Tuna Iquliq’s Head from 1964 is arguably the finest of the small heads and faces that Tuna carved in the years 1963-65. Although not as large or imposing as the monument Head offered in the May 2019 First Arts auction (Lot 48), it has its own powerful sculptural presence. Comparisons with contemporaneous heads by Iquliq’s Rankin Inlet peer John Tiktak are instructive. Tiktak’s heads from this period are marked by their refinement and cool elegance (see First Arts, December 2020, Lot 16); a “brutalist” Head by Tiktak from 1964 is such an outlier that we would suggest that he was probably influenced by Iquliq and not the other way around! (see Swinton, 1972/92, fig. 648). We would argue that the style of Iquliq’s work c. 1964 predates the “cruder” carving style of Tiktak by several years.

Like many of the works by the great masters of Keewatin sculpture, Head transcends the aesthetic canons of Inuit art. If we knew nothing about Inuit art and were shown this sculpture, we would likely look to early twentieth century European art to discover the name of the maker. In the absence of Inuit cultural identifying characteristics, this remarkable visage seems strikingly “modern” to our eyes. Outstanding.

Tuna (Toona) Iquliq was born in the region of Baker Lake, but lived in Rankin Inlet in the early-mid 1960s, which is where he began carving before his return to Baker Lake around 1970. Tuna developed a strong personal style and was featured in numerous exhibitions and publications already in the mid 1960s. Quickly establishing himself as an important Baker Lake artist after 1970, he was one of three sculptors chosen for the 1976 Art Gallery of Ontario exhibition The People Within, which featured the art of Baker Lake’s most important artists. Tuna carved steadily until his death in 2015.

References: For a stylistically similar Head by Iquliq (WAG collection) from 1964 (and two human figures from 1963) see George Swinton, Eskimo Sculpture (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965), pp. 159-161. The figures are also illustrated in Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture/Inuit (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cats. 247 and 368. The Head is reproduced also in George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92) fig. 666. For other heads see also Norman Zepp, The Williamson Collection of Inuit Sculpture (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1987), cats. 40, 41; and Winnipeg Art Gallery, Eskimo Carvers of the Keewatin N.W.T. (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1964), cat. 35, p. 26. For an important and unusually large and brutal Head by Iquliq see First Arts Auctions, May 2019, Lot 48. For another important work by the artist see First Arts, July 2020, Lot 38.