Before Evaluardjuk specialized in carving bears and other wildlife subjects in the 1970s his subject matter was quite varied. After his move to Iqaluit in the early 1960s following TB treatment in the South, Evaluardjuk created several large, impressive human figures as well as a number of imposing human portrait busts (see references online as well as Lot 91 for a later example).

This touching Family Group dates from this early period; it is roughly contemporaneous with and stylistically very similar to the outstanding Fisherman (c. 1963-64) from our December 2020 auction (Lot 92). While it does not share the flamboyant composition of Fisherman, it is a no less dynamic composition and certainly equals that work in terms of intimacy and humanity. Just as Fisherman is almost certainly a self-portrait, so Family Group likely portrays Evaluardjuk’s own wife and children. And in its own way, like the Head of a Woman (Lot 91) this work feels like a glowing tribute to Inuit women. The mother wears an almost beatific smile as she warmly embraces her older child as its younger sibling looks on. This sculpture is as tender as it is powerful, certainly no easy feat. Chapeau!

References: For a similarly styled Woman and Child from c. 1965 see Barbara Lipton, Arctic Vision: Art of the Canadian Inuit (Ottawa: Canadian Arctic Producers with the assistance of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1984), cat. C1, p. 55. For a Fox Hunter with Dog from 1963, larger but in the same style, see Walker’s Auctions, 16 May 2018, Lot 94.