While it might be tempting to attribute this fine sculpture to Pauta’s fellow artist Cape Dorset artist Tudlik, who is known to have carved similarly posed bears in the mid 1950s (see references), we are attributing the work to Pauta Saila. Although it is known that Pauta began carving ivory as a child, oddly there are virtually no documented works by him dating before the 1960s. The important exception is his Bear Family from c. 1956-57, an elegant figural group that is stylistically much more refined than most carved bears of the period.

We believe that Standing Bear is a precursor to Bear Family, predating it by perhaps two or three years. The sculpture displays a real understanding of bear anatomy and posture; has the true feeling of “bearness” so marked in the work of Pauta over the decades; and possesses the distinctive paw markings found in Pauta’s depictions of the animal. Standing Bear beautifully captures the power and ferocity of the polar bear, an animal Pauta knew and loved so well. For its relatively small size, the work has quite an imposing sculptural presence.

References: For Pauta’s Bear Family from c. 1956-57 see Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture/Inuit, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971) cat. 122; see also George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92) fig. 461, and elsewhere. For another early work that we think is attributable to Pauta see Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, May 2016, Lot 68. For standing bears by Tudlik (1890-1966) in the Sarick Collection see Gerald McMaster, editor, Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 71; or Darlene Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955 (Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), pp. 174-175. We sometimes wonder if the more naturalistic growling bear in the Sarick Collection might not also be by Pauta.