Tuna Iquliq remains renowned for his ability to distill a sculpture into its most simplified form, and Rotund Owl, Peering Out sits at a stylistic lane change in his career. While minimal, the details that do appear are sharp and linear, as many of Tuna’s early works feature. By contrast, the body harkens to Tuna’s later career owls with a plump, heavyset body that anchors the work. Fluffed up against the cold, it invites the hand to stroke the stone’s surface.

References: For early bird sculptures by Tuna, see George Swinton, Eskimo Sculpture, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Ltd., 1965), pp. 85, 161, 165; and George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972), figs. 23, 671-672.  For a larger example of an equally rotund owl, see First Arts, Toronto, 14 June 2022, Lot 131.

AC