Egotak, Harry http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Holman/english/artists/index.php3#c7b. 1925Harry Egotak was born while his family was living on Banks Island. His mother is the artist, Flossie Papidluk (1904-1994), and his father is her first husband, Akoakhion. Egotak's earliest memories are of the Read Island area when his father was still alive. His parents travelled and camped in different places, joining up with other groups for a year or two and then going their separate ways. Egotak's wife is from a small island off Berkeley Point. They married in 1950, when they were near Minto Inlet, moving to Berkeley Point in 1953 and later to Holman, having heard about the outpost and the many Inuit who were settling there.Egotak was one of the original group of five who made prints in the early 1960s. He recalls the resourcefulness of the group Ñ making do with what they had, in the absence of professional artists' printmaking tools. They began their printmaking experiments in a little building behind the Co-op store. They found the dried skins of the sealskin stencils to be quite stiff, so they took off the fur and fat to make them softer. They cut out the images with men's razors and used toothbrushes and shaving brushes to apply the ink The ends of the shaving brushes, too soft for stencilling, were cut to make the tips stiffer.Two Men Hunting a Bear, made in May 1962, is Egotak's first print. It is shown with its sealskin stencil . The early printmakers became comfortable using their brushes on small pieces of paper. When they first started there were few ink colours - black, blue, and white and images were printed in one colour.In 1964, the group began working on stonecuts from limestone that was quarried from Minto Inlet.Egotak continued with the Co-op as the most productive printmaker until his retirement in 1987. He printed drawings for all Holman artists over the years: 172 catalogued and 17 uncatalogued prints between 1964 and 1987, only three of which were from his own original drawings.From an interview with Harry Egotak by Darlene Coward Wight, Holman, May 9, 2000---------------

Exhibitions

• Arctic Values '65, New Brunswick Museum with the cooperation of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs
• Chisel and Brush/Le ciseau et la brosse, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
• Die Kunst aus der Arktis, Inuit Galerie, Mannheim held at Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute, University of Siegen at Villa Waldrich
• Holman Prints *65, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *66, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *70, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *75/76, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints *80/81, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *65, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *66, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *67, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *68, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *69, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *72, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *73, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *74, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *75/76, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *77, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *79, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *80/81, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *82, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *83, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *84, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *85, (annual collection)
• Holman Prints (printmaker) *86, (annual collection)
• Inuit Art From the Glenbow Collection, Glenbow Museum
• Inuit Art: A Selection of Inuit Art from the Collection of the National Museum of Man, Ottawa, and the Rothmans Permanent Collection of Inuit Sculpture, Canada, National Museum of Man, Ottawa and Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd.
• Transformation, The Arctic Circle
• Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Collections

• Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage
• Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
• Glenbow Museum, Calgary
• National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Yellowknife
• Toronto-Dominion Bank Collection, Toronto
• University of Alberta, Edmonton
• Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg