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Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: AQJANGAJUK SHAA, R.C.A. (1937-2019) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Wounded Caribou, 1961, #57
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: AQJANGAJUK SHAA, R.C.A. (1937-2019) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Wounded Caribou, 1961, #57 Not for sale with this lot. George Swinton, Sculpture of the Eskimo, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972), fig. 447, p. 189.

AQJANGAJUK SHAA, R.C.A. (1937-2019) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)

Wounded Caribou, 1961, #57
Printmaker: IYOLA KINGWATSIAK (1933-2000) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
stonecut, 18 x 24 in (45.7 x 61 cm)
50/50
LOT 108
ESTIMATE: $3,000 — $5,000
PRICE REALIZED: $5,280.00

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) AQJANGAJUK SHAA, R.C.A. (1937-2019) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Wounded Caribou, 1961, #57
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) AQJANGAJUK SHAA, R.C.A. (1937-2019) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Wounded Caribou, 1961, #57
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In Art of the Eskimo: Prints (1974), Patrick Furneaux and Leo Rosshandler aptly describe the pathos evoked by this in this print, writing, 'The agony of the dying caribou [is]...
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In Art of the Eskimo: Prints (1974), Patrick Furneaux and Leo Rosshandler aptly describe the pathos evoked by this in this print, writing, "The agony of the dying caribou [is] conveyed with intensity and feeling [...] The artist employs very sophisticated graphic renderings, particularly in the head of the animal; the print is almost expressionistic in its depiction of the caribou’s final struggles” (p. 44)

While it is the only print for which Aqjangajuk acted as draughtsman, a detail of an engraved tusk dated to 1964 and illustrated in George Swinton's Sculpture of the Eskimo (1972, fig. 447, p. 189) shows a caribou in a similar distorted position. In both cases, through the bold twisting of the caribou's form, Aqjangajuk transcends mere depiction of a hunted creature, rendering instead an intensely evocative portrayal of an animal caught in its final, dramatic moments of existence. However, in the print, unlike the tusk, the animal's foe is the animal's foe is nowhere in sight. Only the shaft of the unseen hunter's arrow, plunged into the caribou's side.

References: This image has been widely reproduced, including in Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), fig. 9, p. 75; Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1985), p. 103; and Patrick Furneaux and Leo Rosshandler, Ernst Roch, eds., Art of the Eskimo: Prints, Signum Press, 1974, pp. 44-5; and Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / New York: Harry Abrams / London: British Museum Press, 1998), pl. 125, p. 156.
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Provenance

Private Collection, Etobicoke, Ontario;
Estate of the above.
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FIRST ARTS PREMIERS INC.  
Nadine Di Monte   |    647-286-5012   |    info@firstarts.ca 

Ingo Hessel  |    613-818-2100   |    ingo@firstarts.ca

The main office of First Arts Premiers Inc. is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat, the original owners and custodians of this land.  Today, it is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

 

 

 

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