Lucy Qinnuayuak
Lucy Qinnuayuak (1915–1982) was an Inuit graphic artist and printmaker born in a camp near Salluit, Nunavik, Quebec. At a young age, Lucy’s father passed away and her family moved to south Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island), Nunavut. Lucy began drawing in the late 1950s while living at Supujuak Camp with her husband and children. In 1960, she settled in Kinngait (Cape Dorset) and began participating in the printmaking program at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (now Kinngait Studios). A total of 136 of her prints were included in the Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection between 1961 and 1982. Lucy’s niece Kenoujuak Ashevak was a well-known graphic artist.
As a teenager, Lucy married Tikituk, a sculptor and graphic artist. Together, they lived a traditional hunting lifestyle, moving between seasonal hunting camps in the Foxe Peninsula region. The pair cared for their five children, two adopted children, and Tikitu’s brother’s five orphaned children.
With encouragement from James Houston, Lucy began drawing while living at Supujuak Camp. One of the first to respond to Houston’s call for Inuit printmaking, Lucy would bring her drawings for Houston to appraise in Kinngait when she visited the town to get supplies. The additional income from her drawings became essential when Tikituk fell ill and had to go south for treatment. After Tikituk’s recovery in 1960, the family settled in Kinngait, and Lucy began participating in the printmaking program at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (now Kinngait Studios).
Lucy is known for her depictions of stylized birds and scenes that explore the roles of Inuit women. Her compositions are surreal, colourful, and light-hearted, illustrating family dynamics, traditional camp activities, and community gatherings. Her birds, commonly owls, are depicted in all kinds of situations and relationships. Over time, the birds became more surreal and were often depicted with dense, colourful patterns. While Lucy worked primarily with graphite and coloured pencils, she began experimenting with watercolours and acrylics in the 1970s and 80s. In a mixed-media technique, Lucy would use broad strokes of paint to create her background and the outline of her figures before adding details with felt tip pens and coloured pencils. Despite this development in her work, Lucy preferred to render her subjects on flat, white backgrounds.
Lucy was one of ten artists to have her work included in the banner for the 1975 Olympics in Montreal. In total, her work has been exhibited in more than 80 group and solo exhibitions worldwide, including exhibitions such as The Inuit Print/L’estampe Inuit, a travelling exhibition on view from 1977 to 1982 organized by the Canadian Museum of History and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and Birds and Flowers: Eskimo Graphics by Lucy Qinnayuak, a solo exhibition on view in 1989 at Arctic Artistry, New York. Lucy’s work is held in museum collections internationally, including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery, London, UK, among many others.