Lot 4
Possibly QAQAQ (KAKA) ASHOONA (1928-1996) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Bust of a Woman with Plaited Hair, c. 1952-54
stone, 5 x 4.5 x 2.5 in (12.7 x 11.4 x 6.3 cm)
unsigned.

Provenance
Private Collection, USA.

Though unsigned, there are features which point to a possible attribution to Qaqaq Ashoona as the author of this wonderfully serene composition. This portrait bust is carved from the dark grey stone in common usage in Kinngait in the early-mid 1950s. The artist has carefully etched the stone to highlight design elements of the woman’s amautiq. A feature we love is the coquettish tilt of the woman’s pose. The style of this quite early sculpture is simultaneously naïve and brilliant, and so we put forward Qaqaq’s name as a prime candidate.

References: For slightly later works, similarly styled and by or attributed to Qaqaq, see Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 144; Cynthia Waye Cook, Inuit Sculpture In the Collection of the Art Gallery of York University, (North York, ON: Art Gallery of York University, 1988), cat. 2, p. 10 and cat. 50, p. 63. For the famous Bust of a Woman from 1956 by Qaqaq, see Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / New York: Harry Abrams / London: British Museum Press, 1998), pl. 47, p. 63; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 501, p. 193; and Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture / Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cat. 402. In Sculpture / Inuit, see also cat. 330. For a similarly styled Standing Woman with Kakivak attributed to Qaqaq see First Arts, June 14, 2022, Lot 45.