Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, New York

Note:

Perhaps one of the best known and most iconic Inuit sculptors of the early 20th century, Akeeaktashuk’s sculpture was much lauded during his own time. [1] The attention given to Akeeaktashuk’s work made him highly influential among fellow sculptors as well as among early collectors.

No works by Akeeaktashuk can be dated past 1953 when the artist and his family were relocated to Qikiqtaaluk (Craig Harbour) and later Aujuittuq (Grise Fiord) in a misguided government project that promised to improve living conditions through the increased availability of game. [2]

A supremely talented artist, whose extended family included Johnny Inukpuk, and the artist’s brother, the gifted Pilipusi Novalinga, Akeeaktashuk’s sculptures remain distinctly recognizable despite his influence among his contemporaries. [3] Characterised by an exceptional clarity of form and purity of vision, the present lot is an exemplar of the artist’s style.

(1) Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955 (Winnipeg, MB.: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), 29-30.
(2) Samia Madwar, “Inuit High Arctic Relocations in Canada,” The Canadian Encyclopaedia, July 25, 2018, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/inuit-high-arctic-relocations.
(3) Wight. 30.