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Artworks
MICHAEL AMAROOK (1941-1998) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
Muskox, 1962-3stone and antler, 8.5 x 14 x 5 in (21.6 x 35.6 x 12.7 cm)
unsigned.LOT 122
ESTIMATE: $4,000 — $6,000Further images
Amarook carved only a small number of works in the early to mid 1960s. Working as a printmaker briefly in the early 1970s, he also managed the printshop. A smaller...Amarook carved only a small number of works in the early to mid 1960s. Working as a printmaker briefly in the early 1970s, he also managed the printshop. A smaller but stylistically quite similar Muskox from 1962, in the Winnipeg Art Gallery collection, has been exhibited and published several times including in Sculpture/Inuit (cat. 134) and Swinton (1972/92, fig. 700). Muskox is a classic example of the earliest Baker Lake sculptural style. Larger and more massive than most examples carved during this period, the sculpture is rendered even more powerful on account of its blocky shape and solid stance. This contrasts beautifully with the animal’s delicately crafted horns.
References: For a somewhat smaller but stylistically very similar work by the artist see George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 700, p. 225; and Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture / Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cat. 134; also illustrated in Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1985), cat. 11, p. 55. Six works by Amarook were exhibited in Eskimo Carvers of Keewatin N.W.T., (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1964) but none was illustrated.Provenance
Waddington's, Toronto, 30 Aug 2018, Lot 242;
Acquired from the above Norman Zepp & Judith Varga, Saskatoon, SK.Publications
The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, (Toronto: Toronto-Dominion Bank, 1967), cat. 15.
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