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Artworks
LUKE ANOWTALIK (1932-2006) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT)
People Admiring a Bird, early 1980santler, 3 x 7 x 6 in (7.6 x 17.8 x 15.2 cm)
signed, "ᓗ ᐊᓇᐅᑕᓕ".
LOT 116
ESTIMATE: $700 — $1,000Further images
While Luke Anowtalik is perhaps best known as a stone sculptor, many of our favourite works by the artist are his caribou antler compositions. As a member of the Ahiarmiut...While Luke Anowtalik is perhaps best known as a stone sculptor, many of our favourite works by the artist are his caribou antler compositions. As a member of the Ahiarmiut (inland Caribou Inuit), Anowtalik had a natural affinity to the animal, but clearly the varied shapes and carvability of caribou antler also seem to allow his imagination to run free. Unlike his monolithic stone works, Anowtalik’s antler sculptures are almost always constructed of numerous elements joined together in various ways. We wonder whether this charming scene depicts the small crowd admiring the first bird of spring, or a bird spirit. Delightful!
References: Rather than carving full figures, here Anowtalik has chosen to use heads to signify the various human characters that, in a way, are rather like he did in his more abstract stone sculptures. He used this imagery in antler works at least as early as 1970; see a fine example from that year in George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 592. The same work is illustrated in Darlene Wight, The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art, (Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1987), cat. 41, p. 40.Provenance
An Ottawa Collection.
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