OTTAWA.- 335 remarkable examples of Native Canadian and American sculpture, prints, drawings, decorative objects, and textiles, spanning two thousand years of indigenous artistic expressions across the continent, comprise
Walker’s November 18 auction in Ottawa, Canada.
Selections range from ancient Bering Strait ivory figures and objects, to historic Alaskan trade ivories, to Northwest Coast works by 19th- and 20th- century masters. They also include superb classic and modern examples from the great artistic flowering of 20th- century Canadian Inuit art, as well as Inuit works from Greenland. Forty percent of the objects on offer are from the noted Albrecht Collection in Scottsdale. Many of these works were included in the Heard Museum’s 2006 touring exhibition “Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection.”
According to Ingo Hessel, Head of the Inuit & First Nations Art Department at Walker’s, “Through this incredibly comprehensive auction of exceptional works of Canadian art, we hope to provide greater access to, awareness of, and appreciation for, the important enduring artistic legacy of the Inuit and First Nations peoples.”
In keeping with his thirty-year career as an Inuit art expert, curator, and author, Hessel has gathered the most remarkable examples of Inuit and First Nations art from every period, including sculpture and graphic works by critically-acclaimed modern masters. Contemporary and modern Canadian artists whose work has been included in major museum exhibitions and collections across North America. Include: Karoo Ashevak, Kenojuak Ashevak, Robert Davidson, Osuitok Ipeelee, John Kavik, Andy Miki, Norval Morriseau, Jessie Oonark, John Pangnark, and Pauta Saila, among many others.
Auction Highlights
Early prints by Kenojuak Ashevak, Canada’s most celebrated Inuit artist, include Rabbit Eating Seaweed, 1959, (her first print from the very first Cape Dorset graphics collection), and Birds from the Sea, 1960. These vibrant compositions reflect the lyricism and enigmatic, dream-like quality characteristic of early Cape Dorset prints and sculpture. Ashevak is represented in the collections of major art museums in Canada and abroad. Retrospectives of her work include “Kenojuak Ashevak: To Make Something Beautiful” at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, in 2002.
Karoo Ashevak was perhaps the first Inuit sculptor to have “crossover” appeal in the wider art market. His meteoric career took off in 1970 and by 1973 he had three solo exhibitions to his credit, including one at the American Indian Arts Center, NY. Tragically his life was cut short and yet, the works he produced in just a four-year period changed Inuit art forever. His meticulously carved, surreal constructions influenced the sculptural style of an entire region and beyond, widening interest in Inuit art throughout Canada and abroad.
Jessie Oonark rivals Kenojuak Ashevak as Canada’s greatest Inuit artist. Her brilliantly conceived prints, drawings, and textile hangings incorporate complex, symmetrical patterns of vibrant color, and ornament, partially based on traditional clothing designs while thoroughly rooted in Inuit symbolism and spirituality. Oonark’s work is found in every major Canadian museum collection, and was the focus of the U.S. travelling exhibition, “Power of Thought: The Art of Jessie Oonark,” in 2004.
Andy Miki and his Arviat colleague John Pangnark are considered to have been the two great ‘minimalists’ of Inuit art. Works by Miki and Pangnark from the mid 1960’s feature simplified animal forms, which evolved into more radically abstracted sculptural shapes during the following decade. This Brancusi-like sculpture is arguably Miki’s most important and beautiful work. Sculptures by Miki are part of every major public art museum collection in Canada, including: the National Gallery of Art, Ottawa, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Miki’s sculpture, Mating Polar Bears, sold at auction for $27,600 in 2006.
Haida artist Robert Davidson is a pivotal figure in the contemporary Northwest Coast art renaissance, and one of Canada’s most decorated artists. Grounded in tribal tradition, but thoroughly modern, his oeuvre encompasses traditional and post-modern sculpture, graphic works, and paintings. He was the subject of the Seattle Art Museum’s and the National Museum of the American Indian’s 2013 exhibition “Robert Davidson: An Abstract Impulse,” and his work can be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many others.
Snow goggles, along with human heads, figures, and harpoon counterweights are among the most prominent categories of ivory carvings coveted by collectors today. The provenance for these remarkable and rare pair of Yup’ik snow goggles includes the collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, Geneva, and that of tribal art dealer Boris Kegel-Konietzko, Hamburg. The quality of ornamentation puts this unique and highly important object in a class by itself.
Harpoon counterweights (“winged objects”), used from Okvik times through the end of the Punuk Period, were attached to the ends of harpoons to counteract the weight of the heavy ivory head, foreshaft, and socket pieces. This exceptionally rare example in perfect condition, exhibits a uniform mellow patina, and a graceful decoration. Such high level of intricate design may signify its symbolic importance. One similar example sold for $36,000 at Bonhams in 2007.
Raven rattles, one of the most iconic of Northwest Coast objects, were once carried in dance performances by chiefs and clan leaders while adorned in their finest regalia. The image of a flying raven with a reclining human figure on its back is a centuries-old, shamanic symbol of spiritual intimacy and occult communication. This fine example of traditional sculpture and relief carving depicts a raven’s tale morphed into a second bird-like form (possibly a heron), in whose beak tip is held a frog, which is joined to the figure by its extended tongue.
