Celebrated painter and printmaker Germaine Arnaktauyok was awarded the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts earlier this month. An opportunity to look back at the work of one of the most talented Inuit artists.
She draws inspiration from her own personal experiences, which she then integrates into Inuit stories and narratives. And this is perhaps Germaine Arnaktauyok’s greatest strength: to be able to tell the story of the Inuit, their traditions, their culture, their way of life, while creating scenes of great intimacy.
Working in pen and colored pencil, the artist also uses various printing processes (etching, lithograph, serigraph) to produce works that are both delicate and rich. The fine lines and motifs remind of Japanese printmaking. Like one of the artist’s best-known works depicting the goddess Sedna.
Arnaktauyok’s work often features intimate family scenes, illustrating for instance the relationship between mother and child. Always with the same richness of detail and delicacy of composition.
These same characteristics can be found in representations of animals, intrinsically linked to the environment and to humans.
Born in 1946 in Maniitsoq, southwest Greenland, Germaine Arnaktauyok was immersed in art from the very start. Her parents, Therese Nattok and Isidore Iytok, were both talented artists who were already helping to sculpt, in the literal sense of the word, the Inuit artistic style.
The family moved to Igloolik in Nunavut, where Arnaktauyok grew up and developed her talent for drawing. After studying art in Manitoba, she moved to Yellowknife, where she still lives. In the early 1990s, she began drawing and crafting (an art she learned in Iqaluit). Her work was soon spotted and exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.
During her career, Arnaktauyok has helped illustrate several books, some of which she has written herself, as well as an autobiography published in 2015. In 1999, one of her works, Drummer, was selected by the Royal Canadian Mint to adorn a two-dollar coin commemorating the founding of Nunavut.
In 2021, Arnaktauyok was nominated for the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. The awards ceremony, honouring the winners for the years 2020 to 2023, took place on December 8 at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, Governor General official residence.
Under the Canada Council for the Arts administration, Governor General’s Awards are presented to individuals who have achieved outstanding literary, artistic or social distinction. Awards presented by the Governor General of Canada are considered among the most prestigious in the country. An appreciable distinction for an artist who has left an important mark on Inuit art.
Mirjana Binggeli, PolarJournal
