Artist seeks painting made for 1970 N.W.T. centennial, missing ever since

Within the late Nineteen Sixties, Andrew Jackson Steen — who’s now nearing 80 — created a big and distinctive portrait of the Northwest Territories authorities of the day.

He mentioned he loaned the four-foot-by-six-foot portray to the territorial authorities for an occasion at Yellowknife metropolis corridor in 1970, posed with it in entrance of the gang, and by no means noticed it once more.

The occasion was a part of the N.W.T.’s centennial celebration, held to mark the a centesimal anniversary of Hudson’s Bay Firm transferring an enormous swath of Canada, together with a lot of the North and central provinces, to the Dominion of Canada. It got here three years after Canada’s centennial, which noticed celebrations throughout the nation.

Many years later, the query of what occurred to the portray nonetheless nags at him. 

“I used to be proud, that is all. I had completed my private contribution to the centenary,” mentioned Steen, who’s Inuvialuit. “It is actually bizarre that no one is aware of something about it.”  

Steen fears somebody could have walked away together with his paintings, not realizing its worth to the territory, as occurred with the papal flag used throughout the Pope’s 1984 go to to Fort Simpson, N.W.T.

“It by no means crossed my thoughts on the time that the flag ought to be given to the neighborhood,” Chuck Tackaberry, a civil servant on the time, informed CBC final yr. 

In 2021, the flag was returned to the neighborhood by former civil servant Phil Bowes, who had not too long ago dug it out of a trunk in his basement the place it had sat for 30 years.

Steen has endeavoured over time to trace the portray down. He wrote letters to the territorial authorities, and posted queries on Fb, however to no avail. Most not too long ago, his daughter, Doris Butt, reached out to the media. 

“It’s extremely discouraging whenever you put that form of effort into engaged on a chunk like this, simply to have it disappear,” she mentioned.

As her father’s gotten older, his craving to search out the lacking portray has deepened, mentioned Butt.

“He want to see this resolved earlier than it is his time to go.”

An unconventional portrait

The one report Steen has of the portray — which he mentioned took the higher a part of a yr to complete — is a slide made earlier than its completion.

However even from that, it is clear this was not a traditional political portrait.

The bottom was a collage of newspaper clippings, awash in blue.

Above that, Steen mentioned, have been 13 circles, every containing the top of 1 member of the council of the Northwest Territories, in addition to then N.W.T. commissioner Stuart Hodgson. 

Requested in regards to the portray’s design, Steen mentioned, with a chuckle, that “possibly it was my Catholic upbringing, to place a halo round every [face].” 

This was how saints have been depicted in photos he noticed at residential faculty in Aklavik, the place he realized to color. 

Steen does not have any of his paintings from his faculty days, both. 

“The Catholic Church boarding faculty took all our paintings with them once they shut down the faculties,” he mentioned, “so I do not know the place the hell it ended up.”

No report on the museum

Sarah Carr-Locke, director of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, mentioned there isn’t any report of Steen’s portray within the museum’s assortment.

“We have now some objects that college students created in residential faculty, as a result of the Gray Nuns or others gave these to us,” mentioned Carr-Locke, however they do not essentially know which scholar made which piece.

The establishment, she mentioned, has an moral code that bars it from buying work with out the permission of the one that made it, or donated it.

However in 1970, “who is aware of how these items have been managed,” she mentioned. 

The museum wasn’t but established, and the N.W.T. authorities was in its infancy.

Centennial ‘simply big’

Centennial celebrations lasted a whole yr within the N.W.T., which then included Nunavut. 

The anniversary was “simply big,” recalled Eugene Hodgson, son of then-commissioner Hodgson. 

There have been sporting occasions and jamborees, a floating swimming pool on the Mackenzie River, and visits from Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the royal family.

Eugene, who was in highschool on the time, could not bear in mind seeing Steen’s portray amid the festivities, however urged the piece could have ended up with an N.W.T. councillor, or in Canada’s nationwide archives. 

Questions despatched to the Library and Archives of Canada remained unanswered earlier than publication. A spokesperson for the Nationwide Gallery of Canada mentioned the gallery has no work by Steen in its everlasting assortment. 

Officers on the N.W.T. Legislative Meeting additionally wonder if the portray made its option to Ottawa.

A spokesperson mentioned they searched final week and located no hint of Steen’s portray.

“We’re all the thoughts that it would not be stunning if it was someplace in Ottawa or in a non-public assortment,” they mentioned.

$1K provide rejected

Searches by N.W.T. authorities officers within the late Eighties yielded no clues as to the portray’s whereabouts. 

“Sadly I, too, have been unsuccessful and have exhausted all leads,” Tony Whitford, then government assistant to the N.W.T. commissioner, wrote to Steen in 1988.

“Additional complicating the matter, most if not all the individuals round on the time have left the federal government of the N.W.T. with no matter info they might have had.”

The letter proposed compensating Steen $1,000 — a suggestion Steen mentioned he rejected.

“I assumed it was value greater than that,” he mentioned.

Now residing on Denman Island in B.C., Steen mentioned he does not essentially need the paintings again. He would, nevertheless, recognize a photograph of it, and to be paid.

“I used to be considering within the space of $40,000, as a result of it is now not only a portray, nevertheless it’s a historic doc,” he mentioned.

Steen mentioned he would use the cash to begin a scholarship for budding artists who wish to go to artwork faculty.