to 6 pm. Since the late 1940s, Inuit families in Arctic villages have worked

in art co-operatives as a method of earning income. Each generation passes its

artistic tradition to their children, thus providing for the necessity to work

and fulfilling the impulse to create.

It is important to recognize Inuit art as more than a form of craft: it is

considered internationally as a major contemporary art form by art galleries,

auction houses, and major art museums. These sculptures are composed of

marbled soapstone in shades of apple, sea and forest green, as well as ivory

and black. Inuit artists leave the color of the stone unaltered, as it is

found in nature. The variety of subjects are either highly stylized with

detailed carved lines and etched patterns or they have smooth, simple

naturalistic shapes.

Each sculpture in the exhibit presents a visual account of traditional Inuit

culture. The subject matter ranges from arctic wildlife including birds,

bears, walruses, ducks and owls to traditional scenes of hunting, family life

and spiritual practice. A mother and child dance to the sounds of ritual

drumming with jubilant expressions. An angry bear stretches his long neck

backwards as he lets out a tremendous roar, while a whimsical walrus balances

upright on one tail fin.

Capturing the still world of the Inuit people, life emerges from the weighty

stone. These sculptures speak universally of man's survival and search for

material and spiritual sustenance.

Pucker Gallery, 171 Newbury Street, is open Monday through Saturday, 10 am to

5:30 pm; Sunday, 1 to 5 pm.