Celebrated as one of the giants of Qamani’tuaq, and indeed, Inuit graphic art, Luke Anguhadluq was born in the 19th century and spent most of his adult life hunting and fishing in his ancestral homelands northwest of Baker Lake. His encyclopedic knowledge of the land and its animals, traditional life, and spirituality shine forth in his original drawings and his prints. Drawings by Anguhadluq dating from the late 1960s to the late 1970s were translated into scores mostly stonecut, stencil, and silkscreen prints. Three Fishes might be based on a drawing created as early as c. 1970-71; a very similar drawing was exhibited in the landmark exhibition From the Centre: The Drawings of Luke Anguhadluq. [1] Anguhadluq, of course, is famous for his use of mixed perspectives, but this invention was not necessary for an image like this one; all the salient features of the species are clearly read from a profile view. But it should be noted that these fish are presented almost as “portraits”; the large figures are displayed as subjects rather that incorporated in a fishing narrative. The image elevates what me might think of as more “humble” fish subjects to the level of muskoxen and caribou. Indeed, fishing was a crucial component of the traditional Utkuhikhalingmiut lifestyle as well as being a joyful communal activity much celebrated in Anguhadluq’s drawings and prints.

1. See Cynthia Waye Cook, From the Centre: The Drawings of Luke Anguhadluq, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1993), cat. 69, ill. p. 96.