The son of the great Joe Talirunili (see Lot 29), Abraham moved from Puvirnituq to Inukjuak in the late 1940s where he was given the nickname “P.O.V.” (shortened from Povungnituk) to differentiate him from Abraham Nastapoka. Abraham only began to carve after 1950, so his style fits completely within the Inukjuak aesthetic. Abraham P.O.V. sculptures are easily recognizable with their gentle, corpulent figures, and lovely hoods framing faces with large, almond-shaped eyes. Here we see a densely compact yet surprisingly dynamic family composition. We love how the mother seems nonplussed despite the mountaineering efforts of her somewhat caffeinated younger boy. Indeed, her gaze, and that of her older child, is almost hypnotic in its serenity.

References: Early works by the artist are included in Darlene Coward Wight’s catalogue, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), pages 70-73. See also George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: M&S, 1972/92), figs. 126 and 284; and Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture / Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cat. 287.