Manno

Created in 1964, Bear on Ice is one of a handful of documented works by the talented Iqaluit (Frobisher Bay) artist, Manno. Although one of the most widely published and celebrated Inuit artworks, little information is readily available about its maker’s life outside of what can be gleaned from the artist’s few works, many of which are spare and reductive but powerfully compelling images of bears.

Speaking of the sculpture in the 1978 publication Landmarks of Canadian Art, Author Peter Mellen notes the artist’s apparent affinity with his subject: “[Manno] literally knew the bear inside-out from countless hours of observing it, and from carving it up for food after the kill. This knowledge is readily apparent in the graceful flow of the bear’s torso and limbs and its cautious stance on slippery ice. Manno is not concerned with photographic realism, but with conveying the essence of bear-ness”.[1]

The bear as subject matter has been one of the earliest and most lasting traditions in Arctic image-making. However, in 1964 when Manno created his best known and most enigmatic sculpture, no comparable work had been documented to an Inuit maker. In 1967, Manno’s unique vision captured the attention of two legendary figures in Inuit art: artist, collector, and Inuit art scholar George Swinton and art dealer and collector William Eccles who both spotted the artwork at an auction held by Waddington’s, the latter purchasing the sculpture.

Bear on Ice would be included in the seminal touring exhibition of Inuit art, Sculpture of the Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic in 1971. The exhibition brought Inuit art to global audiences and was shown in Vancouver and Ottawa as well as in Paris, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the United States. Bear on Ice was recognized as an exceptional work, and was featured extensively in the marketing and media reviews of the exhibition. The sculpture would stay in Eccles’ possession until his death. In 1978, his collection was sold at Waddington’s. Bear on Ice was selected for the cover lot and was the only piece singled out by name in the introduction, written by George Swinton. The sculpture was purchased by William Eccles’ former business partner Wade Ferrel and remained a treasured work in Ferrel’s private collection.

While Bear on Ice was widely lauded after its inclusion in the Masterworks exhibition, appearing in numerous publications of Inuit and Canadian Art, its whereabouts after 1978 was unknown to all but a few. In the 1982 publication Lords of the Stone, author Alister Macduff, lamenting the absence of a number of remarkable Inuit artworks, said of the works not included, “Manno’s Bear on Ice is an obvious first choice. If this single piece were the only example of Inuit sculpture in existence, I would feel that the Inuit people had made a major contribution to the world’s art.”[2]

Waddington’s is honoured to offer Bear on Ice for the first time since its 1978 acquisition by Wade Ferrel.

To read more about the story of the return of Bear on Ice, read our blog: An Icon of Canadian Art Returned.

[1] Peter Mellen, Landmarks of Canadian Art (Toronto: McCelland and Stewart Limited, 1978), 74-75.
[2] Alistar Macduff, Lords of The Stone: An Anthology of Inuit Sculpture (Vancouver: Whitecap Books Ltd., 1982), 57.