This lively work on cloth is one of Mamnguqsualuk’s early masterpieces. Interestingly, its imagery does not involve the hero Qiviuq or any other discernible mythological content. Rather, it is filled with scenes of traditional Inuit hunting in winter and summer seasons. In the upper portion, hunters use bow and arrows, dragging their kill home and even facing off a polar bear with spears – and a very angry bird! Below, they hunt seals through the ice and travel by dog sled (we love the figure exiting an igloo at the left). Mamngusqsualuk carefully balanced the composition; the polar bear is the centre around which the other figures are arranged. The work is packed with action, excitement, and danger; the hunters do not always appear to have the upper hand. The vibrant colours and surface stitching add texture and depth to this superbly designed and crafted example of Baker Lake textile art.

References: For other fine works on cloth by the artist see First Arts Auction, 4 December 2023, Lot 62; and Walker’s Auctions, Nov. 2016, Lot 42. See also Katharine W. Fernstrom and Anita E. Jones, Northern Lights: Inuit Textile Art from the Canadian Arctic, (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1994), cats. 12, 13; Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), cats. 110 and 185. For a detailed study of Mamnguqsualuk’s Kiviuq imagery see Charles Moore, Keeveeok, Awake! Mamnguqsualuk and the Rebirth of Legend at Baker Lake, exh. Cat., (Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta, Ring House Gallery, 1986).