QAQAQ (KAKA) ASHOONA (1928-1996) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
unsigned;
with affixed label from La Guilde (The Canadian Handicrafts Guild), in blue ink, "D/57 / Hak[indistinct] / NAS / 7.00".
ESTIMATE: $4,000 — $6,000
Further images
Qaqaq Ashoona is a titan of early Kinngait sculpture, counted alongside his brother Kiugak, as well as Sheokjuk Oqutaq, and Niviaqsi (see lot 36). While he enjoyed a long and successful career, many would argue he was at his finest in the 1950s. The present work, from this desirable period, is carved from a slender slab of dense stone, yet the figure’s elegant proportions and curves bring life to an otherwise static pose. Despite the hardness of the material, the sculpture brims with visual detail. The beautifully rendered face and garment are quintessential Qaqaq, and even seemingly minor elements, such as a braid slipping from the confines of her hood, attest to the artist’s technical and observational skill. Completing the composition is an impossibly charming arctic hare under the woman’s arm, rendered with almost microscopic care. Fabulous.
MBL
References: For an important work by the artist dated c. 1955, see Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cat. 330. For a related and stylistically comparable sculpture by Qaqaq, see Maria von Finckenstein, ed., Celebrating Inuit Art 1948–1970, (Hull, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999), p. 109. For other examples from the 1950s, see Cynthia Waye Cook, Inuit Sculpture in the Collection of the Art Gallery of York University, (North York, ON: Art Gallery of York University, 1988), cat. 2, p. 10; cats. 50–51, p. 63; and cat. 54, p. 64. For a Standing Mother and Child, see First Arts, 4 December 2023, Lot 108.
Provenance
Ex. Coll. Colin John Grasset Molson (C.J.G ), Montreal.Join Our Mailing List
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