Lot 23
JOSIE NULUKIE
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private collection, Hamilton, ON
Note:
Carved by Inukjuak (Port Harrison) artist Josie Nulukie while in residence at the the Mountain Sanatorium (now Chedoke Campus) in Hamilton Ontario, this simple but elegantly carved early sculpture of a bird is a typical composition made at the Sanatorium circa 1955.
The Mountain sanatorium in Hamilton was a facility designated as a tuberculosis treatment center for the Eastern Arctic which hosted over 1,200 Inuit between 1953 and 1963.
As a form of occupational therapy, and at the request of hospital residents, male patients would carve, while women would sew, embroider, and make dolls in their beds. [1] Many carvings made during stays at the sanatorium are unsigned and remain unidentified. We are pleased to present four examples of works made at the Mountain Sanatorium by named artists (In addition to the present lot, lots 9,10, and 11 of the auction Inuit Art from Ontario Collections).
Artworks made by talented artists while patients at the Mountain Sanatorium were the subject of a 2017 exhibition at the Art Gallery of Hamilton titled “Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art.”
Related Works:
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Col. No. 2016.13.23. Click Here to read more
References:
1. Sutherland, Caitlin, “Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art”, Inuit Art Quarterly. December 5, 2017