Sculpture
CultureNunavimmuit, Inukjuak (Port Harrison), Quebec, Canada
Dateca. 1960
MediumSoapstone
DimensionsOverall: 10 × 9 1/2 × 12 inches (25.4 × 24.13 × 30.48 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: Donald D. Jones Fund for American Indian Art
Object number2008.27
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 206
Collections
DescriptionDark stone carving of an Eskimo man, clad in parka and boots, carrying two seals.Gallery LabelThis dramatic sculpture represents an Inuit hunter struggling to his feet beneath the weight of two seals he has taken. The compressed energy and tension conveyed in the figure and the expression on the hunter’s face—in the struggle of the moment and yet transcendent—create an emotional intensity rarely achieved in contemporary Inuit carvings. This individual hunter’s triumph, enacted countless times over thousands of years, references the enormous challenge of survival in the most difficult natural environment on the face of the earth.
Torrence, Gaylord, ed. Continuum: North American Native Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
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