Additional Images

Provenance:

Walker's Auction, Ottawa, ON, May, 2014, lot 299;
Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Carved by Lukie Airut from the jawbone of a polar bear, a towering wide-eyed and bow-legged shaman stands on a plane of baleen, holding a qilaut (hoop drum) and drum beater; his legs are carved with figures in low relief, and frame a vignette of a dancing man with two dogs. Typical of the artist’s use of organic material, Lukie Airut often carves from bone sourced from his own hunting exploits, but has also from found materials, "I began collecting bowhead skulls from old sod houses," he explains in a 2006 interview for Inuit Art Quarterly. "I have probably carved over 100 skulls."[1]

This lot is accompanied by a May, 2014 Walker's Auction label.


Related Works:

Untitled, Shaman Drum Dancer–See: https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/iaq-online/21-3-lukie-airut-igloolik-carving-wizard.

References:

1. Gunderson, Sonia, “Lukie Airut Igloolik's Carving” Inuit Art Quarterly, February 15, 2018. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/iaq-online/21-3-lukie-airut-igloolik-carving-wizard.


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