Museum of Contemporary Circumpolar Art (MCCA)

Iyola Kingwatsiak (1933-2000) became a well-loved member of the settlement of Kinngait. An accomplished sculptor, he also joined the fledgling printmaking programme in Kinngait and became a virtuoso print technician, translating drawings by his colleagues into stunning prints. While he was both a sculptor and a graphic artist, it is his drawings that really indicate his true genius as an image maker. Two Fish dates to 1986/87 and seems to celebrate the Arctic Char, a staple of the traditional Inuit diet. With the eye of a printmaker he simplifies the forms of the fish and carefully builds a triangular composition, leading the viewer’s eye up to the point that the two heads meet. Iyola’s masterful mixing of colours is no doubt a skill learned in making stonecut prints where varied colours are mixed together directly on the stone by the printer; this simplified image is elevated by these subtle colour nuances and tones to produce a striking drawing.