Lot 106
MALAYA AKULUKJUK (1915-1995) PANNIRTUQ (PANGNIRTUNG)
Lazy Days, 1985 #334

Weaver: WEAVER: IGAH ETOANGAT (1943-) PANNIRTUQ (PANGNIRTUNG)
wool tapestry, 37 x 57 in (94 x 144.8 cm)
6/10

Provenance
A Montreal Collection.

Weaving was introduced to Pannirtuq as an economic initiative in the early 1970s. The Canadian government contracted Karen Bulow Ltd., a Montreal-based weaving firm to initiate the program. The firm hired Donald Stuart as the first manager of the studio. The first products woven were scarves and sashes but as the artists became familiar with the looms, production expanded to include tapestries that featured distinctly Arctic imagery. Like print production in other parts of the Arctic, the creation of wool Aubusson-style weavings in Pannirtuq is a collaborative process that involves a graphic artist and a weaver to create each tapestry (often one weaver will take over from another to finish an edition).

Malaya Akulukjuk is considered to be the grande dame of Pangnirtung graphic and textile art. Lazy Days is reminiscent of one of her most famous tapestries, Children at Summer Camp from 1980, and like that tapestry, was probably based on a detailed line drawing by the artist.

References

For an excellent account of wool weaving in Pannirtuq see Maria von Finkenstein, Nuvisavik: The Place Where We Weave, (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002).