Lot 62
LUCY TASSEOR TUTSWEETOK (1934-2012) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT)
Family, c. 1970-72

stone, 6 x 7 x 2 in (15.2 x 17.8 x 5.1 cm)
signed, "ᓗᓯ / ᑕᓯᐅ".

Provenance
Private Collection, Toronto;
First Arts Auction, 28 May 2019, Lot 13;
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Toronto.

Even at its most abstract, Tasseor’s sculpture reveals that the artist’s interest lay primarily in presenting the themes that were near and dear to her: the strength of family bonds and the importance of community. Tasseor’s greatest works embrace Norman Zepp’s “Pure Vision” aesthetic while never losing sight of the physicality of the human face and figure.

Family superbly illustrates Tasseor’s early classic style. The natural shard-like shape of the stone determines the overall form of the sculpture, but Tasseor works with rather than against the material, creating content and meaning out of the undulating masses of the stone. Material becomes metaphor: the figure of the mother literally is the mountain that holds this family together; she is the foundation that gives it structure and meaning. And yet despite its materiality, its very “stoneness,” Family is fully carved and finished; every square inch has been lovingly worked with axe, rasp, file, and sandpaper. The result is pure magic. We marvel at how an image that seems to be carved so sparingly manages to exude such joy and energy.

References

for similar works by the artist see Darlene Wight, The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1987) cat. 37 or Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit (Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986), cat. 36; Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Collection of Inuit Art (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), pp. 160; Gerald McMaster ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 158.