James Kivetoruk Moses - Mixed Media - Inuit Hunting

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Exceptional Antiquities Ethnographic Fine Art...

By Artemis Gallery

Mar 24, 2022

Set Reminder 2022-03-24 10:00:00 2022-03-24 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Antiquities Ethnographic Fine Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-antiquities-ethnographic-fine-art-9057
Museum-worthy examples of classical antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern), Viking, Far East / Asian, Pre-Columbian, African / Tribal, Oceanic, Native American, Spanish Colonial, Fossils, Ancient Jewelry, Fine / Visual Arts, so much more! Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  James Kivetoruk (Kivitauraq) Moses (Inupiat/Inupiak, ca. 1899-1982). Mixed media on paper, ca. 1960s. Signed and inscribed "Home Alaska" on lower left. A sophisticated mixed media work (likely a combination of watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and India ink) by Alaskan self-taught artist James Kivetoruk Moses with impressive provenance as delineated below. The scene depicts an Inuit seal hunter (with his catch) navigating the ice floes, and is delineated with Moses' signature rigid postures, rich color palette which set him apart from his contemporaries who generally worked in an achromatic manner, and observant eye for detail. Prior to becoming an artist, Kivetoruk Moses was a hunter and a trapper in Alaska; however, an airplane crash resulted in serious injuries to his legs that ended this chapter of his life. While recuperating, Kivetoruk Moses took up drawing, an activity he had enjoyed as a child. His art honored the life he knew - people, places, and events that he either experienced directly or observed; hence, he has been praised for his work as both an artist and a documentarian. Size: 4.5" L x 10.75" W (11.4 cm x 27.3 cm) Frame: 8.875" L x 14.875" W (22.5 cm x 37.8 cm)
  
  On the verso of this piece is an informative biographical description that includes, "Moses' paintings are painfully detailed as he feels a deep obligation to record for history how the Eskimo lived, worked and played and to accurately portray historical and mythical events that occurred in the North. His paintings of the Siberian Eskimo who used to visit his village is already a page from the past, along with his depictions of the Eskimo legends which were previously handed down verbally."
  
  Alaskan native James Kivetoruk Moses was an Outsider Artist whose art career began late in life following injuries due to a plane crash. During his youth and middle years, Moses was a hunter, trapper, and reindeer herder in Siberia and his native Cape Espenberg on the Seward Peninsula. However, in 1954, due to his injuries from a plane crash, Moses' hunting days came to an end, and he decided to teach himself to paint. Dubbed an Arctic Henri Rousseau, Moses is known for honoring his ethnic heritage with his art, depicting hunts, polar bears, walrus, maritime voyages, shamans, the arrival of white men in northern Alaska, Inuit legends, and the ceremonial Wolf Dance.
  
  According to Michael Engelhard, "Moses' hunter-naturalist eye for detail matched a knack for narrative angles. His colored-pencil, watercolor, and India ink landscapes and seascapes deftly rendered clothing, subsistence and social activities, ice, weather, even light and shadows typical of the seasons or hour of day. Species-specific fur, wood grain in boards, tan lines, chin tattoos, lip plugs, tonsure hairdos, and ashen cloud-bellies brushing horizons segueing from powder-blue to peach reflect skills he kept honing. Seal blood spatters onto snow, shorthand for the brusque northern existence." (Michael Engelhard - "The Life and Paintings of Alaska Native Artist James Kivetoruk Moses" – Alaska Magazine - October 1, 2021)
  
  James Kivetoruk Moses' art has been collected by esteemed museums such as the California Academy of Sciences, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
  
  Provenance: Private Boulder, Colorado, USA collection, acquired from William A. Winn of Juneau, Alaska in 1986; ex-Dorothy Jean Ray, an author and anthropologist known for her books on Native Alaskan art and culture who acquired the painting as a gift from Betty Hulbert, Director of the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, Alaska
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  PLEASE NOTE: Due to recent increases of shipments being seized by Australian & German customs (even for items with pre-UNESCO provenance), we will no longer ship most antiquities and ancient Chinese art to Australia & Germany. For categories of items that are acceptable to ship to Australia or Germany, please contact us directly or work with your local customs brokerage firm.
  
  Display stands not described as included/custom in the item description are for photography purposes only and will not be included with the item upon shipping.
  
  #170924

  Condition

  Set in a custom frame behind glass, this piece has not been examined outside the glass but appears to be excellent. On the verso, an informative biographical description is attached to the gallery paper. The piece is wired for suspension.
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