Lot 127
LUKE ANGUHADLUQ (1895-1982) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
Musk-Oxen, 1973 #4
Printmaker: HUGH TULURIALIK (1944-) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
stonecut and stencil, 25 x 37 in (63.5 x 94 cm)
40/50

Provenance
Private Collection, Hamilton.

In Musk-Oxen, Luke Anguhadluq explores the compositional possibilities of one of his favourite and enduring subjects, the muskox, to excellent effect. The four animals are shown in a self-contained arrangement, each facing away from a central focal point. The arrangement seems fanciful until we realize these animals are standing in the classic defensive formation that muskoxen deploy to protect their young when threatened by predators. With only four animals depicted and no calves visible to us, we can be forgiven for not catching on. But four is the perfect number for Anguhadluq to demonstrate his brilliant invention of mixed perspective. Clearly, with the original drawing he reoriented the paper after portraying each animal! The lovely stonecut textures by printmaker Hugh Tulurialik remind us of some of the best early 1960s Cape Dorset prints by Parr.

References: For the original drawing for this print see Jean Blodgett, Eskimo Narrative, (Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1979), p. 11, pl. 6 and in Cynthia Waye Cook, From the Centre: The Drawings of Luke Anguhadluq, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1993), cat. 43, p. 82; see also Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1985), cat. 16, p. 57, and in