This drawing is a particularly eloquent example of Pitseolak’s later work, which conveys a deep sense of quietness and a distillation of her preferred subjects. Gone is the exuberance of people and animals engaged in a multitude of activities in camps or travelling across the land. The solitary figure of a woman sits contemplating the stone cairn in the landscape. The likelihood is that Pitseolak is once again reflecting on her own life and that the cairn is the grave marker for her husband, Ashoona, which still stands at Netsilik.
Shared History: The Drawings of Pitseolak Ashoona
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Pitseolak Ashoona, Untitled (Solitary Figure on the Landscape), c.1980
Coloured pencil on paper, 51.4 x 66.5 cm, collection of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd., on loan to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario