| Description |
Stonecut 31/40 - Puvirnituq Co-op 1976
Titled, Numbered, Dated & Signed Across Lower Border
Sheet - 20 ins x 23 ins (50.8 cm x 58.42 cm)
Unframed
Provenance: Private Collection
Josie Pamiutu Papialuk (Paperk)
(1918 – 1997 Indigenous / CAD)
Josie Pamiutu Papialuk, known also as "Josie Paperk" or simply "Puppy," was born in 1918 near Issuksiuvit Lake, just inland from Povungnituk. After the death of his wife Martha in 1975, he continued to live there with his only surviving son. Josie is a very jovial man, regarded in the community as an eccentric joker. His art is indicative of a special kind of genius: it reveals both his profound sense of observation and a keen insight. Josie produces both carvings and prints. He was one of the first Povungnituk artists to become involved in printmaking in the early 1960s. Initially, he produced small, whimsical soapstone carvings of birds, fish and human heads. Many elements of Josie's unique style are already apparent in some of his early carvings: scratched footprints to indicate past or future directions and captions to explain the action.
In both his carvings and prints, Josie employs undulating lines to depict such invisible phenomena as wind, voices or bird chatter. In the introduction to the 1983 catalogue JOSIE PAPERK, Marion Scott remarked that "[Josie] has been able to capture in a gentle, philosophical and sometimes humorous way, the very essence of existence." George Swinton described his work as "naive realism," a style which to this day remains puzzling to most Inuit artists. Unlike many artists who might attempt to disguise a flaw in the stone, Josie often directs attention to it by carving a circle around it. This attitude towards maintaining and, to a certain extent, exploiting the integrity of the materials used is shared by many contemporary southern artists. His inclination towards whimsy does not cloud his artistic judgement. When asked why he sometimes puts only one leg on his birds, Josie answered "I put the second leg on when I need the extra money".
Josie's work has been exhibited in several important exhibitions since 1962.
His brother, is artist Isah Papialuk. His work is held in a variety of museums, including the National Gallery of Canada, the British Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Canadian Museum of History, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the McMaster Museum of Art.
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