Lot 3
ANDY MIKI (1918-1983), ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT)
Bird in Flight, c. 1968-69
stone, 3.75 x 4.5 x 6.75 in (9.5 x 11.4 x 17.1 cm)
signed, "ᒥᑭ".
Estimate: $3,500 — $5,000
Price realized: $4,800
Provenance
Private Collection, Toronto;
Acquired from the above by another Private Collection, Toronto.
Bird in Flight possesses both a chunky solidity and a beautiful aerodynamic quality, with the kind of streamlining associated with a fighter jet. Furthermore, as we have noted with other works by Miki, the sculpture has almost the look and feel of having been conceived as a mysterious implement. We have not found any precisely equivalent works by Miki, but two sculptures do come to mind: an Animal c. 1969, and a Bird from c. 1970. Animal is supported on a similar pedestal-like base; Bird is differently shaped but conveys a similar degree of geometric abstraction and subtle sense of flight (see references).
References: For Animal from c. 1969, in the Twomey Collection at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, see Bernadette Driscoll, Eskimo Point/Arviat (WAG, 1982), cat. 47; also in Norman Zepp, Pure Vision (Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986), cat. 9. See also Pure Vision, cat. 12, for Bird c. 1970. For a contemporaneous bird of more rounded proportions, see Walker’s Auctions, May 2013, Lot 29; for another see Walker’s May 2016, Lot 215. For a major sculpture by Miki with a different format but a similar degree of abstraction see Walker’s, Nov. 2015, Lot 184.