In our Spring 2025 auction we presented a wonderful caribou by Tungilik (Lot 79), noting that its architecture recalled the artist’s iconic muskoxen, though with longer legs, an elongated neck, and a lighter build. How delightful, then, to now offer an ursine variant of that same architecture. This bear, with its shortened legs and neck, has instead been given a prodigious amount of chonk. Though he appears more endearing than fearsome, it is worth remembering that the polar bear remains an apex predator at the top of the Arctic food chain. And yet still, the cuteness persists!

MBL

References: For portrayals of muskoxen by the artist, see First Arts, Toronto, 1 Dec. 2020, Lot 148; and Marion Scott Gallery, Inspiration: Four Decades of Sculpture by Canadian Inuit, (Vancouver, 1995), cat. 12. For a standing caribou see First Arts, 9 June, 2025, Lot 79.