Napachie Pootoogook
| Napachie Pootoogook | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 26, 1938 Sarruq Island camp, Northwest Territories |
| Died | December 18, 2002 (aged 64) Cape Dorset, Nunavut |
| Nationality | Canadian (Inuit) |
| Known for | printmaking, drawing |
Napachie Pootoogook (June 26, 1938 – December 18, 2002) was a Canadian Inuit graphic artist who produced an important and unique body of work over her career.
Napachie Pootoogook is the only daughter of acclaimed artist Pitseolak Ashoona. She was born in the Sarruq Island camp near south Baffin Island. Her father, Ashoona, died while she was six or seven years old. After his death, Pootoogook, along with her mother and five brothers, lived a traditional nomadic Inuit lifestyle and survived with the support of their community to survive. With her mother's encouragement, Napachie began drawing in her early twenties, developing her own unique style and viewpoint. Her brothers, Kiawak and Qaqaq Ashoona, are well known sculptors. As well, two of her sisters-in-law, Mayureak and Sorosiluto Ashoona are well known graphic artists.
In the mid-1950s, Napachie entered into an arranged marriage with Eegyvudluk Pootoogook, an Inuit printmaker and carver, although the difficulties she saw in her parents' arranged marriage originally made her hesitant. The two were married in Kaiktuuq, Nunavut, then moved to Cape Dorset where they lived for most of their marriage, except for two years spent living in Iqaluit. Pootoogook and her husband had eleven children, several of whom died young. Two children died in a house fire in the early 1960s, and one of their daughters drowned soon after. Continuing the family's artistic legacy, their surviving daughter, Annie Pootoogook, grew up to be an important contemporary Inuit artist known for her prints and drawings. In her lifetime, Napachie was made a grandmother to many grandchildren.
Pootoogook's only written and spoken language was Inuktitut.
Pootoogook began drawing in her early twenties with her mother's encouragement. Like many Inuit artists, she brought her drawings to the Cape Dorset-based West Baffin Cooperative (now known as the Kinngait Studios), an institution that would purchase artworks and offered art classes. Pootoogook sold her first drawings to James Archibald Houston for $20 when she was twenty-five years old.
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