Cape Dorset's due, Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

Martin Lipman/Canadian Council for the ArtsWhen her professional career began, Kenojuak Ashevak didn't have a name. Now she has received a Governor General's Visual Arts Award for helping make Inuit art famous the world over.

According to the National Post  when her professional career began, Kenojuak Ashevak didn't have a name. Now she has received a Governor General's Visual Arts Award for helping make Inuit art famous the world over

Martin Lipman/Canadian Council for the Arts
Kenojuak Ashevak, a woman once known to the federal government as E7-1035, will receive a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for helping to carry Inuit art in from the cold and out into the world.

The Canada Council named the eight recipients of the 2008 awards in Montreal yesterday morning, including Kenojuak, the first-ever Inuit artist honoured. The award celebrates an entire career; each of the winners has worked in visual arts for decades.

Kenojuak was the only one of seven artists and one arts professional not present at the announcement. The 80-year-old was en route from her home in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, to Ottawa. Though she'll be last to arrive to receive her award, she was among the first when it came to bringing the artistic vision of the Inuit to the attention of art lovers worldwide.

"Kenojuak has reached the status now where she should be considered one of the great Canadian artists -- not just an 'Inuit artist,' " said Duncan McLean, a friend of Kenojuak's and president of Waddington's fine art auction house in Toronto, which specializes in Inuit art. "I think history will regard her as one of Canada's premier artists. I think when the dust settles she'll be in there with David Milne and the Group of Seven.

"When it comes to graphics, there's nobody who can match her for body of work. Her things don't have an awful lot of symbolism. There's a lot of aesthetics to it -- brilliant use of colour -- and they're fun and whimsical," McLean continued. "She just makes beautiful images."

Having learned to draw by making appliques for sealskin bags, Kenojuak was encouraged to try her hand at producing fine art. Her engravings and drawings of jaunty birds and fish (and a seaweed-eating rabbit) made their debut in 1959, when the Inuit community of Cape Dorset began sharing its creative vision with the world through the release of an annual print collection. Kenojuak's prints put hers among the standout offerings -- particularly those featuring her trademark defiant-looking owls, such as the widely recognized The Enchanted Owl (1960). In 1962, she was featured in an NFB documentary called Eskimo Artist --Kenojuak.

Kenojuak was earning a name for herself in the art world before she officially even had one. Until Project Surname required every Inuit person to choose a full name by 1971, First Nations people in the Arctic were identified by the "disc number" on a mandatory neck tag. Around the same time, The Enchanted Owl was reproduced for a postage stamp marking the centenary of the Northwest Territories.

Kenojuak's journey from obscurity to international recognition parallels that of Inuit art generally, which has struggled for respectability. "It was ignored not just in the marketplace by mainstream Canadian collectors, but by big public institutions," McLean said. "She's done a lot to give credibility to the art form."

Today the Inuit art market is hot, but only in relative terms. Even some of Kenojuak's artworks remain relatively affordable. Though her prints have flirted with the $60,000 mark -- an incredible sum for a print by a Canadian artist -- Waddington's estimates some of her works will sell for gavel prices in the $300-$600 range at its annual Inuit art sale on April 14 and 15.

Kenojuak was named an Officer of the Order of Canada "for her contribution to Eskimo culture as a printmaker of international renown" in 1967, and promoted to a Companion, the highest honour, in 1982. She is the recipient of a Lifetime Aboriginal Achievement Award, and has a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame. As for why since she had not won a Governor General's Award in the eight years since its creation in 1999, the head of the Canada Council's visual arts section was at a loss.

"It's a very competitive award," said Pierre Arpin in a phone interview after the announcement. "I think it's interesting that we have an Inuit artist and [another] First Nations artist making the crop, as well as three from Quebec. I think what we've seen over the years is the Governor General's tends to be a really wonderful representation of the excellence of contributions from across the country."

Arpin said Kenojuak's win of a Governor General's Award could encourage more people to nominate Inuit artists. "It may be a snowball effect," he said.

The Governor General's Award jury was comprised of artists, art administrators and curators from across the country. Also deemed deserving of the prize money and a free piece of furniture are the following: