Lot 45
ABRAHAM ANGHIK RUBEN, O.C. (1951-) PAULATUK / SALT SPRING ISLAND, B.C.
Tupiluk, 1977

stone and antler, 12.75 x 23 x 11.25 in (32.4 x 58.4 x 28.6 cm)
signed and dated: "A.A. ANGHIK © 1977".ESTIMATE: $6,000 / $9,000

Provenance
The Pollock Gallery, Toronto;
Acquired from the above by Mr. Gerry Moses, 8 Aug 1978, accompanied by a copy of the original receipt;
Bequeathed to Ms. Barbara Mercer, Toronto;
Estate of the above.


Exhibited
Pollock Gallery, Toronto, Abraham Anghik: Drawings and Sculpture, 1977.

While today Anghik is one of the biggest names in contemporary Inuit art, this powerful sculpture was purchased at his first Toronto exhibition at the Pollock Gallery in 1977, a turning point in his career. (Interestingly, Jack Pollock was also the first gallerist to champion the works of Norval Morrisseau). With Tupiluk we can already see that Anghik’s inspiration is Pan-Arctic; he had absorbed Alaskan Eskimo and even Northwest Coast motifs, and for this work he was casting his eye at Greenlandic imagery and perhaps the sculptures of Eli Sallualuk from Puvirnituq. A tupilak is an avenging monster created by a shaman to do battle against enemies or evil spirits (see Lots 129, 130). The artist’s interest in the spirit world was born despite his residential school experience. Residential schools taught reading, writing, and arithmetic but deprived their students of their native languages, cultures, and history. Many former students made a point of studying everything they could find about Indigenous culture to fill the void left by their formal education. For Anghik it drove him to cast a wide net for inspiration, which he literally “transformed” into something new and totally unique. Tupiluk is a complex, bold, and unsettling creation.