Oct 16, 2024

Lucy Qinnuayuak’s vibrant expressions

See 17 works on paper by this first-generation Inuk artist from Kinngait Studios at the AGO now

Lithograph by Lucy Qinnuayuak showing a boy at home alone on a blue background with flowers

Lucy Qinnuayuak. Boy at Home Alone, 1981. Lithograph, 52.2 x 66.8 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Samuel and Esther Sarick, Toronto, 2002. © Estate of Lucy Qinnuayuak. Reproduced with the permission of Dorset Fine Arts. 2002/9954

Lucy Qinnuayuak (1915 – 1982) was a prolific Inuk graphic artist from Kinngait, Nunavut (previously Cape Dorset, Northwest Territories) in the 1960s, best known for her colourful depictions of birds, hunting scenes, and domestic Inuit life. While she specialized primarily in graphite pencil and coloured pencil drawings, she also worked in watercolour, acrylic paints, and printmaking.

Qinnuayuak was born at an outpost camp near Salluit, Nunavik, Quebec, before relocating to Kinngait with her family at a young age. She began drawing and etching in the 1950s while living at Supujuak camp. In the early 1960s, she married graphic artist and sculptor Tikituk Qinnuayuak (1908 – 1992) and later settled in Kinngait, where she became one of the first artists to create graphic works in Kinngait Studios.

a colourful illustration of four birds on paper

Lucy Qinnuayuak. Four Birds, 1966-1976. Coloured porous-point pen on paper, Overall: 48.5 x 61.5 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Samuel and Esther Sarick, Toronto, 2002. © Estate of Lucy Qinnuayuak. Reproduced with the permission of Dorset Fine Arts. 2002/10821

Her early works consisted of stonecut prints in line with contemporary printmaking techniques at the time. As her career progressed into the late 1970s, she incorporated acrylics and coloured pencils, resulting in works featuring rich, contrasting colours that became her signature aesthetic. She used broad, fluid strokes to create backgrounds and figure outlines, adding details with felt tipped pen and coloured pencil on top. Her images were often colourful, surreal, and humourous depictions of Inuit oral histories, culture, families and traditional daily life in the twentieth century. She rarely depicted landscapes; instead preferring to have her compositions on plain, white backgrounds. Birds, particularly owls, became a reoccurring motif throughout her artistic career.

As a first-generation artist from Kinngait Studios, her work has been widely exhibited internationally. Her art has been included in every Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection beginning in 1961 up until her death in 1982. In 1976, one of her designs was selected for the1976 Montreal Summer Olympics as a banner which was later displayed at the AGO from April to May 1976.

stonecut and stencil with an illustration of a woman skinning a seal

Lucy Qinnuayuak. Pilatuktu, 1979. Stonecut and stencil in four colours on paper, Sheet: 46.3 × 61 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of Samuel and Esther Sarick, Toronto, 2002. © Estate of Lucy Qinnuayuak. Reproduced with the permission of Dorset Fine Arts. 2002/9946

The evolution of her style from early concept drawings to stonecut prints is on view now at the AGO with 20 works on paper from the AGO Collection displayed on on Level 2 in Gallery 201. Lucy Qinnuayuak is curated by Emily Henderson, former AGO Curatorial Assistant, Indigenous & Canadian Art.