The respected elder Tudlik tried his hand at carving soon after settling in Cape Dorset in the early 1950s. Although there are several spectacular bears produced by the artist, he is justifiably most famous for his delightful carvings of birds, with owls being his preferred subject. We love the somewhat atypical design of this majestic fellow with its noble demeanor and casual elegance. It should be noted that this sculpture, reproduced in Swinton’s 1965 pioneering book Eskimo Sculpture, is described as a hawk. Certainly more slender and streamlined than Tudlik’s owls, it is nonetheless just as charming.

References: For birds by Tudlik see First Arts, 14 June 2022, Lot 11; First Arts, 4 December 2023, Lot 3. See also George Swinton, Eskimo Sculpture, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965), p. 85; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972), figs. 6, 441, p. 9, 183; Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture / Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cats. 196, 199. See the section on Tudlik in Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), pp.172-175.