Elisapee Ishulutaq

Elisapee Ishulutaq (Inuktitut: , 1925 – 9 December 2018) was a self-taught Inuk artist, specialising in drawing and printmaking. the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada.

Ishulutaq saw herself as a bridge between generations, using visual representations to pass on the wisdom of her community's elders. In 2014, Ishulutaq was awarded the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the cultural and economic health of her community as a role model and mentor".

Early life and family Elisapee Ishulutaq was born 1925 in Kangirterjuak Camp, Northwest Territories. In the 1930s Ishulutaq lived off the land of Baffin Island near Cumberland Sound with her family, including her mother Avurnirq, father Arnaqua, sister Malaya, and adopted brother Silassie Arnaquq. Although little is known about her early life, as a child she lived a nomadic hunting life which is the source of her inspiration in many of her later works. Elisapee Ishulutaq started her artistic career relatively late in life, after she moved to Pangnirtung at the age of forty-five. About In His Memory, Ishulutaq has said that: "I drew it so that young people would not choose suicide as a solution to their problems".

Works related to environmentalism Some of Ishulutaq's works focus on climate change such as the work titled Climate Change (2012). At the age of 45 Ishulutaq moved to Pangnirtung, and began to contribute illustrations to the Pangnirtung print and tapestry workshops. Ishulutaq has been a contributor to the Pangnirtung print and tapestry workshops for 40 years, as long as the arts and crafts industry has existed in Pangnirtung. Ishulutaq was also one of the original contributors to the Pangnirtung annual catalogue of prints. Ishulutaq is the last living artist to have contributed to this original catalogue that was published in 1973.

Artistic inspiration Many of her recent oil stick drawings are large-scale pieces; for example, her work In His Memory (2016) is 30 meters long, and Nunagah (2009) is 5 feet tall and 30 feet long. Ishulutaq claims that the concept of legacy was her initial incentive for the creation of art: "The main reason for making art being that the future generations could see my work... I would leave a footprint so to speak... to be able to share history through images." Early prints from Ishulutaq's drawings often included multiple perspectives, and large solitary figures of people, birds, and people, floating on a neutral background. During the establishment of the Tapestry Studio in Pangnirtung in the early 1970s, Ishulutaq and Malaya Akulukjuk were the workshop's sole illustrators. The Biennial was entitled "Builders" referring to the contribution of artists such as Ishulutaq to contemporary art and art mentorship. In 2016, Ishulutaq was commissioned to create the mural In His Memory as a memorial to the suicide of a young boy in her community.

In 2013, Ishulutaq illustrated Vera Avic's Inuit children's story Trip to the Moon.

Ishulutaq also continued to provide drawings for the yearly Pangnirtung Print Collection. In 2010, the collection contained 2 of Ishulutaq's drawings. The drawings depicted a scene from Pangnirtung and a streetscape of condominiums in Vancouver from a trip Ishulutaq took to British Columbia for an exhibition. The 2011 collection also included Ishulutaq's International Formation: Two Canadians, one American & one German Fly the Arctic.

Awards Ishulutaq was part of the Pangnirtung experimental graphic workshop from 1970–1971. Shortly after in the year of 1973 at the California College of Arts and Crafts International Print Competition she won the award of merit for the design of her print "Three Bears".

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions Elisapee Ishulutaq: Remembering a Future, Too, Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver British Columbia (October 22 – December 3, 2016). Elisappee Ishultaq: Drawings and Prints, Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (August 12-September 16, 2016). 28 recent paper and oilstick drawings and large scale etchings. These works were based on memories (e.g. family and friends, playful rather than working children, hardships. Elisapee Ishulutaq: Prints from Pangnirtung, Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (July 4 – 26, 2014). Ishuluak, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (2010). Carvings by Elisapee Ishulutaq, Galerie aux Multiples, Quebec City, Quebec (June–July 1990).

Group exhibitions National Craft Exhibition: Can Craft? Craft Can! Canadian Craft Biennial, Lee-Chin Family Gallery, Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, Ontario (August – October 2017). Raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Arts Collection, Ontario College of Art and Design University Onsite Gallery, Toronto, Ontario (2017). Idols and Impossible Structures: New Prints 2017/ Winter, International Print Centre, New York City, New York (2017). Included Ishulutaq's prints Who Are You? What is Your Name? (2015) and Brother and Sister Greeting (2015). Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (November 2, 2012 – January 20, 2013) Eight Women, Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver British Columbia (August 3 – September 14, 2013). Oil on Paper New Work from the Studios of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Marion Scott Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (July 17 – August 28, 2010). Contemporary Art from Pangnirtung, The Art Gallery, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia (1991). Chisel and Brush/Le ciseau et la brosse, Department of Indian Affairs and North Development, Ottawa, Ontario (June 1985-September 1987). Tour/illustrated catalogue featuring Ishulutaq's print Woman Thinking (Josee Maniapik was the respective printmaker). Pangnirtung Tapestries/Tapisseries de Pangnirtung, Canadian Guild of Crafts, Montreal, Quebec (1972). Inuit Games and Contests; The Clifford E. Lee Collection of Prints, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (August 1978) Illustrated catalogue. Looking South, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba (1978). Tour/illustrated catalogue. The Inuit Print/L'estampe Inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and the National Museum of Man, Ottawa, Ontario (January 1977 – June 1982) Crafts from Arctic Canada/ Arrtisanat de l'arctique canadien, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council Ottawa, Ontario (1976). Tour and illustrated catalogue. Canadian Museum of History Clifford E. Collection of Inuit Wall Handing, University of Alberta Art and Artefact Collection Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Pangnirtung Print Collection (circa 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1994, 1995, 2010) Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Private collections Collection of Susan and Bill Cale, Harrisonburg, Virginia. Contains tapestry of Ishulutak's drawing Laden Hunter (1979)