Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection

A gorgeous retrospective on the transformation of Inuit art in the 20th century, mirroring the vast and poignant cultural changes in the North.

In response to a rapidly changing Arctic environment, Inuit have had to cope with the transition from a traditional lifestyle to the disturbing realities of globalization and climate change. Inuit art in the latter half of the 20th century reflects the reciprocal stimulus of contact with Euro-Canadians and embodies the evolution of a modern Inuit aesthetic that springs from an ancient cultural context, creating an exciting new hybridized art form. Inuit Modern: Art from the Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection situates modern Inuit art within a larger framework that reinterprets the Canadian Arctic. Essays by leading Canadian scholars in the field including Ingo Hessel, Robert McGhee, Christine Laloude, Heather Igloliorte, Dorothy Eber and Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad examine the social, political and cultural transformation through the dynamic lens of colonial influence and agency. Inuit Modern also features interviews with David Ruben Piqtoukun and Zacharias Kunuk.

This book was published in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Ingo Hessel is the Albrecht Adjunct Curator of Inuit Art at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His publications include the seminal Inuit Art: An Introduction, Arctic Spirit and Sanattiaqsimajut: Inuit Art from the Carleton University Art Gallery Collection. He curated the exhibition Arctic Spirit for the Heard Museum, which toured to ten cities across North America from 2006 to 2009. For twelve years he was Special Projects Officer and Coordinator of the Inuit Art Section in the Canadian Government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, which published his educational booklet Canadian Inuit Sculpture in eight languages. Ingo Hessel is also a sculptor who has had many solo exhibitions in Canada and Japan.

Christine Lalonde is the Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Gerald McMaster, PhD, is the Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. During his tenure as Curator of Contemporary Indian Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (1981-2000), he established the first Indian and Inuit gallery at the CMC. In 1992, he curated Indigena for the Canadian Museum of Man and co-authored the book Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives in Canadian Art. His publications include Reservation X (1998), Native Universe (2004) and Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World (2007). In 1995, he served as Canadian Commissioner and curated Edward Poitras's exhibition at the Venice Biennale. From 2000 to 2004, he was Deputy Assistant Director for Cultural Resources at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. At NMAI, he curated First American Art (2004) and New Tribe / New York (2005). He was awarded the Order of Canada (2007) and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2005.

John Ralston Saul is an essayist and novelist. Winner of the Governor General’s Award for The Unconscious Civilization, he has published more than twelve books. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.