Lot 70
LUKE IKSIKTAARYUK (1909-1977) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
The Herd, 1973 #1

Printmaker: WILLIAM KANAK (1937-) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
stonecut and stencil print, 28/40, 24.75 x 39.25 in (62.9 x 99.7 cm)
28/40

Provenance
An Ottawa Collection.

Like Luke Anguhadluq (see lot 67), Luke Iksiktaaryuk’s formative years were spent engaged in hunting and other traditional activities, the memories of which would provide fodder for his subsequent graphic works. Prior to moving to Qamani’tuaq Iksiktaaryuk hailed from the Lower Kazan River area. This inland location meant that caribou and birds were important objects of the hunt. The Herd reveals the importance that these animals held for the artist; there are no human figures here. Instead we see dozens of caribou, fluidly drawn in outline, not modelled but brilliantly inked in a flat yellow by William Kanak. While the caribou are all depicted in profile they are not rigid or inert. Some heads are lowered to graze, and in the animals’ contours and proportions there is considerable variation. Antlers are carefully delineated, each with a unique configuration and some even foreshortened to suggest the near and far sections. The two enormous geese, although simplified in their form, are drawn with similar precision. We suspect that they were drawn as an afterthought in order to fill up the sheet of paper! This brilliant print was chosen for the cover of the 1973 Baker Lake print catalogue.

References
Ernst Roch, ed., Arts of the Eskimo: Prints (Signum Press/Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 224-225, reproduced p. 225; The Inuit Print, travelling exh., (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1977), reproduced p. 219, pl. 129.