GABRIEL JOSEPH GELY

Titled "Eskimo Point", signed lower left, oil on canvas, 61 x 50.8cm (24 x 20in) - Gabriel Joseph Gely, French/Canadian, 1924-2020; he led a full and very fascinating life, born in Paris, Gely was artistic at a young age which began in elementary school and throughout his youth, and received some free-hand drawing instruction at this time; during the Second World War, he became active as a leader in the French underground, and returned to his artwork shortly after the war; Gely had deep interests in Inuit art and decided to travel to Canada in 1952, and over the next 11 years lived in virtually every Arctic settlement while establishing art centres in those regions; he worked in a variety of mediums, including oil, pastel and charcoal, and his later subjects were mostly of Inuit children and family studies; Gely's works are represented in the collection of the Glenbow Foundation, and the National Museum of Canada, Ottawa, among others