Tips on How to Buy and Purchase Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures



Numerous visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while exploring the country. Since Inuit art has been getting more and more international direct exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian great art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. Assuming that the intention is to acquire an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a low-cost traveler replica, the question occurs on how does one inform apart the real thing from the fakes?

It would be quite frustrating to bring home a piece only to discover later that it isn't really genuine or even made in Canada. If one is lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful 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 somewhere else in Canada, particularly in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian mementos such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The safest locations to look for Inuit sculptures to ensure credibility are always the reliable galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. A few of these galleries have advertisements in the city tour guide found in hotels.

Trustworthy Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which adheres completely to Inuit art. These galleries will usually be located in the downtown traveler areas of significant cities. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and maybe Native art but none of the other normal tourist keepsakes such as t-shirts or postcards . These galleries will have just authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not handle phonies or replicas . Just to be even more secure, ensure that the piece you are interested in features a Canadian government Igloo tag accrediting that it was handcrafted by a Canadian Inuit artist. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed. So know that an unsigned piece may still be undoubtedly genuine.

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. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now reliable online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art.

Some traveler shops do carry genuine Inuit art along with the other touristy mementos in order to accommodate all types of travelers. When shopping at these kinds of shops, it is possible to differentiate the genuine pieces from the reproductions. Authentic Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and therefore needs to have some weight or mass to it. Stone is likewise 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 Kurt Criter touch. A reproduction will often have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever 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 shelves will look precisely like it. The piece is not genuine if there are duplicates of a certain piece with precise details. If a piece looks too best in detail with absolute straight bottoms or sides, it is most likely not real. Of course, if a piece includes a sticker label showing that is was made in an Asian country, then it is obviously a fake. There will likewise be a huge cost distinction between genuine pieces and the replicas.

Where it becomes more difficult to identify credibility are with the recreations that are also made of stone. This can be a real gray area to those not familiar with genuine Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some type of tag suggesting that it was handcrafted but if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too similar in detail, they are more than likely not genuine. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the official Igloo tag that includes it which will have information on the artist, place where it was made and the year it was sculpted. If the Igloo tag is not available, move on. Kurt Criter Denver The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are normally kept in a different ( maybe even locked) rack within the shop.


Considering that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more global direct exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian fine art form at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. If one is lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful art work, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Trustworthy Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is dedicated entirely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either Kurt Criter Denver in English or Inuit syllabics however not all genuine pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites so you could go shopping and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world.

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