Tips on How to Purchase and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while visiting the country. These are the splendid handmade sculptures carved 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 traveler locations popular with global visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail stores and showed at some museums. Given that Inuit art has been getting increasingly more international exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian art form at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for numerous tourists and art collectors to choose that they want to purchase Inuit sculptures as great keepsakes for their homes or as really unique presents for others. Presuming that the intent is to get an authentic piece of Inuit art instead of a low-cost traveler imitation, the concern occurs on how does one tell apart the real thing from the fakes?
It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece just to learn later that it isn't authentic or perhaps made in Canada. If one is lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific art work, then it can be securely assumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a local northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would need to be more mindful elsewhere in Canada, especially in traveler areas 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 safest places to buy Inuit sculptures to make sure credibility are always the reputable galleries that specialize in Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tour guide found in hotels.
Reliable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. These galleries will usually be located in the downtown traveler locations of significant cities. 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 typical tourist souvenirs such as tee shirts or postcards . 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, make sure that the piece you have an interest in features a Canadian government Igloo tag certifying that it was handcrafted by a Canadian Inuit artist. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all genuine pieces are signed. So be aware that an anonymous piece may still be undoubtedly genuine.
Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have websites so you might go shopping and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture Learn More Here from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now reputable online galleries that also specialize in authentic Inuit art.
Some traveler stores do bring genuine Inuit art along with the other touristy keepsakes in order to cater to all types of travelers. When shopping at these kinds of stores, it is possible to differentiate the real pieces from the reproductions. Authentic Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and therefore needs to have some weight or mass to it. Stone is likewise cold to the touch. A recreation made from plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A reproduction will often have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever include an artist's signature. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of artwork and absolutely nothing else on the shop racks will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a specific piece with exact details, the piece is not genuine. If a piece looks too ideal 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 phony. There will also be a huge rate distinction in between genuine pieces and the imitations.
This can be a real gray area to those unknown with authentic 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 authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are normally kept in a different (perhaps even locked) shelf within the shop.
Considering that Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide direct exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian great art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. 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 safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a local northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Credible Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted completely 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 also have websites so you might go shopping and buy authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.