Parr

Parr (1893 - 1969) is one of the most celebrated Inuit artists of the 20th century. Born on the southern coast of Baffin Island, Canada, in 1893, he and his wife Eleeshushe Parr led a nomadic existence for most of their lives but settled permanently in Cape Dorset, Baffin Island after a serious hunting accident in 1961. By this time, Cape Dorset had already become a famous Inuit artist colony founded by James Huston in the early 1950s. While still hospitalized for frostbite, Parr was gifted a spiral sketchpad by Terrence Ryan, a young art student trained at the Ontario College of Art who had become resident arts advisor. It was at Ryan’s encouragement that Parr took up drawing at the age of 68. Of all the drawings made by the first generation of artists in Cape Dorset, it is perhaps those by Parr that speak most eloquently of the nomadic lives of Inuit families before the 19th century. Unlike most other Inuit art, shamanic transformation or mythology are almost completely absent in Parr’s work. Instead, Parr’s focus remained on the hunt, animals, and later on the human figure as a hunter.

During his short but prolific career, Parr moved between various media, working with graphite, crayon, coloured pencil, charcoal, and felt-tip pen on paper as well as with stonecutters print, stencil print, and etching. He produced over 2000 drawings and contributed 34 prints to the annual Cape Dorset print collections. Like most of the Inuit artists of his time, he was largely self-taught. Unrecognized during his own lifetime, Parr has become one of the most iconic artists of Cape Dorset, and indeed of all of Indigenous North America. His drawings and prints are in the permanent collections of major institutions worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the British Museum, London. Parr has been featured in numerous important exhibitions as well as being the featured artist of three solo shows. In 1977, the print Hunters of Old was selected for a Canadian postage stamp.