We have often praised Osuitok’s ability to render traditionally beautiful subjects, namely women and caribou, with near perfection. It is interesting to see how the artist effectively adapted his sensitive carving style to more austere, even violent, subjects.

The scene of the present lot, Owl and Ermine, is turbulent — devoid of any attempts to shy away from drama and violence — but is one that is extremely sophisticated. In an effect that can only be described as a crescendo, the two figures rise, improbably weightless, from a single small stone base. The sweep and counter sweep of the owl and its wings sublimely express the intensity of the owl’s approach and create a feeling of great suspense. By contrast, the body of the ermine seems to collapse into a nervous fold, even as its legs seek to push away from its captor. But there is no escaping the pernicious grip of the owl’s beak and talons.

In purely sculptural terms Owl and Ermine is an astonishing tour de force. The work is as precise as it is lively, with the sense of drama heightened by Osuitok’s empirical rendering of the animals. In technical terms, the considerable negative space and the minutely thin shapes that the master was able to tease out of the stone explain why Osuitok is considered to have been almost a sorcerer-artist, and why he was so much emulated. The composition is so dynamic that we are drawn into its orbit. Even the naturally occurring colours and striations in the beautiful stone serve to reinforce its intense, turbulent energy.

We find ourselves captivated, rather than repelled, by the brute strength and beauty of this fierce encounter, which has been frozen by Osuitok into permanence. Owl and Ermine is a testament to the artist’s prodigious talent for turning stone into physical poetry, even when the subject is less than tender.