Tips on How to Buy and Look For Genuine 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 spectacular handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic areas of Canada. While in a few of the significant Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler locations popular with international visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail stores and showed at some museums. Since Inuit art has been getting increasingly more international exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for numerous travelers and art collectors to decide that they wish to purchase Inuit sculptures as good souvenirs for their homes or as extremely unique presents for others. Presuming that the intent is to get an genuine piece of Inuit art rather than a inexpensive tourist replica, the question develops on how does one tell apart the genuine thing from the phonies?

It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece only to learn later on that it isn't really authentic or even made in Canada. 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 safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a local northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would have to be more mindful elsewhere in Canada, especially in tourist areas where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, essential chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The best places to purchase Inuit sculptures to ensure authenticity are constantly the reliable galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have ads in the city tour guide found in hotels.

Credible Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted completely to Inuit art. These galleries will normally be found in the downtown tourist locations of major cities. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be only Inuit art and possibly Native art but none of the other typical tourist souvenirs such as postcards or t-shirts . These galleries will have just genuine Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with replicas or phonies . Just to be even much safer, ensure that the piece you are interested in features a Canadian government Igloo tag accrediting that it was handmade by a Canadian Inuit artist. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics Discover More Here but not all authentic pieces are signed. So know that an anonymous piece may still be undoubtedly authentic.

Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you could shop and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now respectable online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art.

Some traveler stores do carry genuine Inuit art in addition to the other touristy souvenirs in order to accommodate all kinds of travelers. http://kurtcriter.brandyourself.com/Links When shopping at these kinds of stores, it is possible to tell apart the real pieces from the reproductions. Authentic Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and for that reason needs to 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 reproduction will in some cases have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never feature an artist's signature. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and nothing else on the shop racks will look precisely like it. If there are duplicates of a certain piece with exact information, the piece is not genuine. It is probably not real if a piece looks too best in information with outright straight bottoms or sides. Obviously, if a piece features a sticker suggesting that is was made in an Asian country, then it is certainly a phony. There will also be a huge rate difference in between authentic pieces and the imitations.

This can be a real gray area to those unknown with genuine Inuit art. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the official Igloo tag that comes with it which will have information on the artist, area where it was made and the year it was sculpted. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the greatest priced and are typically kept in a different (perhaps even locked) shelf within the store.


Because Inuit art has actually been getting more and more Source worldwide direct exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian fine art kind at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific art work, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Trusted Inuit art galleries are also listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however 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.

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