About Inuit Art

The resourceful Inuit have been carving expertly for several thousand years. Both men and women developed a high degree of technical skill to make tools and clothing. As people from a hunting culture, they developed powers of observation and visual memory, which were invaluable to the artist. In the contemporary period since the 1940's, Inuit carvings reflect the social, economic and political changes occurring in their culture. Prior to the late 1940's, the Inuit lived on the land, whaling and trading furs. When these industries floundered, alternative income sources were needed as a matter of survival.

James A. Houston was a young art school graduate who visited the Arctic in 1948. He persuaded the Canadian government that there was great income earning potential for the Inuit in their small sculptures. The Canadian government encouraged the Inuit to focus on various handicrafts, including stone carving. Since then, the Inuit have literally been 'carving an identity' for themselves.

Before the government came up here there was only one way of making money. People could make money from fox furs and the other things we used to bring in, but only a little money. Then it was learned that carvings here in the Arctic have a price and when there were no jobs available people quickly learned their value. That is why they have tried so hard at it.
- Osuitok Ipeelee, Cape Dorset, 1987

It is not only to make money that we carve. Nor do we carve make-believe things. What we show in our carvings is the life we have lived in the past right up to today. We show the truth…We carve the animals because they are important to us as food. We carve Inuit figures because in that way we can show ourselves to the world as we were in the past and as we are now…we carve to show what we have done as a people.
- Pauloosie Kasadluak, Inukjuak, 1976

Talented artists who can do drawings and carvings can show their children what life was like, and those things can be useful in their future and in helping our children to make something of themselves.
- Annie Manning, Cape Dorset, 1994

There is a wide range of stylistic variety from community to community and from artist to artist. The most common carving material is stone. Soapstone or steatite was used early on as it was soft and easily carved. Because soapstone breaks easily, most artists now use serpentine, argillite, quartzite and marble. Stone is generally obtained from a quarry relatively near the community. This makes it possible to identify a carving's community of origin from the appearance of the stone. Subject matter and style also vary greatly from one community to the next, which aids in identification as well.

Inuit children learn daily from their elders how to live off the land and, so, learn the skills needed for stone carving. Inuit storytelling tradition is passed on to the children in the same way. The knowledge of ancient stories and legends provides continued inspiration in their art. The Inuit's respect for the land is evident in the themes drawn upon. Life on the land, spiritual images of animals and mythological interpretations of ancient legends are seen time and again.

Inuit carvers often (but not always) incise the bottoms of their works with their signatures in Roman letters or Inuktitut syllabics. A chart of the Inuktitut syllabic writing system will help you to decipher any syllabics you may find. Some sculptures may also have a "disc number" inscribed on the bottom. These numbers, prefixed by an "E" or "W", are another kind of signature. George Swinton, a renowned collector and Inuit art expert, shares his five principles for collecting: 1. Aesthetic interests: Collect objects that evoke expression rather than mere elegance and beauty, which he calls only aesthetic delight. 2. Art historical interests: Collect objects for reasons mostly iconographic, which really means how the objects and images are related to formal traditions and/or functions. 3. Thematic interests: Collect objects which illustrate how a subject matter is treated in different stylistic ways. 4. Ethnographic interests: Collect objects that relate to the artist’s cultural lifestyle and traditions. 5. Formal and creative interests: Collect objects that are exciting, original, surprising, even eccentric in form as well as content.