The faces, figures and animals that are so beautifully combined in this exuberant wall-hanging are all hallmarks of the visual creativity of Marion Tuu’luq, one of Baker Lake’s most famous textile artists. Born on the land in the early 1900s, Tuu’luq lived the traditional Inuit life for five decades. It was not until 1961 that the artist and her husband, Luke Anguhadluq, finally moved into the growing community of Baker Lake. Both her works on paper (see Lot 130) and her stunning wall hangings recall and celebrate the animals and the people who shared the land with them. The importance of Tuu’luq’s textile art was affirmed in 2002 with a solo exhibition and catalogue at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Soon after her cousin and best friend Jessie Oonark (see Lots 39, 52, and 142), Tuu’luq began experimenting with textiles in 1966. Already armed with the technical skills and aesthetic qualities necessary for making traditional caribou skin clothing, in a sewing project intended to make wool duffle clothing, Tuu’luq was introduced to textiles of varied colours and finishes. This afforded the opportunity for the artist to explore form, colour and texture as she developed her unique style. Early smaller experimental works gave way to larger scale compositions beginning in the early 1970s; over the next two decades Tuu’luq created more than one hundred hangings, as well as clothing covered in embroidery and beads.

This lively composition combines many of the motifs favoured by the artist. Human faces and figures are surrounded by those of seals, fish, caribou, bears, wolves, and even a spider or mosquito. There is fanciful and supernatural imagery as well: fish/human transformations, a row of decorative hearts, comical faces with long, runaway noses, heads with sun-ray projections. These images form an essential part of Tuu’luq’s visual vocabulary and appear in many other works by the artist. It is noteworthy that the artist has arranged many of these elements in rows, yet she does not pursue a system of strict symmetry. Tuu’luq’s innate sense of spatial composition is evident in the balance of the negative space and the embroidered appliqué formal elements. She varies the colours of both felt and the embroidery floss to further enliven and unify the composition. We enjoy this superb hanging for the very fact that it is a joyous, loosely organized jumble of faces and figures that jostle for our attention and keep our eyes moving from one to the next. We haven’t done an actual count ourselves, but feel free to do so!

The art materials may have been new to the artist, but Tuu’luq learned to use them masterfully to create a world that positively teems with imagery from her earlier life. In this wall hanging, the smiling faces show just how much she loved that life - and how much she enjoyed recreating it. The rhythmic and harmonious interplay between humans and animals show us that, despite the many difficulties she must have endured, the world created from Tuu’luq’s memories and imagination was indeed a marvellous place.

The rhythmic and harmonious interplay between humans and animals show us that, despite the many difficulties she must have endured, the world created from Tuu’luq’s memories and imagination was indeed a marvellous place.

Literature: For similar works by the artist see Marie Bouchard and Marie Routledge, Marion Tuu’luq (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2002), especially cats. 18-21. This important catalogue is the definitive introduction to Tuu’luq’s life and textile art. See also Jean Blodgett, Tuu’luq / Anguhadluq (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1976), cat. 42.