This monumental and strikingly handsome sculpture is one of the most impressive depictions of a hunter we have seen. In terms of its sculptural “presence,” artistic quality, and workmanship, Harpoon Hunter is a worthy successor to the best hunters by Akeeaktashuk. If Akeeaktashuk had remained in Inukjuak and not died young, we can imagine him creating a masterwork like this one. Based on the work’s overall style and form, its details, its impressive size, and its sheer bravado, we are attributing it to Johnny Inukpuk.

We know that Johnny Inukpuk was already forging a highly distinctive personal style as early as 1952. His masterpiece Mother Holding a Swaddled Infant, c. 1953-54 (Lot 39) is a superb example of his fully developed early style. Masterworks from the early 1960s including Mother and Child, Carrying a Pail (First Arts, 12 July 2020, Lot 24) and Mother and Child Scraping a Skin (First Arts, 1 Dec. 2020, Lot 68), illustrate a quite new sculptural style. Documented works from the very early 1950s and the later 1950s are surprisingly few. We have done a lot of rigorous research to fill in the gaps.

Johnny Inukpuk is, of course, best-known for his depictions of mothers and children. He carved relatively few hunters. Over the years we have attributed two early examples to him, based on very specific stylistic traits: Crawling Hunter with Knife and Spear from c. 1952 (First Arts, 14 June 2022, Lot 5); and Standing Hunter with Spear and Knife from c. 1952-53 (First Arts, 12 July 2020, Lot 65). The present Harpoon Hunter follows that stylistic trajectory, especially when one considers the style of intermediate works such as Mother Holding a Swaddled Infant (Lot 39) and Man Inflating Avataq from 1954 (Darlene Wight, Early Masters, p. 86 [Cdn. Museum of History]). These works all share very distinctive traits: generous body proportions, strongly modeled facial features, distinctive eyes, incised eyebrows – and in the case of this hunter and Man Inflating Avataq, almost identical incised patterns on the kamiks (boots). The increasing size of the works over the years is important when we remember that many of Inukpuk’s masterworks from the early 1960s are very large indeed. Harpoon Hunter is also, like the other examples mentioned, exceptionally well crafted and well-proportioned. Bravo, Mr. Inukpuk.

Johnny Inukpuk was born in Kuujjuaraapik (Great Whale River) in 1911, the son of a respected camp leader, and spent the first eighteen years of his life in the Richmond Gulf area north of there. His family then moved to the Inukjuak area where Inukpuk became a successful hunter and trapper along the Nowligavik River and eventually a camp leader in his own right. Apparently, he occasionally traded small carvings to travelers on the HBC supply ship Nascopie in the 1940s, but only took up carving seriously with the encouragement of James Houston around 1950. Inukpuk quickly became one of the most respected carvers in the region. Although his long and remarkable artistic career lasted until shortly before his death in 2007, it is his sculptures from the 1950s and 1960s that are most prized today.

References: For an earlier (c. 1952-53) Standing Hunter with Spear and Knife attributed to Johnny Inukpuk, see First Arts, 12 July 2020, Lot 65. See also First Arts, 14 June 2022, Lot 5 for a Crawling Hunter from c. 1952 attributed to the artist. For other important works by the artist see First Arts Auction, 12 July 2020, Lot 24; 1 December 2020, Lot 68, and George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 55. Darlene Coward Wight’s catalogue Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (WAG, 2006), pp. 83-87, illustrates several important early works by Inukpuk and discusses his early life and artistic career.