While John Tiktak is deservedly famous for his superb figural sculptures, the figures’ expressive faces are often the focal points of these works. Tiktak began carving single heads in the mid 1960s, and multiple head works shortly thereafter; these became an important part of his repertoire (see First Arts, 5 Dec. 2022, Lot 127). While a “Janus head” has by default one face looking forward and the other looking rearward, their features are usually depicted as very different (a motif made famous in ancient Roman art). Rather than the smile and grimace we might expect in a Roman example, this fine sculpture by Tiktak presents us with a smile and a rather impish smirk. We love it.

References: The human head was one of the artist’s most important themes. For fine examples see First Arts, May 2019, Lot 12; Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre/Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), p. 136 (also shown in Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, Nov. 2015, Lot 51); George Swinton, Tiktak: Sculptor from Rankin Inlet, N.W.T., (Winnipeg: Gallery One-One-One, University of Manitoba, 1970), cats. 2, 16, 30, 45; The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank (Toronto, 1972), cat. 46; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), figs. 648, 650. See the section on the artist in Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit, (Regina: Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986), pp. 96-107. See also Darlene Coward Wight, The Harry Winrob Collection of Inuit Sculpture, (WAG, 2008), p. 100. See also Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, May 2016, Lot 25; May 2018, Lot 76.