Although Elizabeth Nutaraaluk, passionately devoted to her family, carved figures of mothers and children almost exclusively, Mother and Two Children is unusual in that it includes two children (or grandchildren) rather than the usual one. The evolution of the artist’s carving style is evident when we compare this powerful sculpture to a similarly themed work dated 1974 (see First Arts, 12 June 2023, Lot 29). The works share a similar size and monumentality, but the present example shows Nutaraaluk’s increasing tendency to follow the shape of the stone and to abstract or otherwise simplify the figures. Here is the rugged style she is best remembered for: a primal rawness that one could compare to the work of John Kavik from Rankin Inlet but perhaps more emotionally charged because of its content. Also highly distinctive are Nutaraaluk’s trademark hatch marks defining braids and hands.

Originally from the inland Ahiarmiut (Caribou Inuit) camp at Kitigaq (Ennadai Lake), Nutaraaluk’s family was forcibly relocated several times in the 1950s and finally settled in Arviat in the early 1960s. One of the first in the community to take up carving, Nutaraaluk became one of Arviat’s most important sculptors, working until weakness and blindness ended her career in the early 1990s.