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.

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.

Gerald McMaster's profile page

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.

Dorothy Eber's profile page

Bernadette Engelstad's profile page

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 (1998), Arctic Spirit (2006) and Sanattiaqsimajut: Inuit Art from the Carleton University Art Gallery Collection (2009). 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.

Ingo Hessel's profile page

Heather Igloliorte (Inuit) Ikajuttiuvuk Ilinniatitsijalligiutluni ammalu Concordia Ilinniavitsuangani Kaujisattiuvuk Itsivautagijautlunillu NunaKakKâsimajunut Allanguattet PiusituKannik ammalu Nunalinni IlauKattajunut Montreal-imi. Immigolingatluni uKâlattiusimalittuk taimanganit 2005. Kaujisajanga ammalu uKâlautigiKattajanga KanuttogutiKaluattuk Inuit ammalu asigiallait nunalituKait Taggâni America takugatsauKattajunut ammalu sanattauKattajunut ilikKuset ammalu pitjutauKattajunut immigolingajunut, pitsatuniKajunut, sakKijânginnatunut ammalu sangijojunut.

Heather Igloliorte's profile page

Born in 1957 in a sod house on Baffin Island, Zacharias Kunuk was a carver in 1981 when he sold three sculptures in Montreal to buy a home video camera and 27” TV to bring back to Igloolik, a settlement of 500 Inuit who had voted twice to refuse access to outside television. After working six years for Inuit Broadcasting Corporation as producer and station manager, Kunuk co-founded Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. in 1990 with Paul Apak Angilirq, Pauloosie Qulitalik, and Norman Cohn, and Kunuk Cohn Productions Inc. in 2004 with Norman Cohn. In 2001, Kunuk’s first feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, won the Camera d’or at the Cannes Film Festival and was shown around the world. Kunuk has directed more than 30 films and videos screened in film festivals and theatres, museums and art galleries, and on TV. He has honorary doctorates from Trent University and Wilfred Laurier University; is the winner of the Cannes Camera d’or, three Genie Awards including Best Director and Best Picture, a National Arts Award, and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and the 2017 Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. Zacharias Kunuk was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2015.

Zacharias Kunuk's profile page

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

Christine Lalonde's profile page

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.

Robert McGhee's profile page

David Piqtoukun's profile page

John Ralston Saul is one of Canada’s leading social and political commentators. He is the author of numerous books on philosophy and contemporary politics, including Voltaire’s Bastards, Reflections Of A Siamese Twin, and most recently The Collapse of Globalism. Saul was the Massey lecturer in 1995, and won the 1996 Governor General’s Award for nonfiction for The Unconscious Civilization, based on those lectures. He is the former president of PEN Canada and the creator of the acclaimed LaFontaine Baldwin Lecture series. A regular speaker and panelist across Canada and internationally, John Ralston Saul currently lives in Toronto.

John Ralston Saul's profile page

Alootook Ipellie was born in a camp near Iqaluit, Northwest Territories. He spent his childhood and early teenage years adjusting to the transition from the traditional nomadic Inuit way of life to life in government-sponsored Inuit settlements. He died in 2007. Arctic Dreams and Nightmares is his first book with Theytus.

Alootook Ipellie's profile page

• Winner, Melva J. Dwyer Award
• Runner-up, Alcuin Award for Best Pictorial Book Design

"The work of Inuit artists has continually evolved in response to the industrialized, bureaucratic culture encroaching from the south. Inuit Modern, an opulent new coffee-table book, displays the astonishing results. The 175 pieces beautifully reproduced here span the last century."

Georgia Straight

"This book is full of treasures from one of the world's most comprehensive collections of Inuit art. With more than 175 works by Inuit artists, the reader is taken on a journey of the Inuit aesthetic as it evolves from its from traditional roots to a more contemporary and globalized art form."

Globe & Mail Top 100 for 2010

Inuit Modern

This large format art book combines a comprehensive and wide-ranging review of the most current understandings of Inuit history, culture, adaptation and art. Contributors range from writer John Ralston Saul, celebrated Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, Inuit artist David Ruben Piqtoukun to noted historians and art curators. This is an invaluable resource and survey of Inuit peoples and how they have adapted to southern Canadian influences and incursions in empowering ways. The colour photographs and reproductions of the selected pieces offer an enticing introduction to 20th century Inuit art in sculpture, printmaking and drawing.

The editor received the Order of Canada and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award.