Elizabeth Angrnaqquaq (1916–2003) was an innovative Canadian

Inuk Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labr ...

textile artist active from the 1970s to early 2000s. Angnaqquaq's work explores textile creations while experimenting with non-traditional methods. Her style has been described as

painterly Painterliness is a concept based on ' ('painterly'), a word popularized by Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945) to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to characterize Work of ...

for the way in which she fills the space between her figures and animals with embroidery.

Early life

Angrnaqquaq was born in 1916 in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

, Canada in a traditional nomadic camp. She and her younger siblings were raised by their father after their mother died young. She lived a traditional Inuit lifestyle until the early she and her family moved to Baker Lake, Northwest Territories (now in

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

) in the 1950s to avoid poverty and starvation. Her son Harold worked at the sewing center in the late 1960s. In Baker Lake, Angrnaqquaq explored textile and mixed-media art practices where she used stitching as a method for creating figures in fabrics. Angrnaqquaq obtained fabrics through Jack and Sheila Butler, visiting art advisors to the Baker Lake region.

Career

After establishing an art practice in which Angrnaqquaq explored figures of landscapes, animals, and textures through herringbone stitching, she began showing her works at Art Institutions around Canada. After establishing her art practice in textiles throughout Canada, Angenaqquaq was commissioned to create a public art commission for the Post Office at Wakefield, Ontario through the Public Works Department in 1976. Her work has been exhibited throughout North America, specifically in Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Winnipeg in both private and public commissions. Angrnaqquaq worked well into her 80s, producing her last work in 2000. The work, entitled ''Animals and People,'' explores bright colours and the situation of animal forms within an abstracted landscape. Animals and People was rendered in the same

herringbone stitch A herringbone stitch is a needlework stitch used in embroidery, knitting and crochet. It is so named as it resembles the bones extending from the spine of a herring fish. In knitting, it is a stitch that creates a fabric pattern closely resemblin ...

which Angrnaqquaq was known for. Angrnaqquaq died in 2003.

Permanent collections

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

Winnipeg Art Gallery The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collect ...

Canada Council Art Bank The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...

List of temporary exhibitions

Source: * "Eskimo Wallhangings", McIntosh Gallery,

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

* "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1976", The Guild Shop * "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1978", The Inuit Gallery of Eskimo Art * "Artisans '78", Canadian Crafts Council Northwest Territories * "Baker Lake Prints, Sculpture, Wallhangings", The Raven * "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979", The Arctic Circle * "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979", Kaiser House Gallery * "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1979",

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

* "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1980", Margot Galleries * "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1981", Inuit Gallery of Vancouver * "Baker Lake Wallhangings 1981", Tundra Gallery * "Keewatin District Wallhangings 1979", Kaiser House Gallery * "Mary Wolf Ceramics and Canadian Eskimo Wallhangings", Franz Bader Gallery * "The Spirit of the Land", The Koffler Gallery * "Wallhangings Embroidered and Appliqued by Elizabeth Angrnatquaq of Baker Lake", The Inuit Gallery of Eskimo Art * "Embroidered and Appliqued Wallhangings by Elizabeth Angrnatquaq", The Inuit Gallery of Eskimo Art * "Spirits and Dreams - Arts of the Inuit of Baker Lake", Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development * "Baker Lake Wallhangings", The Inuit Gallery of Eskimo Art * "Elizabeth Angrnaqquaq Wall Hangings", The Upstairs Gallery * "Embroidered and Appliqued Wallhangings from Baker Lake", The Inuit Gallery of Eskimo Art * "Women of the North: An Exhibition of art by Inuit Women of the Canadian Arctic", Marion Scott Gallery * "Northern Lights: Inuit Textile Art from the Canadian Arctic", Baltimore Museum of Art * "Arctic Mystery, Harmony and Transformation, Baker Lake Textile Art", Art Gallery of the Canadian Embassy

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Angrnaqquaq, Elizabeth Inuit textile artists 1916 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Canadian textile artists 20th-century Inuit artists 20th-century Inuit women 20th-century Canadian women textile artists 21st-century Canadian textile artists 21st-century Inuit artists 21st-century Inuit women 21st-century Inuit people 21st-century Canadian women textile artists Canadian Inuit artists Canadian Inuit women artists Artists from Nunavut Inuit from the Northwest Territories Inuit from Nunavut People from Baker Lake Canadian embroiderers