Lot 39
David Ruben Piqtoukun ᑎᕕᑎ ᐱᑐᑯ ᕈᐱᐃᓐ (b. 1950)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Australia
Note:
Early in David Ruben Piqtoukun’s career, the artist had the opportunity to work in nephrite jade, a demanding material, with ancient roots among Indigenous peoples of the Western Arctic and Northern Northwest Coast.
Between 1973-1976 he carved in the challenging medium, making a small number of sculptures. The material encouraged deliberate action, and the majority of the artist’s sculptures from the period are characterized by a forceful and reductive simplicity.
Speaking of the hardships of sculpting in nephrite in a 1994 interview for Inuit Art Quarterly, Piqtoukun expressed: “Jade develops a lot of patience. Working with the hardest material, you learn patience, competence, determination. Other materials are that much easier.”[1]
[1] David Ruben Piqtoukun and John Ayre, “David Ruben Piqtoukun”, Inuit Art Quarterly. Vol. 9. No. 3, Fall, 1994, 20.