Kavik carved human figures almost exclusively (see Lot 40). He occasionally carved muskoxen, but polar bears only rarely. One monumental composition however, Bear and Man from c. 1970, formerly in the Wagonfeld Collection, ranks as one of Kavik’s largest and most impressive works (see references). Sparring Polar Bears is a completely different kind of sculpture, however. Surprisingly, it captures a moment of play fighting between two bears; given their different sizes, however, it is hard to determine whether it is parent and child, or siblings of different ages that are sparring. The two almost seem to be locked in a dance; the effect is utterly charming, and quite unusual in a work by this artist. Also surprising is the degree to which the work is finished; although the sculpture is somewhat raw in execution its surface is almost polished.

Compositions like this one are extremely rare in Kavik’s oeuvre. A somewhat similar contemporaneous composition, Figure and Bird, presents an opposing animal and human, but the resemblance ends there. Believe it or not, the closest Rankin Inlet sculpture we can think of, in terms of both composition and spirit, is John Tiktak’s remarkable Mother and Child from the late 1960s, sold in the July 2021 First Arts Auction (Lot 23)! Strangely, the more we look at the two works, the more similarities we see. The opening up of the spaces between the two bears is very much like Tiktak’s style (and by extension, Henry Moore’s). Remarkable.

References: For a monumental depiction of a bear and man by the artist, formerly in the Wagonfeld collection, see Survival: Inuit Art, (Loveland, CO: Loveland Museum Gallery, 2004), p. 3, and Walker’s Auctions, May 2017 (Lot 34). For a somewhat similar contemporaneous composition, Figure and Bird, see Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 124. For the section on John Kavik in Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit, (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986), see pages 108-119.