Additional Images

Provenance:

Dennis Webster, Arviat, NU
Waddington's Auctioneers, Toronto, ON, 6 Dec 1995, lot 1042
Private Collection, Charlottesville, VA

Note:

The present sculpture is one of a small number of early Pangnark figures collected by former Arviat Crafts Officer Dennis Webster, and first consigned to Waddington's in 1995.

Notably, Pangnarks consigned to Waddington's by Webster in '95 are characterized by their early, almost experimental forms. (1)

Webster was an important figure in the history of Arviat sculpture. Arriving in Arviat as Crafts Officer in 1966, he encouraged many of the early artists to pursue carving. In the 1993 Government of Canada catalogue, Pelts to Stone, artists Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, and Mary Ayaq Anowtalik identified Webster as the first person to encourage them and others in Arviat to begin sculpting. (2)

(1) Waddington's Auctioneers, Important Sale by Auction, Fall 1995 (Toronto: Waddington McLean & Company Ltd., 1995), 55, 62, lots 1042, 1049.
(2) Mark Kalluak, Pelts to Stone: A History of Arts and Crafts Production in Arviat (Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1993), 31, 36.

Related Works:
George Swinton, Sculpture of the Eskimo (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 1972), 210, pl. 615, pl. 621.