Untitled

Pauta Saila RCA (1916-2009) m.

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Cape Dorset

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Dancing bear, 1984, marbled dark green stone and ivory, 22.625 x 14.75 x 7.5 in, 52.4 x 37.5 x 19.1 cm

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A monumental work, carved when Pauta was, remarkably, still at the height of his powers as a sculptor. This work dates from the same year as another masterpiece of this period, the somewhat smaller Dancing Bear in the Sarick Collection at the AGO (see Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, D&M, 1998, front cover and p. 125). "Polar bears are playful when there's nobody around. They're playful, but you have to look at them without letting them know. I've never taken any pictures, it just stayed in my memory when I saw polar bears dancing. I love watching polar bears - the way they move." Artist interview, 2004, in Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum (D&M/Heard, 2006, p. 90.) This magnificent animal that Pauta depicted in this work undoubtedly exhibits more than playfulness. Inuit hunters respected and sometimes feared polar bears not only for their size and ferocity, but also for their human-like attributes such as intelligence, unpredictability, protectiveness of their young, determination, and perhaps pride. "I like to carve what I feel, not merely what I see. I think and feel that the bear has a spirit to be put into the carving." Quote from an artist interview by George Swinton in Bernadette Driscoll, Uumajut: Animal Imagery in Inuit Art (WAG, 1985, p. 46). Provenance: A California art collector, purchased in 1984 from The Gallery of Eskimo Art, Santa Monica.