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Artworks
PITSEOLAK NIVIAQSI, R.C.A. (1947-2015) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
A Chain of Care: Man Holding Woman's Braids, Woman Holding Child's Hands, c. 2000stone, 20.5 x 12 x 6.5 in (52.1 x 30.5 x 16.5 cm)
unsigned.LOT 58
ESTIMATE: $10,000 — $15,000Further images
A cliché we use frequently here in the office is that it does feel a bit like Christmas as we unpack shipments of artworks. The genuine thrill and excitement of...A cliché we use frequently here in the office is that it does feel a bit like Christmas as we unpack shipments of artworks. The genuine thrill and excitement of seeing the art emerge from bubblewrap and foam has yet to wane for us, especially for artists like Pitseolak Niviaqsi. As a braid here, and a face there began to come out of the box, this work elicited the same glee of discovery as do most Christmas mornings.We have been fortunate to have been the stewards of some of the select few of Niviaqsi’s carved works, including several from the Prices’ collection in recent sales [1]. His sculptural output truly highlighted his particular eye for form and detail in stone, despite his skills as a master printer monopolizing his artistic creations, and this work is no exception. A Chain of Care shows a beautiful mix of positive and negative space, as well as the impossibly slender features carved in stone that help define any carving by Niviaqsi. As the child in front flops against their mother’s grasp (a feeling we can only imagine brings a knowing nod from parents everywhere), her braids are being carefully pulled out of her hood and away from grabbing hands.
There is a tenderness throughout the work that is one of Niviaqsi’s specialties, a softness that contradicts the hard stone that is portraying it.
Niviaqsi had a lifelong penchant for using his own wife, Sita, and their children as the subject matter of his artworks, and as with other works, we can’t help but wonder if they are here again in this work, smiling out into the world.
1. See First Arts, 4 December 2023, Lot 70; 12 June 2023, Lot 131; 5 December 2022, Lot 29 for some fine examples.
AC
References: For other fine works by the artist, see Mother with Two Children, First Arts, Toronto, 5 December 2022, Lot 29 and Mother Playing with Two Children, First Arts, Toronto, 4 December 2023, Lot 70. For further works by the artist, see the Spirit Wrestler solo exhibition catalogue, The Lyrical World of Pitseolak Niviaqsi, (Vancouver: Spirit Wrestler Gallery, 2001). For other important works by the artist see Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), cat. 181 (see text), and the front cover of the Inuit Art Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 2002, illustrating Fisherwoman with Twins from 2001.Provenance
Collection of John & Joyce Price, Seattle, WA.
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