This powerful little figure of a stooping man was presented by Tiktak to John G. McConnell, a professor of geography whose research took him to the region regularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. McConnell had been introduced to the artist by his friend the anthropologist Robert Williamson, Tiktak’s neighbour, close friend, and enthusiastic supporter. Tiktak is reported to have stated that the carving represented an old man and jokingly claimed that it was a self-portrait. In our June 2022 sale (Lot 33) we featured a powerful yet whimsical whistling figure by the artist, noting that it showed Tiktak at his most human and charming. Hunched Man further shows us the range of emotions that Tiktak achieved with minimal means. The work displays similar humanity but with an added poignancy that is quite touching. [1]

In a style typical of Tiktak’s later works, the subject is portrayed as a simplified, robust figure whose arms and legs are defined by three voids. [2] (These hollows are Tiktak’s greatest invention and have led to many comparisons with the sculptures of Henry Moore.) What separates this figure from the majority of Tiktak’s oeuvre is the way the subject’s head seems to be weighed down by old age or fatigue. Although Tiktak was not particularly old when he created this piece, he was increasingly bothered by an old workplace injury he suffered at the Rankin Inlet nickel mine in 1959.

1. In the words of Robert Williamson, “Tiktak… [uses] tension with his discipline of line and volume to evoke intensity of feeling, simple insight and a stark and simple humanity that strikes upon the heart.” From “An Arctic Gathering” in Norman Zepp, The Williamson Collection of Inuit Sculpture (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina, 1987), p. 7.

2. See First Arts, 28 May 2019 (Lot 44), and 12 July 2020 (Lot 90) for late 1960s works in a similar style.

References: For a similar figure of a hunched man dated 1967 and formerly in the collection of James Houston, see Maria von Finckenstein ed., Celebrating Inuit Art 1948-1970 (Hull, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999), p. 177. For stylistically similar works see First Arts, 28 May 2019, Lot 44; and First Arts, 12 July 2020, Lot 90. For a discussion of Tiktak’s work see Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986); for works see pp. 98-107.