Lot 193
OSUITOK IPEELEE (1923-2005)
Additional Images
Provenance:
According to the collector’s sister this piece was acquired by the first RCMP officer stationed in Cape Dorset, ca. 1964,
Private Collection, Ontario
Note:
“When the Mounted Police... heard about Osuitok’s work, they ...began asking for carvings. Of the works he sold to them he remembers ...an ivory tusk with incised scenes.” Inuit art, An Anthology, 1984 interview, ‘Osuitok Ipeelee’ by Jean Blodgett, Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1988, page 42.
‘I think I was the first one to draw on a tusk. I did that even before Houston came here... I thought to myself that when you file a tusk and then make a drawing on it, usually it comes out quite nice.’ “Enooky Oqutaq and Davidee Itulu learned how to make drawings on ivory tusks from Osuitok.” Early Masters, Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, Darlene Coward Wight, The Winnipeg Art Gallery