Tips on How to Purchase and Look For Authentic Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Lots of visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while exploring the nation. Considering that Inuit art has been getting more and more international exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art kind at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. Assuming that the intent is to obtain an genuine piece of Inuit art rather than a inexpensive tourist replica, the question occurs on how does one inform apart the genuine thing from the fakes?
It would be pretty frustrating to bring home a piece just to discover later that it isn't authentic or perhaps made in Canada. If one is fortunate enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful art work, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a local northern shop or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would have to be more careful somewhere else in Canada, specifically in traveler areas where all sorts of other Canadian souvenirs such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are offered.
The safest places to purchase Inuit sculptures to ensure authenticity are always the reputable galleries that focus on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have ads in the city tour guide found in hotels.
Respectable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which adheres completely to Inuit art. These galleries will typically be found in the downtown tourist locations of major cities. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and perhaps Native art however none of the other usual traveler mementos such as postcards or t-shirts . These galleries will have only genuine Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with imitations or fakes . Simply to be even safer, make certain that the piece you are interested in comes with a Canadian government Igloo tag licensing that it was handmade by a Canadian Inuit artist. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all authentic pieces are signed. So be aware that an unsigned piece might still be indeed authentic.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you could go shopping and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now reliable online galleries that also focus on genuine Inuit art. These online galleries are a good option for buying Inuit art considering that the rates are normally lower than those at street retail galleries because of lower overheads. Of course, like any other shopping on the internet, one should take care so when dealing with an online gallery, make certain that their pieces also include the main Igloo tags to ensure authenticity.
Some tourist stores do carry authentic Inuit art as well as the Kurt Criter other touristy souvenirs in order to cater to all types of travelers. Authentic Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and therefore ought to have some weight or mass to it. An authentic Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and nothing else on the shop shelves will look exactly like it.
Where it becomes harder to identify authenticity are with the reproductions that are also made from stone. This can be a genuine gray area to those not familiar with genuine Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some type of tag showing that it was handcrafted but if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too similar in detail, they are probably not authentic. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, 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 carved. If the Igloo tag is not available, move on. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will constantly be the highest priced and are typically kept in a separate ( possibly even locked) rack within the shop.
Given that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more international exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific artwork, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Reliable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted totally to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all authentic 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.