Lot 57
LUKE ANGUHADLUQ (1895-1982)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Winnipeg
Literature:
Marion Jackson and Judith Nasby, Contemporary Inuit Drawings Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1987, page 47
Note:
As an important social and religious aspect of their culture, the traditional drum dance has inspired many Inuit artists and is common in Inuit drawings and sculpture. Here, Anguhadluq presents men surrounding a small drum dancer. There are shamans in a transformative state with human bodies and animal heads, as well as a spirit figure closest to the drum. The drummer is energizing the figures as they radiate around him, establishing a visual rhythm that parallels the beating of the drum.
In a 1981 letter from Stanley Zazelenchuk to the consignors, he wrote that this drawing may be one of the artist's last. Shortly after completing the drawing, Anguhadluq became ill and was confined to his house. He died February 8, 1982.