Tips on How to Buy and Look For Authentic Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the nation. These are the magnificent handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists residing in the northern Arctic regions of Canada. While in some of the significant 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 different retail stores and displayed at some museums. Because Inuit art has been getting a growing number of worldwide exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian fine art kind at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for numerous tourists and art collectors to decide that they want to purchase Inuit sculptures as great souvenirs for their homes or as really unique gifts for others. Presuming that the intent is to obtain an authentic piece of Inuit art instead of a inexpensive traveler replica, the question occurs on how does one differentiate the genuine thing from the phonies?
It would be quite frustrating to bring home a piece just to discover later on that it isn't authentic or perhaps made in Canada. If one is fortunate enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful art work, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would need to be more cautious elsewhere in Canada, especially in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian souvenirs such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.
The most safe places to shop for Inuit sculptures to ensure credibility are constantly the reputable galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tour guide discovered in hotels.
Respectable Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. These galleries will normally be found in the downtown traveler locations of significant cities. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and possibly Native art however none of the other usual traveler souvenirs such as postcards or tee shirts . These galleries will have just genuine Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with imitations or fakes . Simply to be even more secure, ensure that the piece you have an interest in includes a Canadian government Igloo tag certifying that it was handmade by a Canadian Inuit artist. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Kurt Criter Inuit syllabics however not all authentic pieces are signed. So know that an anonymous piece may still be indeed genuine.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you might go shopping and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from house throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now reputable online galleries that also concentrate on genuine Inuit art. Since of lower overheads, these online galleries are a great choice for purchasing Inuit art given that the prices are typically lower than those at street retail galleries. Obviously, like any other shopping on the internet, one should be careful so when dealing with an online gallery, make sure that their pieces also come with the main Igloo tags to make sure authenticity.
Some tourist stores do bring authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy souvenirs in order to deal with all kinds of tourists. When shopping at these kinds of stores, it is possible to tell apart the genuine pieces from the reproductions. Genuine Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and for that reason must have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A reproduction made of plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A recreation will often 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 art work and nothing else on the store racks will look precisely like it. The piece is not genuine if there are duplicates of a particular piece with exact details. If a piece looks too best in detail with absolute straight bottoms or sides, it is probably not real. Of course, if a piece features a sticker label showing that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is certainly a fake. There will also be a huge price difference between genuine pieces and the imitations.
Where it becomes harder to figure out authenticity are with the recreations that are also made from stone. This can be a genuine gray area to those unfamiliar with genuine 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 declares that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the main Igloo tag that includes it which will know on the artist, area where it was made and the year it was carved. If the Igloo tag is not available, proceed. The genuine pieces with Kurt Criter the accompanying authorities Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are usually kept in a separate (perhaps even locked) rack within the shop.
Because Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian great art kind 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 artwork, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece acquired from a local northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Trusted Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted totally to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have websites so you might shop and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.