Possibly NIVIAQSI (NIVIAKSIAK) (1908-1959) m., KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
unsigned.
ESTIMATE: $800 — $1,200
PRICE REALIZED: $1,159.00
Further images
This remarkable Pictorial Panel features two scenes: one depicts hunters returning to a summer camp, and the other a walrus hunt. The figures are delineated with extraordinary precision and lifelike movement in a style that suggests the hand of the Cape Dorset artist Niviaqsi (also known as Niviaksiak). Niviaqsi was a talented sculptor but is best known for his remarkable drawings and prints. The star of the 1959 Cape Dorset print collection, Niviaqsi sadly died in mysterious circumstances that very year. The style of his silhouette-style graphite and ink drawings on paper is highly distinctive: simplified yet confident and sharply defined. [1]
1. For examples of Niviaqsi’s original drawings on paper see First Arts, 10 June 2024, Lot 86 and First Arts, 5 December 2022, Lot 20. See also Walker’s Auctions, 22 November 2017, Lot 16; and Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), pp. 72-73.
References: It is certainly possible that this panel is the work of a yet-to-be identified artist from Inukjuak, rather than by Niviaqsi. Several artists (including Sarollie Weetaluktuk, see previous Lot 140), experimented with inlaid pictorial, rather than carved, ivory works around 1950. See Darlene Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), pp. 65-66, for examples by Sarollie; and pp. 14 and 26 for some rather more modest works by others.
Provenance
Acquired by a Canadian mining engineer during his travels, possibly on southern Baffin Island;By descent in the family to the present Private Collection, Toronto.
Join Our Mailing List
Join our mailing list
* 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.