Tips on How to Buy and Purchase Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Lots of visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the nation. These are the stunning handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists living 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 worldwide visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail stores and displayed at some museums. Since Inuit art has actually been getting increasingly more global direct exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian art type 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 wish to purchase Inuit sculptures as great mementos for their houses or as very special presents for others. Presuming that the objective is to get an authentic piece of Inuit art instead of a low-cost traveler replica, the concern develops on how does one tell apart the real thing from the fakes?
It would be pretty disappointing to bring home a piece just to discover later that it isn't really genuine or perhaps 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 safely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would need to be more careful in other places in Canada, specifically in traveler locations where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, key chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.
The most safe locations to shop for Inuit sculptures to guarantee authenticity are always the respectable galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have ads in the city tour guide found in hotels.
Trusted Inuit art galleries are also listed in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. These galleries will usually be found in the downtown tourist areas of significant cities. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be only Inuit art and maybe Native art however none of the other usual tourist mementos such as t-shirts or postcards . These galleries will have only authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with imitations or phonies . Just to be even much safer, ensure that the piece you have an interest in includes a Canadian government Igloo tag accrediting that it was handmade 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 indeed genuine.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites so you could shop and buy authentic Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now reputable online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art.
Some tourist stores do carry genuine Inuit art as well as the other touristy souvenirs in order to cater to all types of tourists. Genuine Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and for that reason ought to have some weight or mass to it. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of artwork and nothing else on the shop racks will look precisely like it.
Where it ends up being more difficult to determine authenticity are with the recreations that are also made of stone. This can be a genuine gray area to those unfamiliar with genuine Inuit art. They do have mass and might 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 authentic. If a seller claims that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the main Igloo tag that features it which will have information on the artist, location where it was made and the year it was sculpted. Move on if the Igloo tag is not readily available. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the greatest priced and are generally kept in a separate ( maybe even Kurt Criter Denver locked) shelf within the store.
Because Inuit art has been getting more and more global exposure, individuals might be seeing this Canadian great 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 purchased from a local northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Reputable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is dedicated completely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have sites so you could go shopping and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world.