Likely carved only a few short years after the artist’s spectacular Muskox (First Arts Auction, July 2020, Lot 37 and front cover), this lively fellow shows a more dynamic and windswept approach to Arnasungaaq’s iconic subject. Whereas the former example was massive and stoic, here we see a muskox seemingly charging at full tilt. Stylistically this sculpture is very much on the “primal” end of the spectrum, with a powerful sense of raw energy in both the form and the finish. We sense that Arrnasungaaq very much “attacked” the stone with great vigour; this is conveyed beautifully in the treatment of the muskox’s shaggy coat.

References: For two excellent and probably roughly contemporaneous examples by the artist in the Twomey Collection at the Winnipeg Art Gallery see Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art (WAG, 1985) cats. 9 and 10. For a muskox c. 1974-75 from the Sarick Collection at the AGO, see Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998), fig. 83.