The horned owl seems to have been a favourite subject for Joe Talirunili. While the species is not native to Puvirnituq, Joe would surely have encountered horned owls on his travels to the northern reaches of the tree line at Kuujjuaraapik (Great Whale River). In some respects, the “foreign” Horned Owl seems to have held, for Joe, the same fascination as did the muskox to carvers from Baffin Island (muskoxen not being native to Baffin). One wonders if Joe would return to the owl as a “palate cleanser,” a favoured theme that could be carved quickly between more complex compositions. Even if so, these owls are anything but slap-dash or formulaic. Indeed, seemingly no two Joe owls are alike and each one seems invested with its own unique personality. This large example is especially fine.

References: Several similar portraits of horned owls are illustrated in Marybelle Myers, Joe Talirunili: A Grace Beyond the Reach of Art, (Montreal: La Federation des cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec, 1977), on pp. 4, 18-19, 26-27, 32, 40, and 50, as well as several prints depicting owls. See also First Arts, May 2019, Lot 1; Jean Blodgett, Povungnituk, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1978), cats. 67-68; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 360. For a very early owl (not a horned owl) from 1953, see Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 108.