Perhaps better known for his antler carvings (see Lot 27), Luke Iksiktaaryuk was also central to the early graphic arts in Baker Lake. As Marion Jackson observed in Baker Lake Inuit Drawings: A Study in the Evolution of Artistic Self-Consciousness, Iksiktaaryuk was among the first to present his drawings to William Larmour and Gabriel Gély, which inspired the pair “to believe in Baker Lake’s potential for a graphic arts program” (1985, p. 133). Iksiktaaryuk remained a mainstay of the print program until his death in 1977.

The same disciplined clarity that defines his sculpture carries into Iksiktaaryuk’s prints. His forms are bold, pared down, and exacting in their economy. In The Great Owl, the bird is rendered as an elemental shape: its body a near-oval mass, its wings and tail extended in planes of fine linear hatching that add depth to the simplicity of its design.

ND

References: The Great Owl is reproduced in Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), cat. 13, p. 17. See Marion E. Jackson, Baker Lake Inuit Drawings: A Study in the Evolution of Artistic Self-Consciousness, University of Michigan, PhD Dissertation, 1985, this formed the basis for her later exhibition of the same theme but is, in the author’s opinion, an outstanding and comprehensive resource for those interested in early Baker Lake graphics.