Additional Images

Provenance:

Private collection, British Columbia

Note:

Originally from the Nunavik region (Arctic Quebec), Ennutsiak lived most of his life on the land before settling in Iqaluit (Frobisher Bay) where he became an active community leader. [1]

Ennutsiak was exceptional both for his descriptive treatment of his subject matter and for his carving of complex and detailed multi-figure tableaus. His migration boats are perhaps the only examples whose detail and lifelike air rival those of master sculptor Joe Talirunili. Ennutsiak’s style was a significant departure from the work of many, if not all, of his contemporaries, and has garnered significant interest on the market beginning in the late years of his life and continuing through to today.

In this exceptionally refined work, Ennutsiak gives us an image of women at work preparing skins with ivory awls. Through Ennutsiak’s eyes, the communal scene becomes one of visual and thematic harmony. Four seal skins are attached around a central pole, and around them are four women in matching costumes with hoops of braided hair. At the centre of the composition, stone has been cut away in a complex and startlingly difficult to execute series of undercuts that make clear the artist’s virtuoso skill.

It is worth noting that Ennutsiak, in addition to his artistic achievements, was the patriarch of an important line of Iqaluit sculptors, and father of the talented and prolific artist Nooveeya Ipellie. [2]

(1) Inuit Art Foundation, “Ennutsiak”, IAF, Accessed April 17, 2022. Click here to read more
(2) Jean Blodgett. Grasp Tight The Old Ways: Selections from The Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), 165.

Related Works:
Katilvik, Waddington’s September 16, 2020, lot 33. Click here to read more
Canadian Museum of History, Col. No. IV-C-5980. Click here to read more


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