John Westren, who has worked for Dorset Fine Arts and the Kinngait Studios for more than thirty-five years, wrote an eloquent article on the sculpture of Osuitok in the Inuit Art Quarterly. His description of Osuitok’s brand of naturalism beautifully summarizes Osuitok's artistic vision and his unique gifts as a sculptor,

“Ipeelee often spoke of the real. To make something look real involved more than replicating the surface appearances of a subject. It was to express an ideal. He achieved this quality in his sculptures by carving areas of animals or human figures deliberately disproportionate to emphasize the parts that give the subject energy, vitality, meaning and emotion” [1].

Osuitok’s depictions of caribou are arguably the ultimate expression of this artist’s ongoing “quest for the real.” And Rearing Caribou with Nursing Calf is surely one of the most sublime examples created during Osuitok’s decades-long search for perfection in his representations of the subject. We can only marvel at the technical mastery and sheer daring required to pull off this remarkable image. Osuitok’s consummate skill and confidence are matched only by his unconcealed love for the animals and his poetic vision. In the end of course, Rearing Caribou with Nursing Calf is not so much a technical marvel as it is a supremely elegant, breathtakingly beautiful, and profoundly moving work of art.

1. Westren, “A Quest for the Real: The Art of Osuitok Ipeelee,” IAQ, Winter 2021, p. 45.

References: For fine example of caribous by the artist see Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998), fig. 57 (Sarick, AGO from 1988); Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum, (Phoenix: Heard Museum/Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2006), fig. 58; Ken Mantel, Tuvaq: Inuit Art and the Modern World, (Bristol, U.K.: Sansom and Company, 2010), fig. 211; Loveland Museum Gallery, Survival: Inuit Art, (Loveland, CO: Loveland Museum Gallery, 2004), p. 125 (Wagonfeld Collection); offered in Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, May 2017, Lot 73. For a discussion of Osuitok’s life and work see Jean Blodgett, “Osuitok Ipeelee” in Alma Houston, ed., Inuit Art: An Anthology, (Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer, 1988), pp. 42-55. For fine examples at auction see First Arts, 12 July 2020, Lot 17; 13 July 2021, Lots 27 and 91; and 30 November 2021, Lot 83. For the fine article on the sculpture of Osuitok Ipeelee see John Westren, “A Quest for the Real: The Art of Osuitok Ipeelee,” Inuit Art Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter 2021, pp. 42-51.