This powerful muskox dates to 2003, by which time Barnabus Arnasungaq had shifted to concentrating on form rather than detail in his sculpture. Surprising, then, that the artist lavished attention not only on the overall bulky form of the animal but also on the coarse guard hairs that are the hallmark of many of his greatest muskox depictions. The defiant stance of the animal and its sheer visual (and actual!) weight presents something of a last hurrah for the ageing sculptor, who was about to turn eighty years old. Muskox is an impressive sculpture, monumental and simplified in form yet surprisingly graceful and well finished, and remarkably charming.

References: For examples of similar contemporaneous works by the artist see Walker’s Auctions, Nov. 2012, Lot 42; and Walker’s May 2018, Lot 26. See also Upstairs Gallery, Recent Sculpture by Barnabus Arnasungaaq (Akkanashoonark), (Winnipeg: Upstairs Gallery, 1979).