Few works by Andy Miki, whether from his early career while living in Whale Cove or made after his move to Arviat in 1969, are as large and imposing as Arctic Hare. Miki is probably best known for his small enigmatic or quirky animal carvings, but there were clearly times when he was moved to create larger works with true sculptural presence. Several important works come to mind from Miki’s Whale Cove years, including Dog in the Canadian Museum of History collection, and Caribou Head in the collection of the Art Gallery of Vancouver (see references). Of the works that we are familiar with, only Dog is marginally larger than Arctic Hare. Miki seems to have carved fewer large works in Arviat; notable ones include two fine abstract sculptures from c. 1973, each titled Animal Figure (see references).

The style of Miki’s Whale Cove sculptures is relatively “naturalistic” compared to works from his Arviat period, but it is clear that the artist’s vision was already headed towards a quite radical stylization of form and minimalist detail. It is for this very reason that Arctic Hare is an impressive sculpture; carved in a naturalistic style it would simply have been a large bunny. In his essay in the WAG’s Eskimo Point/Arviat catalogue, George Swinton famously declared that John Pangnark (Miki’s fellow Arviat Minimalist) was “doubtlessly the Brancusi of the North” [1]. We would humbly suggest that the honour should go to Andy Miki. Needless to say, Miki never knew of Brancusi; the striking, pristinely abstract, sometimes monumental and always charming animal forms he carved were completely his own invention, his gift to Inuit art.

1. The Romanian-French artist Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) is one of the pioneers of Modernist European sculpture. His highly stylized abstract forms, often representing animal subjects, were hugely influential.

References: For important works carved while Miki was living in Whale Cove in the mid 1960s see Maria von Finckenstein, editor, Celebrating Inuit Art 1948-1970 (Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999) p. 153 (Dog) [correct dimensions 34.5 x 10 x 31.5 cm]; Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture/Inuit (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971) cat. 147 (Caribou Head), also illustrated in George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92) fig. 86, and in Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986) cat. 4; Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, May 2017, Lot 27 (Animal); and Walker’s Auctions, November 2016, Lot 18 (Animal). For imposing larger-scale works from Miki’s Arviat period (post-1969) see Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, November 2015, Lot 184 (Animal Figure); and Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986) cat. 19.