Inuit art goes up for sale in Ottawa auction

This caribou antler and steel carving called “Gathering,” by Baker Lake artist Luke Iksiktaaryuk, will be auctioned off in Ottawa Nov. 13 as part of Walker’s Auction Inuit, Indian and Ethnographic Arts Auction. The early 1970s piece is valued at over $15,000. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WALKER’S AUCTIONS)

Early Baker Lake artist Francis Kaluraq carved this “figure with four faces” in 1967. Now, the black stone sculpture is estimated at over $18,000. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WALKER’S AUCTION)

The auction’s catalogue includes the circa 1950s sculpture “hunter and walrus” by Inukjuak carver Akeeaktashuk, a “classic piece” that is valued at more than $8,000. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WALKER’S AUCTION)

Nearly 300 works of Inuit art head to the auction block this weekend for one of the country’s largest sales of Inuit art to date.

The Ottawa-based Walker’s Auctions house will host a sale of Inuit art in Ottawa Nov. 13 – second in size only to the recent auction at the well-known Toronto auction house Waddingtons.

That auction, held this past week, featured more than 400 pieces of Inuit art, including a carving, made by the late Ennutsiak of Iqaluit in the 1960s, which sold for $88,750 on Nov. 7.

But now Waddington’s has competition from the Ottawa-based Walker’s Auctions.

The auction house’s director, Jeff Walker, says he waded into the business of Inuit art by surprise, after family friends approached him to sell the estate of John and Mary Robertson, formerly of Ottawa’s Robertson Galleries, a pioneer in dealers of Inuit art.

News of that collection’s sale created a “snowball effect” and soon Walker’s had gathered an additional 280 works of Inuit art to auction, including pieces from other private collections.

Although Walker’s has sold Inuit art in the past, this is the first time Inuit art will be the focus of an auction sale.

Walker, realizing he would need specialized help with the auction, hired on Inuit art specialist and writer, Ingo Hessel, a former co-ordinator of the federal government’s Canadian Inuit Art Information Centre, as a consultant.

“I saw [Hessel’s] face light up when he saw the collection,” Walker said.

The sale includes a number of classic pieces, including the “hunter and walrus” made in the 1950s by Akeeaktashuk, which is valued at more than $8,000.

Akeeaktashuk was one of the first Inuit artists singled out and promoted by early Inuit art promoter James Houston in the early 1950s.

But Akeeaktashuk’s talent was never fully realized; he was moved from Port Harrison (now known as Inukjuak) to Grise Fiord in 1953, and died there a year later in a walrus hunting accident.

The sale includes another “rare” carving made by Baker Lake artist Francis Kaluraq in 1967. His “figure with four faces,” carved in black stone,” is estimated to bring in more than $18,000.

For collectors with a taste for fine details, the sale also includes a number of miniatures from the collection of Norman Hallendy, a former federal civil servant, who first visited the Eastern Arctic in 1958 (and has since written widely on inuksuit).

During his travels Hallendy amassed a unique collection of miniature ivory and bone carvings mostly from around Repulse Bay and Kugaaruk.

But despite these older, more pricey pieces, Walker said the sale remains accessible to both new and seasoned collectors.

Bids will start from $100 and, for the more coveted works, go as high as $60,000.

“[The sale] is really open to a wide scope of the population,” he said. “The quality of the smaller, less expensive pieces is stellar, which is where most buyers are focussed.”

Hessel agrees.

“Auctions shouldn’t be something that ordinary people feel they can’t be part of,” Hessel said.

In his opinion, Inuit art on its own is among the most “accessible” art forms.

“It’s completely unpretentious, it has a human quality,” Hessel said. “The [auction’s] options simply reflect that.”

The Inuit, Indian and Ethnographic Arts Auction starts at noon on Nov. 13 at Tudor Hall, 3750 North Bowesville Road, in Ottawa.

Interested buyers outside the city can go to www.walkersauctions.com to see telephone or online bid options.

Fifty-seven works from the Norman Hallendy collection will go to auction in Ottawa Nov. 13. Hallendy collected miniature ivory and bone sculptures from around
Kugaaruk and Repulse Bay in the late 1960s and 1970s. Many of these pieces are no larger than 10 cm in height. (PHOTO COUTESY OF WALKER’S AUCTIONS)