Kenojuak Ashevak facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kenojuak Ashevak
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| ᕿᓐᓄᐊᔪᐊᖅ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ (Qinnuajuaq Aasivak) | |
Ashevak in 1997
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Kenojuak Ashevak
October 3, 1927 Ikirasaqa, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada
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| Died | January 8, 2013 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | Inuit |
| Known for | soapstone carver, graphic artist |
| Movement | Inuit art |
| Awards | Order of Canada |
Kenojuak Ashevak (October 3, 1927 – January 8, 2013) was a very important Inuit artist. She is known as one of the most famous figures in modern Inuit art. Her beautiful drawings and prints, often showing birds and other animals, are loved around the world. She helped share Inuit culture and art with many people.
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Early Life and Family
Kenojuak Ashevak was born in an igloo in a small Inuit camp called Ikirasaq. This camp was on the southern coast of Baffin Island in Canada. Her father, Ushuakjuk, was an Inuit hunter and fur trader. Her mother, Silaqqi, named Kenojuak after her own father, who had passed away. This was an Inuit tradition to pass on love and respect. Kenojuak also had a brother and a sister.
She remembered her father as a very kind man. He was a respected angakkuq, which is an Inuit shaman or spiritual leader. Kenojuak said her father had special knowledge. He could predict the weather and good hunting seasons. He even believed he could turn into a walrus! Sadly, her father died when she was only six years old, in 1933.
After her father's death, Kenojuak moved with her mother and family. They went to live with her grandmother, Koweesa. Her grandmother taught her many traditional skills. These included how to fix sealskins for trading and how to make waterproof clothes.
When she was 19, her mother and stepfather arranged for her to marry Johnniebo Ashevak. He was a local Inuit hunter. Kenojuak was not sure at first, but she grew to love him. Johnniebo was kind and gentle. He also became an artist himself and sometimes worked with Kenojuak.
In 1950, Kenojuak had to go to a hospital in Quebec City. She stayed there for over three years, from 1952 to 1955, because she had tuberculosis. She had just given birth to a baby, who was adopted by another family. Sadly, some of her children passed away during this time.
In 1966, Kenojuak and Johnniebo moved to Kinngait (also known as Cape Dorset). Many of their children and grandchildren became sick and passed away. Her husband, Johnniebo, also died in 1972 after 26 years of marriage. Kenojuak had 11 children with her first husband and adopted five more. Seven of her children died when they were young.
After Johnniebo died, Kenojuak married again in 1973 to Etyguyakjua Pee, who passed away in 1977. In 1978, she married Joanassie Igiu. At the time of her death in 2013, she was living in a wooden house in Kinngait.
Becoming an Artist
Kenojuak Ashevak was one of the first Inuit women in Cape Dorset to start drawing. She used different materials like pencils and felt-tip pens. Sometimes she used paints like gouache, watercolour, or acrylics. She also made many carvings from soapstone. She created thousands of drawings, etchings, and prints. Museums and collectors around the world wanted her art.
She designed pictures for several Canadian stamps and coins. In 2004, she created the first stained-glass window designed by an Inuit artist. It is in the John Bell Chapel in Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. In 2017, her famous stone-cut print called "Owl’s Bouquet" was featured on a special $10 Canadian banknote. This banknote celebrated Canada's 150th birthday.
While Kenojuak was in the hospital in Quebec City from 1952 to 1955, she learned to make dolls and do beadwork. These crafts caught the eye of James Archibald Houston and his wife Alma. James Houston helped introduce print-making to artists in Cape Dorset in the 1950s. He and his wife started selling Inuit arts and crafts.
James Houston said that Kenojuak was unsure at first. She thought drawing was "a man’s business." But the next time she visited the Houstons, the paper Alma had given her was full of sketches!
In 1958, her first print, Rabbit Eating Seaweed, was made from one of her designs. By 1959, Kenojuak and other Inuit artists in Cape Dorset formed the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. This was a workshop for new Inuit artists, now known as Kinngait Studios.
Her art quickly became popular in southern Canada. Rabbit Eating Seaweed was part of the first exhibition of Inuit prints. Christine Lalonde, an expert in Inuit art, said Kenojuak was an instant success. "She had her own sense of design," Lalonde explained. "She was willing to let the pencil go, because she had the hand and eye co-ordination to make the image she already had in her head." The National Gallery of Canada owns several copies of her famous print The Enchanted Owl from 1960.
In 1963, a documentary film called Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak was made about her. It showed Kenojuak, then 35, and her family. It also showed how a stonecutter would carve her designs into stone blocks. Then, ink would be applied to the stone, often in two or more colours, to make prints. With the money she earned from the film, her husband Johnniebo bought his own canoe. This helped him become an independent hunter and provide for their family.
Christine Lalonde, the art expert, was amazed by Kenojuak's confident style. "When you see her, you realize she doesn't use an eraser," Lalonde said. "She just sits down and she starts to draw."
Kenojuak created several artworks to celebrate the creation of Nunavut. Nunavut became Canada's third territory in 1999. Her pieces included Nunavut Qajanatuk (Our Beautiful Land) and Siilavut, Nunavut (Our Environment, Our Land).
You can find Kenojuak Ashevak's art in many important collections. These include Canada's National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Burnaby Art Gallery.
In 2001, Kenojuak became the first Inuit artist to be added to Canada's Walk of Fame. She traveled to Toronto with her daughter, Silaqi, for the ceremony.
Kenojuak continued to create new works every year until her death. She was one of the last living artists from the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative.
A CBC report said that Kenojuak was very humble. Okpik Pitseolak, an artist who knew her, said Kenojuak brought Inuit art to the world but was "very humble about her work." She was "thankful for the fact that she was given this gift." Since her death, prices for Kenojuak's work have reached new records. For example, a copy of Rabbit Eating Seaweed sold for $59,000 CAD.
Her Unique Style
Kenojuak described her artistic process in 1980. She said, "I just take these things out of my thoughts and out of my imagination." She focused on making her art look pleasing to her own eye. She didn't worry if it looked exactly like something real. "That is just my style," she said, "and is the way I started and the way I am today."
The Stained Glass Window
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In 2004, Kenojuak designed a stained glass window for a chapel at Appleby College in Oakville, Ontario. The window shows an Arctic char (a type of fish) and an owl against a bright blue background. It was the first window of its kind made by an Inuit artist.
The window was inspired by stories from the Bible where Jesus feeds many people with two fish and a few loaves of bread. For Kenojuak, this story showed the spirit of the Inuit community, where food is always shared. The window was officially opened on November 9, 2004.
Where to See Her Art
Kenojuak Ashevak's work is part of many important art collections. You can find her art at:
- The Art Museum at University of Toronto
- St. Lawrence University
- The National Gallery of Canada
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Brooklyn Museum
- The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
Awards and Recognition
Kenojuak Ashevak received many honours and awards for her amazing art:
- In 1967, she became an Officer of the Order of Canada. She was promoted to Companion in 1982.
- In 1970, Canada Post put her 1960 print Enchanted Owl on a stamp. This celebrated the 100th birthday of the Northwest Territories.
- In 1974, she was chosen as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
- In 1980, Canada Post used her 1961 print Return of the Sun on another stamp.
- In 1991, she received an honorary doctorate degree from Queen's University at Kingston.
- In 1992, she received another honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto.
- In 1993, Canada Post featured her 1969 drawing The Owl on a stamp in its Masterpieces of Canadian Art series.
- In 1999, her famous "Red Owl" was on the April issue of the 1999 Millennium quarter coin. Her initials in Inuktitut were on the coin, which was the first time the language appeared on Canadian money.
- In 2001, she was added to Canada's Walk of Fame.
- In 2008, she won the important $25,000 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.
- In 2012, she was made a member of the Order of Nunavut.
- In 2017, the Bank of Canada released a special $10 banknote for Canada's 150th birthday. Kenojuak's print Owl's Bouquet is featured on this note.
Kenojuak in Pop Culture
- The search engine Google showed a special doodle on its Canadian home page on October 3, 2014. This celebrated Kenojuak Ashevak's 87th Birthday.
- On October 19, 2016, a Heritage Minute video was released by Historica Canada. This video told Kenojuak's story. It was the first Heritage Minute to be narrated in Inuktitut, as well as French and English. Her granddaughter narrated the video and appeared in it with her family. The video was first shown in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, where it was also filmed.
Films
- In 1963, she was featured in the National Film Board of Canada documentary Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak. This film was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1964.
- In 1992, old and new footage of Kenojuak was used in Momentum. This was Canada's film for Seville Expo '92.
See Also
- List of inductees of Canada's Walk of Fame
- Notable Aboriginal people of Canada
