Martha Ittulaka’naaq’s career as an artist began late in her fifties after she was evacuated to the settlement of Baker Lake following the decline of caribou herds in the 1950s. Hailing from the lower Kazan River area, Ittulaka’naaq’s interactions with Qallunaat were likely limited. This minimal connection to the “southern” ways of artmaking allowed the first generation of Qamani’tuaq artists to be guided largely by their own aesthetic impulses to create delightful and sometimes disorienting compositions.

The almost string-like bodies of the abstracted animals in Musk-oxen and Wolves was achieved by the artist using cutout patterns. Soft curves and sharp angles create weightless forms that seem to float and dance on the page. While the placement may appear haphazard, the positioning of these creatures by the artist beautifully represents a tightly packed formation of muskoxen harried by a pack of wolves. Ittuluka’naaq’s system of double perspective makes perfect and beautiful sense, and results in a composition that sings with balance and rhythm.

References: This print is reproduced in Helga Goetz, The Inuit Print, international travelling exhibition, (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1977), pl. 120, p. 207. For additional information on the artist and for examples of her drawings, see Marion Jackson, Judith Nasby and William Noah, Qamanittuaq: Where the River Widens, (Guelph, ON: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1995), pp. 73-5. For a drawing with similarly composed imagery see Feheley Fine Arts, The Butler Collection: Early Baker Lake Drawings, (Toronto: Feheley Fine Arts, 1999), p. 53.