The Cushion

Description

‘The Cushion’ by Jutai Toonoo — Cape Dorset Inuit Art from Dorset Fine Arts 2013 original hand drawing collection presented by DaVic Gallery of Native Canadian Arts.

Condition:          No condition to be noted.

Description by Artist:     No description by artist found.

Notes from DaVic Gallery:   Well, isn’t this an unusual subject for a drawing, for an Inuit drawing that is?   Would you have even considered this drawing to be categorized as Inuit Art had you not seen in this gallery or presented by Dorset Fine Arts?   Perhaps the need to verify is what brought you to the details page for this drawing.  Jutai Toonoo certainly will challenge your secured sense of what you understood Inuit Art is all about.  Jutai’s drawings cast a spell on us, the magic that attracts us and keeps us staring at his works, is the intensity of life that breathes from all of his works.  The viewer can feel the energy Jutai put into each of his works and now that energy attracts us, calls us to try to understand what he is expressing.  That is the keyword in Jutai’s works, expression.

Such an amazing, intriguing, refreshing surprise to the Inuit Art collector and connoisseurs alike!  Are you scratching your head?  Don’t.  Simply admire this beautiful and amazing composition that truly overflows with life energy, despite the topic, and that takes higher value when you know how and why this is such a rare piece based on the cultural background of the author.  How can you not just bathe in such moment expressed with such energy Jutai pours into each and every piece he created?

Everything about this composition feels cool, refreshing, and yet intentional coldness or objectivity.  A sheet is carefully thrown and evenly distributed over a cushion perhaps made of foam.  Folds and creases as well as shaded areas are very clear and the cool blue of the sheet gives this cushion the appearance of a block of ice.  The dark bed and wall surrounding the cushion help give this whole composition a feeling of intended emotionless, insensitivity, rejection … there is perhaps more warmth and heartfelt welcome inside an winter camp igloo … such trivial object to pay so much attention to, but this is not unusual for Jutai who will draw a nail, a saw, and even a pile of his dirty laundry with intense expressiveness and energy.   This is what makes Jutai’s works such high appreciation by collectors and admirers alike, using such childlike curiosity stopping at such trivial object and admire the moment to an extent to take his tools and paper and leaning over paper for hours at a time to express such object the way only Jutai could.