Additional Images

Provenance:

Collection of Dr. Norman Epstein, Toronto, ON

Note:

Tudlik is primarily remembered as a carver of owls, as is the artist’s son, Latcholassie Akesuk. While both artists favoured sculpting birds, they did work with other subjects. Latcholassie most notably carved seals, and Tudlik bears, such as the present example made from rugged stone of the type quarried in the years before Cape Dorset became synonymous with lustrous green serpentine.

As elsewhere in Tudlik’s carving, Striding Bear is defined by the artist’s signature sign-like reductive treatment of his subjects.

About the Collector

Striding Bear is one of over fifty exceptional works in the present auction from the lifetime collection of Dr. Norman Epstein, including eight diverse depictions of bears from some of the best known artists of the subject.

Asked about his special interest in carvings of bears, Dr. Epstein replied: “because they are proud, and they are good luck.”

Among the first generation of passionate Canadian collectors of Inuit sculpture, Dr. Epstein acquired his first artwork from the Canadian Guild of Crafts Shop in Montreal in 1956. He would go on to purchase important Inuit artwork guided by pioneering figures in the Canadian art scene including Avrom Isaacs, Harold Seidelman, and M.F. (Budd) Feheley. Dr. Epstein however remained true to his own sensibilities and personal preferences, building a varied collection around themes such as mothers and children, miniature ivories, and depictions of bears. Notably his collection was almost solely composed of sculpture, preferring the medium's “tactility” and “spiritual warmth” over Inuit graphics.

Exhibiting artworks at his offices for the enjoyment of his patients, Dr. Epstein also actively lent to several provincial and national exhibitions. Part of a firm conviction for Dr. Epstein about the cultural value of his chosen collecting field, he stated plainly in a 1990 interview with Inuit Art Quarterly, “Inuit art is a Canadian heritage”.

By the 1990s, Dr. Epstein was making fewer changes to his collection. While often shared with the public, the collection was also deeply personal for him, treasured through its many iterations over 60 years. Dr. Epstein notes of his sculptures at the close of the article, “I love them so much, which may be a sickness for which there is no cure”.