Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, ᓗᓯ ᑕᓯᐅ ᑎᓯᑕ
Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok (1934 – 2012) was an Inuit artist known for her sculptures.
Tasseor Tutsweetok worked principally with grey steatite, a hard stone local to Arviat on the Nunavit mainland where the artist moved following the closing of the North Rankin Nickel Mine in 1962. Always remaining close to the stone’s original form and leaving its surface unpolished her sculptures take maternal and family groupings as their principle themes.
Faces
Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, ᓗᓯ ᑕᓯᐅ ᑎᓯᑕ
Bazalt Stone
11 x 10.5 x 6.5 inches
“One time a group of singers came to the community. My daughter was watching me as I was carving. She asked me if carving a sculpture was the same as singing. I replied, “Yes, it is.”
– Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok in an interview with Ingo Hessel in 1989
Lucy was born in 1934 at Nunaalaaq (Nunalla) in Manitoba, a trading post on the west coast of Hudson Bay, just south of what is now the Nunavut border. After the death of her father, she went to live with her grandparents, moving between Nunaalaaq, Churchill and, surrounding areas. Her grandfather worked for the trading posts in both communities hauling supplies by dog team or canoe. Lucy often accompanied him on these trips and she cited that Isumatarjuaq was one of the greatest influences on both, her life and her work as an artist.
Lucy’s work can be found in major collections in Canada and the United States: the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Inuit Cultural Institute in Kangiqlliniq. Tasseor was represented internationally in such major exhibitions as Sculpture/Inuit, organized by the Canadian Arts Council in 1971; Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit, at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina in 1986; In the Shadow of the Sun, and at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1988. Sculptures such as the National Gallery of Canada’s Inuit, Itqiliit, Unaliit amma Qablunaat (1991), which were featured in the Museum of Civilization’s “Indigena” exhibition in 1992 had achieved her goal to create monumental work.
Tasseor Tutsweetok taught her daughter to carve, as she only trusted family to continue carving in her unique style, reflecting the relationship between the Inuit and their land.
Celebrating Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok
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