First Arts company logo
First Arts
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Spring 2025 | Live Auction
  • Available Artworks
  • Auctions & Exhibitions
  • About
  • SERVICES
  • News & Blog
Menu

Artworks

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.

 

 

 

Join Our Mailing List

 

JOIN

 

 

 

Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 First Arts
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Join

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT), Caribou and the People, mid-late 1990s
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT), Caribou and the People, mid-late 1990s
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT), Caribou and the People, mid-late 1990s
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT), Caribou and the People, mid-late 1990s
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT), Caribou and the People, mid-late 1990s

LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT)

Caribou and the People, mid-late 1990s
stone and antler, 27.25 x 11 x 9 in (69.2 x 27.9 x 22.9 cm), measurements reflect dimensions with inset antlers, without: 15.75 x 11 x 7.5 in (40 x 27.9 x 19.1 cm)
unsigned.

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ), currently selected., currently selected., currently selected. Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) Thumbnail of additional image
  • Caribou and the People
This large yet sensitively rendered work is dominated by the large caribou head and climbing human figure at the top, and also features three faces, another dynamic human figure and...
Read more

This large yet sensitively rendered work is dominated by the large caribou head and climbing human figure at the top, and also features three faces, another dynamic human figure and a dog below. The small number of subjects suggests that this image likely depicts a single Caribou Inuit family – presumably Anowtalik’s own – sustained or perhaps watched over by the most important animal in their lives. The graceful verticality of the composition lends this lovely sculpture an almost totemic quality.


The importance of caribou to Anowtalik’s Ahiarmiut clan (originally from the inland area surrounding Ennadai Lake) is an important aspect of Anowtalik’s art. The animals appear frequently in his sculptures and in his late-career drawings, and of course provide the raw material for his whimsical antler works. Family was Anowtalik’s favoured subject matter, an inclination he shared with his artist-wife Mary Ayaq (Akjar) and his mother-in-law Elizabeth Nutaraaluk (see Lot 69). For an important similar composition by Anowtalik see First Arts, 1 December 2020, Lot 128.


References: For an important similar composition by the artist see First Arts, 1 December 2020, Lot 128; Susan Gustavison, Northern Rock: Contemporary Inuit Stone Sculpture, (Kleinburg: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1999), cat. 34, p. 122. For a related composition see Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 89. See also Robert Kardosh, Vision and Form: The Norman Zepp - Judith Varga Collection of Inuit Art, exh.cat., (Vancouver: Marion Scott Gallery, 2003), cat. 48, pp. 65-66. See also Cheryl Kramer & Lillian R. Shafer ed., Of the People: Inuit Sculpture from the Collection of Mary and Fred Widding (Ithaca, NY: Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College, 2008), cat. 38, p. 62.
Close full details

Provenance

Collection of John and Joyce Price, Seattle.

Exhibitions

Inuit Gallery of Vancouver, Horizons [Inuit Gallery 20th Anniversary exhibition], October 1999; catalogue no. 40.
Inquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3ELUKE%20ANOWTALIK%20%281932-2006%29%20ARVIAT%20%28ESKIMO%20POINT%29%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3ECaribou%20and%20the%20People%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3Emid-late%201990s%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22signed_and_dated%22%3Estone%20and%20antler%2C%2027.25%20x%2011%20x%209%20in%20%2869.2%20x%2027.9%20x%2022.9%20cm%29%2C%20measurements%20reflect%20dimensions%20with%20inset%20antlers%2C%20without%3A%2015.75%20x%2011%20x%207.5%20in%20%2840%20x%2027.9%20x%2019.1%20cm%29%3Cbr/%3E%0Aunsigned.%3C/div%3E
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
15 
of  140
Previous
Next
Close