First Arts company logo
First Arts
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Spring 2025 | Live Auction
  • Available Artworks
  • Auctions & Exhibitions
  • About
  • SERVICES
  • News & Blog
Menu

INUIT & FIRST NATIONS ART AUCTION: 7:00 PM

Past exhibition
12 July 2020
Back to exhibitions

FIRST ARTS PREMIERS INC.  
Nadine Di Monte   |    647-286-5012   |    info@firstarts.ca 

Ingo Hessel  |    613-818-2100   |    ingo@firstarts.ca

The main office of First Arts Premiers Inc. is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat, the original owners and custodians of this land.  Today, it is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

 

 

 

Join Our Mailing List

 

JOIN

 

 

 

Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 First Arts
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Join

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Lot 44 JESSIE OONARK, O.C., R.C.A (1906-1985) QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE) Challenging Wrestle, c. 1975-76 coloured pencil drawing, 29.875 x 22.175 in (76 x 56 cm) Estimate: $6,000⁠ — $9,000 Price realized: $7,200
Lot 44

JESSIE OONARK, O.C., R.C.A (1906-1985) QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

Challenging Wrestle, c. 1975-76

coloured pencil drawing, 29.875 x 22.175 in (76 x 56 cm)

signed, "ᐅᓇ".

 

ESTIMATE: $6,000⁠ — $9,000
PRICE REALIZED: $7,200

 

Provenance

Ex Collection of Lorne Balshine, Vancouver;

Private Collection, Toronto.

 

This important drawing is either Oonark's original drawing for the serigraph print Challenging Wrestle (executed in 1976 and released as 1977 #24), or a very closely related second version. It is possible that Oonark was playing with the theme and created two slightly different drawings; it seems equally likely that the advisor and/or printer at the Sanavik print studio may have decided to make some changes to the original. This drawing and the print are virtually identical except for the figures on the backs of the fish-people, and the colour changes. In the print the two figures are hunting or competing with spears.

 

When asked about the print, Oonark described the large figures as creatures that lived in lakes or the ocean, adding that shamans had seen people like these [1]. These two fish-people are the wrestlers, shown with powerful arms and eyes locked together. The two small figures at the top are playing a traditional Inuit pulling game. The figures dancing and standing on the backs of the fish-people seem to be cheering on the combatants. Interestingly, the four small figures resemble those in a late 1960s Oonark drawing [2].  We love Oonark's use of vibrant colour in this drawing; all in all, it's a lively and entertaining image.

 

1. Marion E. Jackson, Transcripts of Interviews with Jessie Oonark and her Children (unpublished, Inuit Art Section, Indian & Northern Affairs Canada, Spring 1983) p. 37.

2. An early drawing by Oonark, Men at Games (c. 1968-69), illustrates a pulling game assisted by two helpers; see National Museum of Man, Oonark-Pangnark (Ottawa: NMM, 1970) cat. 15.

 

References: Because of the high degree of symmetry in Oonark's mature style, there are numerous examples of graphics and hangings that incorporate "opposing figures"; see Blodgett and Bouchard, Jessie Oonark: A Retrospective (WAG, 1986) cats. 58, 67, 74. See also Marion Jackson et al, Qamanittuaq (Guelph: Macdonald Stewart, 1995) cat. 64. For fish-people, see Marion Jackson and Judith Nasby, Contemporary Inuit Drawings (Guelph: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1987) cat. 61 and front cover.

 

View Additional Images
Inquire
%3Cp%3ELot%2044%20%3Cstrong%3EJESSIE%20OONARK%2C%20O.C.%2C%20R.C.A%20%281906-1985%29%20QAMANI%27TUAQ%20%28BAKER%20LAKE%29%3C/strong%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cem%3EChallenging%20Wrestle%3C/em%3E%2C%20c.%201975-76%3C/p%3Ecoloured%20pencil%20drawing%2C%2029.875%20x%2022.175%20in%20%2876...%3C/p%3E
Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
44 
of  119
Previous
Next
Close