Annie Pootoogook was a Canadian Inuk artist known for her pen and coloured pencil drawings.
32 Facts About Annie Pootoogook
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Annie Pootoogook was born on May 11,1969, in Cape Dorset, Canada.
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Annie Pootoogook grew up in a family of artists all of whom worked out of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, one of the first artist Co-ops established in the north in 1960.
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Annie Pootoogook's family worked in multiple mediums and styles and Pootoogook became interested in art at an early age.
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Annie Pootoogook's mother, Napachie Pootoogook, was a draftswoman and her father, Eegyvudluk Pootoogook, was a printmaker and stone sculptor.
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Annie Pootoogook was the granddaughter of Pitseolak Ashoona a renowned graphic artist, the niece of printmaker Kananginak Annie Pootoogook and the cousin of draftswoman Shuvinai Ashoona.
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Annie Pootoogook began making art in 1997 at the age of 28.
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Annie Pootoogook developed her skills working alongside family members and Elders at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset, Nunavut.
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Annie Pootoogook had two exhibitions at Feheley Fine Arts in Toronto.
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Annie Pootoogook solidified her style and content during this period beginning to draw images that could be easily attributed to her.
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Annie Pootoogook attended the important Glenfiddich Artists in Residence program, in Dufftown, Scotland.
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Annie Pootoogook found the experience isolating, but she produced a number of rich and important works while there.
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Annie Pootoogook worked as an independent artist during this period, leaving the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in 2001.
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In 2006, after her residency, Annie Pootoogook was named the first Inuk recipient of the prestigious Sobey Art Award.
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Annie Pootoogook had a difficult time there without the support of the Co-op and her community.
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Annie Pootoogook was known for her drawings created in pen and coloured pencils that depict contemporary Inuit life.
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Annie Pootoogook's work is largely inspired by her mother Napachie Pootoogook and her grandmother Pitseolak Ashoona, both of whom are well known Inuit artists.
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Annie Pootoogook's compositions utilize minimal line drawings with figures posed in frontal or profile views.
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Annie Pootoogook's work has been described as "rudimentary"' and "child-like" as it does not maintain any realism of form or space.
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Annie Pootoogook often included clocks in her work which has made them a motif that is associated with her work and allows for easy attribution.
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Annie Pootoogook's work captures a moment in time which is an important theme to Pootoogook.
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Annie Pootoogook's compositions are not reproducible which acts against traditional printmaking practices of Inuit art in which copies are made to be sold and dispersed.
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Annie Pootoogook had her first major solo exhibition in 2006 when her work was displayed as part of a well-received show at The Power Plant in Toronto, Ontario.
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Annie Pootoogook exhibited in major art shows such as the Biennale de Montreal, Art Basel and Documenta 12.
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Annie Pootoogook participated in one her last exhibitions in 2012 at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Annie Pootoogook was the only professional artist from the Ottawa region represented in the exhibition.
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On November 7,2021, the Annie Pootoogook Park was dedicated to the artist.
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The dedication ceremony, held on International Inuit Day, was attended by several members of Annie Pootoogook's family, including her nine-year-old daughter, Inuit elders and Canada's first Inuk Governor General, Mary Simon.
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Annie Pootoogook drowned in the Rideau River in Ottawa on September 19,2016, in what police declared as a suspicious death.
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Annie Pootoogook's body was a short walk from the shelter she had been staying in at the time.
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Annie Pootoogook preemptively declared "it's not a murder case" on social media.
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Annie Pootoogook's body was sent back to Cape Dorset where a funeral was held in her home village.