Miriam Qiyuk

Canadian, b. 1933

Women and Children, 1990

Stone

18 x 56 x 13 cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from The Winnipeg Art Gallery Foundation Inc. in honour of the appointment of Mrs. Marjorie Drache as a Fellow of The Winnipeg Art Gallery Foundation Inc.

G-92-227

Categories:

Sculpture, Inuit

Miriam Qiyuk is one of the several gifted children of the graphic artist Jessie Oonark. Her siblings focused mainly on creating drawings for the annual Baker Lake print collections, but the women also followed the example of their mother in the creation of wall hangings. Qiyuk is primarily a sculptor and developed a distinctive style of wide, expressive faces with eyelash-ringed eyes. She often worked with flat slabs of stone that became bas-reliefs of humans and birds. In this large sculpture she changed to the use of a rectangular piece of stone to create a rhythmically patterned series of figures. The women all face the viewer in a formal manner, but the more active children are depicted in different positions, which animates one’s viewing of the work.