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    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE), Bird Spirit, c. 1965-67
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE), Bird Spirit, c. 1965-67
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE), Bird Spirit, c. 1965-67
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE), Bird Spirit, c. 1965-67
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE), Bird Spirit, c. 1965-67

    LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

    Bird Spirit, c. 1965-67
    antler and stone, 4.5 x 5 x 1.5 in (11.4 x 12.7 x 3.8 cm)
    signed, ᐃᓯᑕᔪ".

    LOT 1
    ESTIMATE: $1,000 — $1,500
    PRICE REALIZED: $2,160.00

    Further images

    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) TUMIRA ASHOONA (1943-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET), Inukshoo, 1964 (1964/5 #81)
    • Bird Spirit
    Several Baker Lake artists carved antler depictions of birds for about ten years beginning in the early 1960s, but to our recollection none has been definitively attributed to Luke Iksiktaaryuk....
    Read more

    Several Baker Lake artists carved antler depictions of birds for about ten years beginning in the early 1960s, but to our recollection none has been definitively attributed to Luke Iksiktaaryuk. This fabulous Bird Spirit (importantly one of Iksiktaaryuk’s earliest documented works), is nothing like contemporaneous examples by his artist peers. With simplicity and grace, it eloquently reveals this artist’s early and abiding interest in spirituality and shamanism. While birds appear only rarely in Iksiktaaryuk’s sculpture, some of his most impressive depictions of shamans are winged and thus engaged in spirit journeys; interestingly birds are illustrated in several of his drawings and prints (see the 1970 Baker Lake print catalogue for lovely examples).


    References: For more typical, later works by the artist (winged shamans), see Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit, (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986), cat. 80-2, pp. 137-139; Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p.. 132-133; Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / New York: Harry Abrams / London: British Museum Press, 1998), fig. 85, p. 107.
    Close full details

    Provenance

    Collection of Vivian Julien, a schoolteacher who worked in the Canadian Arctic from the late 1950s until the mid 1970s;

    by descent to a Private Collection, Ontario.

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FIRST ARTS PREMIERS INC.  
Nadine Di Monte   |    647-286-5012   |    info@firstarts.ca 

Ingo Hessel  |    613-818-2100   |    ingo@firstarts.ca

The main office of First Arts Premiers Inc. is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat, the original owners and custodians of this land.  Today, it is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

 

 

 

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