Additional Images

Provenance:

Mr. & Mrs. D.F. Wright, Ottawa, ON
Private Collection, Charlottesville, VA

Literature:

George Swinton, Eskimo Fantastic Art (Winnipeg: Hignell Printing, 1972), 27, pl. 34.

Exhibited:

Eskimo Fantastic Art, George Swinton, Gallery 111, School of Art, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, 10-29 Jan 1972, The Student Union Art Gallery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, 6 Feb-3 Mar 1972, Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC, 11-28 Mar 1972.

Note:

In 1967, Dr. Nelson H.H. Graburn sponsored an art competition in Puvirnituq (Povungnituk) as part of his research on contemporary artists and art activities. The idea was for local carvers to sculpt pieces expressing originality, thought, and imagination, independent of potential commercial influences. Judged by Graburn and Pat Furneaux, author, and Inuit Art specialist for the department of Northern Affairs, entries were later curated by George Swinton into a traveling exhibition, the second installment in a series of influential traveling collections of Inuit art, the first of which was a solo exhibit dedicated to the sculpture of John Tiktak.

The present lot, the submission of Osuitok Ipeelee, was one of a total of 80 works of sculpture and graphics exhibited from entries in the 1967 competition. Dated 1965 in the catalogue, Woman with Ulu is an early work by the artist with a subject exhibiting an overtly spiritual or otherworldly character.[1]

[1] George Swinton, Eskimo Fantastic Art (Winnipeg: Hignell Printing, 1972), 27, pl. 34.

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