George Arluk was born near Arviat but spent a number of his childhood years in Rankin Inlet. The precocious Arluk began carving at the tender age of nine; as a teenager he was influenced by John Kavik and especially John Tiktak. After his move to Arviat in the late 1960s the still impressionable young Arluk became a great admirer of the artists Lucy Tasseor and John Pangnark. By the mid-1970s Arluk had found his own voice and began carving works that are indelibly stamped with his own uniquely modern take on the Keewatin style. This splendid early work shows the strong early influence of Pangnark and should in fact be seen as an homage to the older artist. Unsigned, it was actually attributed to Pangnark for some time.

Literature: For fine early “homage” works by Arluk see Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, Nov. 2012, Lot 2; Nov. 2015, Lot 35. See also Bernadette Driscoll, Rankin Inlet/Kangirlliniq (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1981), cats. 5-13. For works in Arluk’s mature style see Images of the North, George Arluk: The Song in the Stone (San Francisco: 1979); George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: M&S, 1972/92), figs. 835, 859, 904; Gerald McMaster ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), pp. 128-129.