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Artworks
UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, PANNIQTUUQ (PANGNIRTUNG)
Head, c. 1970whale bone, 14.25 x 9.5 x 9.5 in (36.2 x 24.1 x 24.1 cm)
unsigned.
LOT 113
ESTIMATE: $1,500 — $2,500
PRICE REALIZED: $2,160.00Further images
Lack of sufficient supply of stone saw the use of whale bone as a medium for carving in the late 1960s and early 1970s in a number of Arctic communities,...Lack of sufficient supply of stone saw the use of whale bone as a medium for carving in the late 1960s and early 1970s in a number of Arctic communities, including Panniqtuuq. As colour and porosity can change abruptly in a single piece of bone, many carvers approached the material with some reticence. Here, however, immaculate and sensitive treatment of the medium suggests the hand of a highly skilled sculptor. Exacting naturalism and stylization are attractively blended in this work. Head has the look of a dignified portrait bust whose presence demands our consideration.
References: For further reading on whale bone sculptures, see Jean Blodgett, “Whale Bone,” in The Beaver, Autumn 1982, p. 4-11; article reproduced in Alma Houston ed., Inuit Art: An Anthology, (Winnipeg: Watson and Dwyer Publishing, 1988), pp. 30-37. See also the section on Panniqtuuq sculpture in Bernadette Driscoll, Baffin Island, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1983), pp. 113-125. For a fine contemporaneous whale bone Head by Panniqtuuq artist Pauloosie Kakee (1933-) see First Arts Auction, July 2020, Lot 108 (also illustrated in Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, 1972/92, fig. 533).
Provenance
Private Collection, British Columbia.
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