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Artworks
ABRAHAM ETUNGAT, R.C.A. (1911-1999) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Arctic Char, Swimming in the Flow, c. 1965stone, 1 x 4.5 x 0.75 in (2.5 x 11.4 x 1.9 cm)
signed, "ᐊᑐᒐ",LOT 42
ESTIMATE: $500 — $800Further images
Carved around 1965 from a particularly fine green stone, this small char has all the quickness and tension of a living fish. Small in scale but wonderfully alert, Abraham Etungat...Carved around 1965 from a particularly fine green stone, this small char has all the quickness and tension of a living fish. Small in scale but wonderfully alert, Abraham Etungat makes the creature seem to turn within the water. Its body bends in a supple curve, the tail lifting and sweeping softly aside as though meeting the pressure of a current.
Etungat reduces the fish's form to a few lithe, decisive lines: the tapering body, the tilted tail, and the gentle countercurve of the back. Nothing is overstated, yet the sculpture feels fully animated. It captures not simply the appearance of a char, but the instant of its movement through water.
For a work with a similar dot and circle eye by the artist, see Alighting Bird, c. 1965, formerly in the collection of Terry Ryan, sold at First Arts, July 2020, Lot 110.
Provenance
An American Private Collection.
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