Tips on Ways 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 magnificent handmade sculptures carved from stone by the Inuit artists residing in the northern Arctic areas of Canada. While in a few of the major Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other tourist areas popular with worldwide visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at various retail shops and displayed at some museums. Because Inuit art has been getting increasingly more worldwide exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian art form 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 would like to purchase Inuit sculptures as great keepsakes for their homes or as very unique presents for others. Assuming that the intention is to acquire an genuine piece of Inuit art rather than a cheap traveler imitation, the question occurs on how does one differentiate the genuine thing from the fakes?

It would be pretty disappointing to bring home a piece just to discover later on that it isn't genuine 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 securely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would have to be more careful somewhere else in Canada, specifically in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian mementos such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, key chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The safest places to buy Inuit sculptures to guarantee credibility are always the trustworthy galleries that focus 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 usually 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 maybe Native art but none of the other normal tourist souvenirs such as tee shirts or postcards . These galleries will have only authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with replicas or fakes Kurt Criter Denver . Simply to be even safer, 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 might 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 certainly genuine.

A few of these Inuit art galleries likewise have websites so you might go shopping and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from home throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now trustworthy online galleries that likewise focus on authentic Inuit art. Because of lower overheads, these online galleries are a excellent option for purchasing Inuit art because the prices are generally lower than those at street retail galleries. Naturally, like other shopping on the internet, one should beware so when dealing with an online gallery, ensure that their pieces also include the main Igloo tags to ensure credibility.

Some traveler stores do bring authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy keepsakes in order to cater to all types of travelers. When shopping at these types of shops, it is possible to tell apart the real pieces from the reproductions. Authentic Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and for that reason needs to have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A recreation made of plastic or get redirected here resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A reproduction will often have a business name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never include an artist's signature. An authentic Inuit go right here sculpture is a one of a kind piece of artwork and absolutely nothing else on the shop shelves will look precisely like it. If there are duplicates of a specific piece with exact information, the piece is not genuine. If a piece looks too ideal in detail with outright straight bottoms or sides, it is most likely not real. Naturally, if a piece includes a sticker label suggesting that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is undoubtedly a fake. There will likewise be a substantial cost difference between genuine pieces and the replicas.

This can be a real gray area to those unfamiliar with authentic Inuit art. If a seller declares that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the main 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 highest priced and are normally kept in a different (perhaps even locked) shelf within the shop.


Since Inuit art has been getting more and more global exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at museums and galleries situated outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic artwork, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece acquired from a local northern shop or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Reputable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted totally to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however 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 home anywhere in the world.

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