UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC
unsigned.
ESTIMATE: $600 — $900
PRICE REALIZED: $1,098.00
Further images
Even before the first major exhibition of Inuit art in Southern Canada in 1949, Kimmirut (then called Lake Harbour) had a thriving local carving economy. Artists such as Sheojuk Oqutaq (1920-1982) and Davidee Itulu (1929-2006) specialized in small-scale vignettes of Inuit camp life as far back as the mid-1940s. While perhaps not by Sheokjuk or Itulu, this action-packed scene beautifully captures both the spirit of the hunt and the spirit of this earliest period of “modern” Inuit art. The bear alone is well worth the price of admission!
References: For brief introductions to carved ivory miniatures, see Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / New York: Harry Abrams / London: British Museum Press, 1998), pgs. 16-27. See also Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), p. 250-251. For further, charming examples of ivory miniatures, see the First Arts exhibition, Little Worlds: The Norman Hallendy Collection of Ivory Miniature, 1 November 20219.
Provenance
Private Collection, Ontario;by descent in the family.
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