AKEEAKTASHUK (1898-1954), INUKJUAK (PORT HARRISON)

Hunter with Harpoon and Knife,c. 1950-1

stone, walrus tusk, and soap inlay, 11.5 x 7.5 x 7.5 in (29.2 x 19.1 x 19.1 cm)

unsigned.

Provenance

A Montreal Collection;

Private Collection, Ottawa.

Akeeaktashuk was one of the first Inuit identified as an art “star” by James Houston and promoted as such in the early 1950s, and was probably the most prolific artist of this early period of Inuit art. One enthusiastic Montreal newspaper reporter dubbed him “the Arctic Angelo” [1]! Akeeaktashuk’s career would be short lived, however, as he and his family were part of a group of Inukjuak area Inuit tricked into being relocated to Ellesmere Island. These “High Arctic exiles” were moved first to Craig Harbour, then to Grise Fiord in 1953. There was no stone available for Akeeaktashuk to continue carving, and he died tragically in a walrus hunting accident the following year.

The attention given to Akeeaktashuk’s work made him highly influential among his local carving peers, and the publication of his sculptures also helped shape the perception of Inuit and their art in the “South.” Akeeaktashuk’s sculptures and those of his followers no doubt reinforced the romantic idea of Inuit as “stoical hunters” in the southern art market throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s. Looking at Hunter with Harpoon and Knife we can understand why Akeeaktashuk’s work would have stirred the public’s imagination - it is an absolutely compelling image. Carved with economy of line and form, the figure is timeless yet still seems modern even today; the hunter is stolid yet elegantly poised; the image is static yet charged with quiet energy and incipient action. This sculpture is a large and particularly fine example of Akeeaktashuk’s classic early style: a truly iconic work. Beautiful.

1. Frank Lowe in The Montreal Daily Star, August 9, 1950, cited in Wight, Early Masters (WAG, 2006), p. 29.

Literature: For other important examples by Akeeaktashuk of hunters carved on a similar scale see Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955 (Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 31; Gerald McMaster ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 69; Christine Lalonde, Sanaugavut: Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2010), p. 39; The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank (Toronto, 1972), cat. 73; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: M&S, 1972/92), fig. 274; First Arts Auction, July 2020, Lot 12; Jean Blodgett, Selections from the John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Sculpture (Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, 1986), cat. 31 (also illus. in Walker’s Auctions, Nov. 2011, Lot 33).