MARK TUNGILIK (1913-1986), NAUJAAT (REPULSE BAY)
Man Kneeling in Prayer, 1960s
stone, affixed to lucite base, with base: 4 x 3.25 x 2 (10.2 x 8.3 x 5.1 cm) /without base: 3.25 x 3 x 2 (8.3 x 7.6 x 5.1 cm)
signed, "ᒪ ᑐᒋᓕ";
inscribed, "ᓇᐅᔭ [Naujaat (Repulse Bay)".
New Price: $350
Provenance
Private Collection, Montreal;
Walker's Auction, 18 November 2015, Lot 318;
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Toronto.
Jean Blodgett, in her 1984 article, "Christianity and Inuit Art," tells that Tungilik first began carving as a young man at the encouragement of Oblate missionaries [1]. Father Franz van de Velde recorded that he, the priest, asked Tungilik to reproduce a bust of Christ. The Oblate cleric wrote of the incident around this 1945 sculpture, nowin in the Itsanitaq Museum, in Churchill, Manitoba,
“One day I gave him [Tungilik] a small bust of Christ, asking him to reproduce it in ivory [...] When I had long forgotten all about it, he had brought me the finished product. I was overwhelmed. A beautiful little bust, a head crowned with thorns. It was eight or nine centimetre high [...] [2].
Though the Oblates undoubtedly influenced his career, to what extent Tungilik was a practicing Catholic is unclear. However, individuals like Tungilik, who were raised in a traditional, animist religion, may have syncretically transferred some of those traditional practices to Christian rituals, such as the act of prayer. According to Frank Valle, "the contemporary [Christian] stress on observance may be interpreted as continuous with the traditional emphasis on conforming to the rules laid down by spirits” [3].
1. Jean Blodgett, "Christianity and Inuit Art," The Beaver, Autumn 1984, p. 20
2. Franz Van de Velde, Canadian Eskimo Artists: A biographical description of Pelly Bay, (Yellowknife: Government of the Northwest Territories, 1970), p. 23
3. Frank Valle, Kabloona and the Eskimo of Central Keewatin, (Ottawa: Northern Coordination Research Centre, Department of Northern and National Resources, 1962) p. 178.
Further images
Provenance
Private Collection, Montreal;Walker's, 18 November 2015, Lot 318;
Present Private Collection, Toronto.