Artworks

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NALENIK TEMELA (1939-2003) KIMMIRUT (LAKE HARBOUR), Walrus, 1990

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NALENIK TEMELA (1939-2003) KIMMIRUT (LAKE HARBOUR)

Walrus, 1990

stone and ivory, 113.75 x 22 x 10.5 in (34.9 x 55.9 x 26.7 cm)
signed and dated, "ᓇᓕᓂ / ᑎᒥᓚ / 90".

LOT 140
ESTIMATE: $6,000 — $9,000

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Nalenik already began carving small works for sale as a young teenager, but he considered himself to be a traditional Inuk, preferring to live in outpost camps until the late...

Nalenik already began carving small works for sale as a young teenager, but he considered himself to be a traditional Inuk, preferring to live in outpost camps until the late 1970s. While his works from the 1960s and 1970s are notable for their high level of polish, by the mid 1980s Nalenik became preoccupied with texture. In fact he invented a highly distinctive style, contrasting matte torsos with highly polished heads and limbs in his works; he is especially famous for the large bears he carved in this manner (see First Arts Auction, July 2020, Lot 99 for a fine example). Nalenik’s most sought-after works are those carved in a dark stone from Markham Bay, which ordinarily has less appeal than the more jade-like green stones quarried elsewhere. Nalenik, however, was able to make this material sing by giving his sculptures his trademark treatment. This massive and truly charming Walrus has much the same appeal as his bears, with the added advantage that it is safe for small children to play on (the tusks are removable).

Literature: For a similar large walrus by the artist see Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, May 2012, Lot 176. For equally large and stylistically similar examples of bears by the artist see First Arts Auction, July 2020, Lot 99; Amway Environmental Foundation, Masters of the Arctic: Art in the Service of the Earth (1990), cover and pp. 66-67 (international touring exhibition inaugurated at the United Nations General Assembly Gallery in NYC, 1989). See also George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1992), fig. 893.

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Provenance

Private Collection, Ottawa.

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The main office of First Arts Premiers Inc. is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat, the original owners and custodians of this land. Today, it is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

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