Oovayuk was never prolific, but the few examples we have seen are all quite exceptional. This fine sculpture evokes many of the best qualities of Baker Lake sculpture from the early to mid 1970s. Carved from the hard black stone common to the period, this muskox makes an interesting comparison with the example by Barnabus Arnasuungaaq (see Lot 112). While Arnasungaaq’s beast is all about dynamic movement, Oovayuk’s is more about stillness and stylized form. Interesting then that his impressions of muskoxen are the same as everyone else’s:

Musk-ox fur is really thick so when that animal moves, every part of its body seems to move with it. It is a wonderful sight to see. I was really happy carving. In the springtime, when the daylight is long, my friends and I would stay up until the wee hours of the morning, carving together outside my house [1].

1. The artist quoted in Marie Bouchard, An Inuit Perspective: Baker Lake Sculpture (2000:76).

References: For similar but substantially larger works, see Jean Blodgett, The Zazelenchuk Collection of Eskimo Art, exh. cat., (Winnipeg, MB: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1978), no. 30, p. 33; and Marie Bouchard, An Inuit Perspective: Baker Lake Sculpture from the Art Gallery of Ontario, Gift of Samuel and Esther Sarick, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2000), p. 77.