Tips on How to Purchase and Look For Authentic Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while exploring the country. These are the magnificent handmade sculptures carved from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic regions of Canada. While in a few of the major Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other tourist locations popular with worldwide visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail stores and showed at some museums. Since Inuit art has been getting a growing number of worldwide exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian fine art type at museums and galleries located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for many tourists and art collectors to choose that they want to buy Inuit sculptures as good mementos for their houses or as really unique presents for others. Assuming that the objective is to get an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a inexpensive tourist replica, the concern arises on how does one tell apart the genuine thing from the phonies?
It would be pretty frustrating to bring home a piece just to learn later on that it isn't genuine or perhaps made in Canada. If one is lucky enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic art work, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would have to be more cautious elsewhere in Canada, especially in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, key chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are offered.
The safest locations to look for Inuit sculptures to ensure authenticity are always the trustworthy galleries that specialize in Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tourist guides discovered in hotels.
Credible Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is dedicated completely to Inuit art. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and perhaps Native art but none of the other normal tourist souvenirs such as t-shirts or postcards . The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites you could try here so you could shop Kurt Criter and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now respectable online galleries that likewise specialize in authentic Inuit art.
Some tourist stores do carry authentic Inuit art along with the other touristy keepsakes in order to cater to all kinds of tourists. When shopping at these kinds of shops, it is possible to differentiate the genuine pieces from the recreations. Authentic Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and therefore should have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A reproduction made from plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A recreation will in some cases have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever feature an artist's signature. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of artwork and absolutely nothing else on the shop shelves will look exactly like it. The piece is not authentic if there are duplicates of a certain piece with specific information. It is most likely not real if a piece looks too perfect in detail with outright straight bottoms or sides. Obviously, if a piece features a sticker label suggesting that is was made in an Asian country, then it is obviously a phony. There will also be a huge rate difference in between genuine pieces and the imitations.
Where it becomes harder to identify credibility are with the recreations that are also made from stone. This can be visit this page a real gray area to those not familiar with authentic Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some kind of tag suggesting that it was handcrafted but if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too comparable in detail, they are more than likely not authentic. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the main Igloo tag that comes with it which will know on the artist, place where it was made and the year it was sculpted. Move on if the Igloo tag is not readily available. The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are typically kept in a different ( maybe even locked) shelf within the store.
Given that Inuit art has been getting more and more international direct exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian fine art form at museums and galleries situated outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic art work, then it can be securely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern shop or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Trustworthy Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted totally to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites so you might shop and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.