Judas Ullulaq

Expressive eyes and mouths in Ullulaq’s carvings always register a wide range of emotions, and even his animals have human-like personalities.

The sculpture Inuruutuq was included in Art and Expression of the Netsilik, an exhibition held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1997.

In a conversation with me at the opening of the exhibition, Judas Ullulaq (1937–1999) explained that it depicted the transformation of an Inuk shaman into his or her animal helpers, in this case a muskox, a walrus and a caribou. “In the old days,” he recounted, “a shaman could turn into any animal. When this happened, the walrus tusks, caribou antlers or muskox horns grew as the shaman turned into another being.”

Ullulaq was born in Thom Bay, located in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, the youngest of eight brothers and one sister. His sister, Kanayuq, was the mother of sculptor Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974), and four of his brothers also became talented carvers: Joata Suqslak (1918–1986), Charlie Ugyuk (1931–1998), Stephen Aqqaq (1933– c. 1985) and Nelson Takkiruq (1930–1999). Although there were times when food was scarce, the artist remembered his childhood with considerable joy. A young Ullulaq enjoyed making craft items. In an interview in 1983, the artist told me that when he was still a boy and living in an igloo, he liked to join the women while they did their sewing. Ullulaq particularly enjoyed sewing dolls “like a girl, with the women.” He made his first carvings in 1961—small animals and models with scenes of igloos and dog teams.

Ullulaq moved his family to Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU, when his first child, his daughter Rebecca Qamukkaaq, came of school age in 1966. He was one of a small group of people who first began making whalebone carvings when the material was brought into the community in the late 1960s. He began carving in stone as well after 1973, when the carving stone was brought into the community from a deposit at Murchison Lake.

In 1980 Paleajook Eskimo Co-operative Manager Graham Robinson arrived and took a serious interest in encouraging and marketing carvings by Talurjuaq artists. Ullulaq’s carving style gained a new maturity and scale at that time. His love of meticulous craftsmanship manifested itself in finely detailed faces, using horn and antler inlay.

In 1982 Robinson left Talurjuaq and Ullulaq moved to Uqsuqtuuq (Gjoa Haven), NU, to be closer to his wife’s family. It was in 1983, in Uqsuqtuuq, that I met Ullulaq, and he explained to me that the co-op manager was uninterested in purchasing his carvings. I was then working to encourage and promote Inuit art with the Arctic Co-operatives’ central marketing agency, Canadian Arctic Producers, and I quickly moved to remedy the situation. We were soon receiving increasingly impressive sculptures by Ullulaq in the Ottawa warehouse. His work was eventually featured in over 90 exhibitions, and he travelled widely to attend openings. His last such trip was to the opening of Art and Expression of the Netsilik, along with Maudie Okittuq and Nick Sikkuark (1943–2013). Sadly, Ullulaq passed away two short years later on January 2, 1999. His elder brother, Charlie Ugyuk, predeceased him by two months. Ullulaq admired his brother’s meticulously detailed carvings and had learned to carve by watching him.

Expressive eyes and mouths in Ullulaq’s carvings always register a wide range of emotions, and even his animals have human-like personalities. He was a true pleasure to know, always cheerful, optimistic, considerate and generous. He loved to laugh, and his sculptures often seem to reflect the wide smile for which he was known. He worked constantly at his carving and worried about his family when he ran out of carving material.

Ullulaq once told me that the most important thing for him was to be original, and Inuruutuq is a good example of this goal. The vertical piling of elements that incorporate organic materials from the three animal helpers represented is unique. Originality was a tremendous challenge given the huge body of work he created over the years. It is a testament to his skill that few other artists have created the same diversity of subjects while maintaining such a high degree of workmanship.