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Artworks
JOE TALIRUNILI (1893-1976) PUVIRNITUQ (POVUNGNITUK)
Owl, early 1970sstone, 6.25 x 3 x 3 in (15.9 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm)
signed, "JOE".LOT 123
ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500
PRICE REALIZED: $2,640.00Further images
As a personally favoured subject of Joe Talirunili, the owl crops up frequently throughout his career in both sculpture and in his graphic art. This Owl certainly shares “family traits”...As a personally favoured subject of Joe Talirunili, the owl crops up frequently throughout his career in both sculpture and in his graphic art. This Owl certainly shares “family traits” with others by the artist, but absolutely every one of them possesses a distinct personality and individuality. This specimen is tall and has an upright, slightly stern quality. The straight, bushy eyebrows lend it a bit of military bearing. Haughty? Perhaps that’s going a bit too far. Stoic? Yes, we would agree with that assessment. The stern and stoic form of this horned owl is familiar, with the broad, short face dominated by the large eyes and those straight eyebrows. His wings and tail feathers carry subtle tool marks to delineate direction and texture. Talirunili’s owls are at once unlike any other Inuit artists’ owls and immediately recognizable as his own.
References: For a similar work by the artist see Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1985), cat. 31, p. 66; for several examples see Marybelle Myers, Joe Talirunili: A Grace Beyond the Reach of Art, (Montreal: La Federation des cooperatives du Nouveau-Quebec, 1977), on pp. 4, 18-19, 26-27, 32, 40, and 50, as well as several prints depicting owls. See also First Arts, May 2019, Lot 1; Jean Blodgett, Povungnituk, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1978), cats. 67-68; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 360. For a very early owl (not a horned owl) from 1953, see Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 108. See also First Arts, Toronto, 14 June 2022, Lot 90.
Provenance
Private Collection, Michigan, USA.
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