DOMINIC KINGILIK (1939-1990), QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

Walking Woman, 1964

stone, 10.5 x 6 x 6 in (26.7 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm)

signed, "ᑭᒋᓕ". 

Provenance

Ex. Collection of H.L. Shelton, Vancouver;

Private Collection, British Columbia.

Published

George Swinton, Eskimo Sculpture/Sculpture Esquimaude (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965) p. 146;

Also illustrated in George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: M&S, 1972/92) fig. 713. 

Dominic Kingilik was one of the most famous and well-respected Baker Lake carvers of the 1960s; he was represented with an astonishing fifteen works in the landmark Eskimo Carvers of the Keewatin N.W.T. exhibition sponsored by the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1964. Walking Woman is arguably his finest sculpture, not only remarkably beautiful but also years ahead of its time. Whereas most early works by other Baker Lake sculptors of the formative period 1963-65 look like experiments with really good potential, Walking Woman clearly foreshadows what would become the classic Baker Lake style of the early to mid 1970s. It has every quality that defines great Baker Lake figurative sculpture in spades: beautifully modulated bulky volumes and curves finished to a semi-gloss sheen; fine sculptural rendering of clothing and a realistic sense of the anatomy underlying it; a lovely sense of lightness and movement; and a sensitively portrayed drop dead gorgeous woman's face. Walking Woman is a prototypical Baker Lake masterpiece.

References: For two similar subjects by the artist from the same period see Winnipeg Art Gallery, Eskimo Carvers of the Keewatin N.W.T. (WAG, 1964), cat. 60, 63 (pp. 34-35). See also Toronto-Dominion Bank, The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank (Toronto, 1967) cat. 23.