**First Time At Auction**

Robert Tatty (Inuit, 1927-2009). Ceramic head with seal nose. Signed with disc number E3-404 underfoot, ca. 1968-1969. A characteristically imaginative work by Robert Tatty (also known as Tatty Tatty or Tatti Tatty), created as part of the short-lived Ranking Inlet ceramics program of the 1960s. Tatty excelled at creating whimsical portrait busts with surprising zoomorphic features. For example, this handsome fellow has a seal for a nose! Beyond this, his visage is chock full of personality with one eye more open than the other, exaggerated crow's feet, a furrowed brow, thick stippled eyebrows, an open mouth, and straight hair styled in a bonafide bowl cut. Interestingly, he did not use the more typical red-firing clay for this piece. An exceptionally rare head by Tatty, as the Ranken Inlet ceramics program only existed from 1964 until 1974. Size: 10.25" L x 7.5" W x 10.75" H (26 cm x 19 cm x 27.3 cm)

This ceramic head was part of the Ranken Inlet ceramics program which existed from 1964 until 1974. The idea of creating ceramics rather than carving stone was appealing for a few reasons. It was soft, left no stone dust, and made it possible to work inside through the winters. According to Arctic Arts Summit, "Artists took to this new, complex earthly material. Early attempts at the wheel were abandoned in favour of hand building, with the artists freestyling sculptural interventions. Pie Kukshout (1911–1980) and Robert Tatty (1927–2009) seemed to be in a competition for best psychedelic portrait. Prismatic faces, noses transforming into seals, abstracted patterning of hair and feathers, creepy bugs, distorted birds and bears, pop-cultural influences such as alligators—the artists were on fire and clay afforded an elastic pliability that matched the speed of their imagination."

Robert Tatty was originally from Ukkusiksalik and came to Rankin Inlet to work in the nickel mines prior to joining the ceramics program. He was best known for imaginative heads depicting human visages tranforming into animals like this example.

Provenance: private Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA collection, acquired by Dr. Gunther Semelka in 1971 in Winnepeg, Canada

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#178001

Signed with disc number E3-404 underfoot. One minute nick to periphery of neck and slight scuffs/nicks to other peripheries and high-pointed areas - most are probably just tool marks. Otherwise overall intact and excellent.