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Artworks
UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC
Standing Mother and Child, late 1950s or early 1960sstone, 12.5 x 5.25 x 4.75 in (31.8 x 13.3 x 12.1 cm)
unsigned.
LOT 30
ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500
PRICE REALIZED: $2,160.00Further images
Between 1953 and 1963 over twelve hundred Inuit from Canada’s Eastern Arctic were sent south for tuberculosis treatment at the Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton; some spent years here, completely cut...Between 1953 and 1963 over twelve hundred Inuit from Canada’s Eastern Arctic were sent south for tuberculosis treatment at the Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton; some spent years here, completely cut off from their families back home. A good number of patients made carvings as occupational therapy; most of these carvings were sold at fairly low prices in the hospital shop, with most of the proceeds going to the patients to use as spending money, but a number were retained as a collection. The Art Gallery of Hamilton mounted a fascinating exhibition titled Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art in 2017, showcasing many of the best and most interesting works. It is difficult to make artist attributions for unsigned Sanatorium pieces; many of the artists were “first timers” and virtually all the works were carved in the same stone quarried in southern Canada.
This sculpture is surely one of the masterpieces to have been created at the Sanatorium, probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The carving style is quirky and naïve, but Standing Mother and Child is an absolutely brilliant image – stoic and powerful – even fierce – and strikingly modern. We are reminded of the idiosyncratic style of the Clyde River sculptor Solomonie Tigullaraq, whose works were showcased in a First Arts solo exhibition in 2020. Great stuff – really terrific.Provenance
Ex. Coll. Mr. Gerry Moses;
bequeathed to Ms Barbara Mercer, Toronto;
Estate of the above.