Whale Hunt - Kayaks, Umiaks, 5 Whales

The René Balcer and Carolyn Hsu-Balcer Inuit Print Collection—one of the finest and most important collections of modern and contemporary Inuit prints in North America—features 515 relief prints by renowned Inuit and First Nations printmakers from multiple regions across Nunavut/Northwest Territories/Canada. The prints depict imagery of birds and other animals, Inuit peoples, transformative figures, dreams, cosmologies, and hunting scenes. The collection highlights celebrated Inuit artists associated with the famous artists’ collective and printmaking studio at Baffin Island’s Cape Dorset, the source of Inuit printmaking that was established in the 1950s with the support of James Houston (1921-2005). Houston was an artist, author, and arts advocate hired by the Canadian government to encourage the economic well-being and artistic practices of Inuit communities. The original artists working at Cape Dorset collectively identified as the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. In 1960 they released their first official catalogued collection of forty-one prints to great critical acclaim.