Lot 36
DAVID RUBEN PIQTOUKUN (b. 1950)
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto, ON
Note:
The joy of hearing stories told by his mother and grandmother about shamanism and traditional beliefs influenced a young David Ruben Piqtoukun and have spawned images recurring throughout the artist's career. [1] Faces of men and animals often appear as mask-like forms in Piqtoukun’s work, an image derived from a tradition of ceremonial and ritual masks in the Western Arctic.
In this exceptional sculpture Divining Shaman and Spirit Animal two figures in the form of a man and an animal sit atop an umiak (traditional skin boat)–whose surface appears as a patchwork of fragmented elements. The man is truncated and legless, his arms are outstretched and hovering over his animal companion. Both figures appear transfigured with mask-like faces and with polished eyes of inset red catlinite, as in the work of Piqtoukun’s brother Abraham Apakark Anghik (see lot 33 of this auction).
Related Works:
Man In A Boat, 2006: Click here to read more.
References:
1. Wight, Darlene Coward, Between Two Worlds: David Ruben Piqtoukun, Winnipeg: Winnipeg Gallery of Art, 1996. p.3.