GEORGE TATANNIQ (1910-1991), QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)

Standing Man,early 1970s

stone, 9.5 x 5.25 x 3.5 in (24.1 x 13.3 x 8.9 cm)

signed, "ᑕᑕᓂ".

Provenance

Waddington’s Auctions, Toronto, Nov. 2010, Lot 247;

a European Private Collection.

A member of the Harvaqtormiut, Tatanniq was born in the Kazan River area about forty miles from Baker Lake, although he recalled his family ranging across large areas of the land to survive. He recalled living through at least three famines in his lifetime. He began carving after his recovery from tuberculosis in a southern sanatorium and his subsequent move into Baker Lake in the early 1960s. Tatanniq was one of two Baker Lake sculptors to be included in Norman Zepp’s 1986 landmark Pure Vision exhibition and catalogue.

Although Tatanniq’s sculptures reflect the general Baker Lake sculptural aesthetic in the way they emphasize the mass and volume of their human and animal subjects, his works tend to be more modest, both in scale and in spirit, than the stone sculptures of Arnasungaaq, Sevoga, and other male artists. One could argue that Tatanniq’s style is closer to the sensibility of his female peers such as Miriam Qiyuk and Nancy Pukingrnak. This fine sculpture possesses all the hallmarks of Tatanniq’s mature style: a sense of serenity and quiet but also fortitude, and the understated elegance of the image; and the crisp, clean lines, and gently modelled volumes and finish of the stone sculpture itself.

Literature: For works by Tatanniq see First Arts Auctions, May 2019, Lot 14; Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, Nov. 2011, Lot 90 (formerly in the Robertson Collection, Ottawa). For a selection of important works see the section on the artist in Norman Zepp, Pure Vision: The Keewatin Spirit (Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, 1986) pp. 120-129. For important human figures by Tatanniq see George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (McClelland &Stewart, 1972/92) fig. 681; Gerald McMaster ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (AGO, 2010) pp. 130-131. Tatanniq’s memories of life on the land are chronicled in Hattie Mannik ed., Inuit Nunamiut: Inland Inuit (Baker Lake: 1990), pp. 222-237.