May 25th, 2016 AT 6 PM TUDOR HALL 3750 North Bowesville Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
We at Walker's are pleased to present our tenth auction of Inuit and First Nations art, Wednesday, May 25, 2016 in Ottawa. We are especially proud of this season's offering. We are honoured to have the opportunity to offer the second installment of masterpieces from the Albrecht Collection, one of the most important collections of Arctic art in the world. This includes fine classic and contemporary Inuit works in all media from Canada, ancient and 19th century works from Alaska, and excellent Northwest Coast First Nations works. I worked closely with Dan and Martha Albrecht on organizing the Arctic Spirit exhibition and catalogue for the Heard Museum; the show travelled across the U.S. for several years, from Alaska to Florida. As Albrecht Adjunct Curator of Inuit Art at the Heard Museum between 2006 and 2010 I travelled to the Arctic with Dan and Martha several times, culminating in a series of trips to collect artist interviews for the exhibition. Working with the collection now makes me realize that the Arctic Spirit show was really just the "tip of the iceberg." While a number of works in this sale were included in that show, many more were not. It has been a distinct pleasure for me to study and enjoy these great sculptures, prints, drawings and textiles, some for the first time. Once again we are honoured to be able to present superb Canadian Inuit, First Nations and Greenlandic works from collections across North America. These include lovely Canadian Arctic miniatures and works from Greenland from the collection of the late Lorne Balshine; a distinguished group of paintings by Norval Morrisseau and other First Nations artists; exquisite early Cape Dorset and Arctic Quebec sculptures; and in our opinion the most impressive historic Haida Sea Captain figure ever offered at auction. Finally, this Spring we are especially proud to offer masterpieces from the collection of Sam Wagonfeld. This Denver collector is a passionate and committed lover of Inuit art. Sam's collection includes important groupings of works by artists such as Tatanniq, Kavik, Kenojuak, Anguhadluq, Pudlo, Davidialuk, Parr and others, and is documented in a separate companion catalogue (Lots 1-63). With so many fantastic works this Spring it seems almost superfluous to discuss "highlight" pieces. I will, however, mention what was for me one of the highlight experiences of putting together the auction this time around: working with the roughly half-dozen wonderful examples of early Salluit (Sugluk) sculpture. In my opinion the art of Salluit, which flowered for about a decade beginning in the early 1950s, is one of the high points in the history of Inuit art. I hope you will enjoy these and so many of the other treasures we have found for you. We at Walker's continue to be grateful to our many consigning and buying clients. We hope you will enjoy our two catalogues, our most ambitious project to date. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Ingo Hessel Head, Inuit & First Nations Art ingo@walkersauctions.com 1-613-818-2100