So far, the artist who carved this important and much published masterpiece of early Inukjuak art remains unidentified. Tantalizingly, Darlene Coward Wight has attributed another fine work in the collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery to the same unknown artist, an attribution with which we wholeheartedly agree (see Early Masters, 2006, p. 98). More recently, Wight has tentatively attributed a similar, contemporaneous but less refined work to Noah Qinuajua of Puvirnituq [1], but we are inclined to stick with a yet-to-be-identified Inukjuak master for the present sculpture.

As Jean Blodgett rightly points out in the Robertson Collection catalogue (p. 60), this Mother and Child conveys a “formidable presence.” Indeed, this relatively small sculpture is impressive not only in its commanding sculptural form but also in its wealth of its beautiful and lavish detail. The richness and workmanship in the delineation of the woman’s parka trim; the beauty and precision of the carved fish and ulu; and especially the delicate yet powerful rendering of the facial features (especially the mother’s wonderful tattoo marks) are all separately superb. In combination, they are nothing short of spectacular.

1. Wight, Creation and Transformation, 2012, cat. 10.

References: For a very similar work from Inukjuak (unidentified but attributed to the same artist by Wight) see Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 98, For another work see also Darlene Wight, The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art, (Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1987), cat. 2, also ill. in Wight, Early Masters, 2006, p. 101 and Darlene Coward Wight, Creation and Transformation: Defining Moments in Inuit Art, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2012), cat. 10, in which the work is tentatively attributed to Noah Qinuajua of Puvirnituq; see also Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), cat. 34.