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Artworks
MATIUSIE IYAITUK (1950-) IVUJIVIK
I Love the Northern Lights, 1997stone, 5 x 21.5 x 13.25 in (12.7 x 54.6 x 33.7 cm)
titled, signed, and dated,""I LOVE THE / NORTHERN LIGHTS"/ ᒪᑦᑎᐅᓯ / 97"LOT 55
ESTIMATE: $900 — $1,200
PRICE REALIZED: $732.00Perhaps the first of a generation of contemporary Inuit artists to see themselves as “modern” or “abstract” Matiusie is famously quoted as having been influenced by Henry Moore. Matiusie’s works,...Perhaps the first of a generation of contemporary Inuit artists to see themselves as “modern” or “abstract” Matiusie is famously quoted as having been influenced by Henry Moore. Matiusie’s works, according to Marybelle Myers (Mitchell) “have an inside as well as an outside: “His faces of caribou antler or ivory are inserted into the stone, drawing the viewer inside the work. Indeed, much of the action . . . is hidden, the bulges in the stone giving only a hint of what is going on inside.” In this charmingly flattened carving, the subject is depicted, in aerial view, looking skyward at the Aurora Borealis. Depending on how one reads the sculpture, the textured periphery depicts either the fur fringe on the subjects’ lowered hood or perhaps the aurora reflected on the snow or ice surrounding the central figure.
Provenance
Private Collection, Toronto