TUKIKI OSUITOK (1952-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Two Figures, c. 1975
stone, 10 x 16.5 x 9.25 in (25.4 x 41.9 x 23.5 cm)
unsigned.

Provenance
Private Collection, British Columbia.

Tuqiqi Osuitok steered a course that radically departed from the sculptural style of his father, Osuitok Ipeelie, toward a style of abstraction. In the present work, the two figures are virtually fused as one, with their forms described by the artist in softly swelling geometric shapes that seem to emerge from the stone. Through its deliberate simplicity, Two Figures has shed the cumbersome bonds of attempts to represent visual reality to pursue a sense of elemental universality. The artist himself expressed, “In each one of my carvings, I show human forms that are universal to all races, for I believe that man is universal and that one man is equal to another all around the world…”

1. John Robertson, “The Sculpture of Tukiki Oshaweetok,” The Beaver, Winter 1977, p. 25.

References: For a similar work see George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 834. For other examples see Jean Blodgett, Selections from The John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Sculpture, (Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 1986), cat. 21; Upstairs Gallery, Tukiki Oshaweetok of Cape Dorset, (Winnipeg: Upstairs Gallery, 1981). In his article “The Sculpture of Tukiki Oshaweetok” (The Beaver, Winter 1977:24-27), John Robertson, the original owner of this work, wrote: “…there is a strength and simplicity which reflects, although in a different form, the best work of his father’s [Osuitok’s] generation… Tukiki’s work is truly translational; he may well be the forerunner for new and exciting Inuit imagery” (p. 25).