Tips on How to Buy and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Lots of visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while visiting the country. These are the spectacular handmade sculptures carved from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic regions of Canada. While in a few of the significant Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other tourist locations popular with global visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at various retail stores and displayed at some museums. Because Inuit art has actually been getting more and more worldwide direct exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian art form at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for many tourists and art collectors to decide that they wish to acquire Inuit sculptures as good keepsakes for their houses or as very distinct gifts for others. Presuming that the intention is to obtain an genuine piece of Inuit art instead of a inexpensive tourist imitation, the question occurs on how does one differentiate the real thing from the fakes?
It would be pretty frustrating to bring home a piece only to discover later that it isn't authentic and even made in Canada. If one is lucky 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 purchased from a regional northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would need to be more careful elsewhere in Canada, particularly in tourist areas where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are offered.
The safest places to buy Inuit sculptures to make sure authenticity are always the trusted galleries that specialize in Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tourist guides discovered in hotels.
Reliable Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted totally to Inuit art. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and maybe Native art however none of the other usual traveler souvenirs such as t-shirts or postcards . The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all authentic pieces are signed.
Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have sites so you could go shopping and buy authentic Inuit art sculpture from house throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now credible online galleries that also concentrate on authentic Inuit art. These online galleries are a good choice for buying Inuit art given that the costs are generally lower than those at street retail galleries because of lower overheads. Of course, like any other shopping on the internet, one need to take care so when dealing with an online gallery, make sure that their pieces also include the official Kurt Criter Igloo tags to make sure credibility.
Some tourist shops do bring authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy souvenirs in order to cater to all kinds of tourists. When shopping at these types of stores, it is possible to tell apart the real pieces from the recreations. Genuine Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and for that reason 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 include an artist's signature. An authentic Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and absolutely nothing else on the shop shelves will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a particular piece with specific details, the piece is not authentic. It is probably not genuine if a piece looks too perfect in information with outright straight bottoms or sides. Obviously, if a piece features a sticker label showing that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is clearly a fake. There will also be a big cost difference between genuine pieces and the replicas.
This can be a genuine my response gray area to those unknown with authentic Inuit art. If a seller declares that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the main Igloo tag that comes with it which will have details on the artist, place where it was made and the year it was sculpted. The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will constantly be the greatest priced and are usually kept in a different ( possibly even locked) rack within the shop.
Given that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more worldwide direct exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian great art form at museums and galleries located 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 purchased from a local northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Reliable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all authentic pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have websites so you could go shopping and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.