Tips on How to Buy and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Numerous visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the country. These are the stunning handmade sculptures carved from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic regions of Canada. While in some of the major Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler areas popular with worldwide visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at various retail shops and showed at some museums. Since Inuit art has been getting a growing number of worldwide direct exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for many tourists and art collectors to decide that they wish to acquire Inuit sculptures as nice keepsakes for their houses or as very distinct presents for others. Assuming that the intent is to obtain an authentic piece of Inuit art instead of a inexpensive traveler replica, the question develops on how does one tell apart the real thing from the phonies?
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 lucky enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic art work, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a local northern shop or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would have to be more cautious elsewhere in Canada, specifically in tourist areas where all sorts of other Canadian souvenirs such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, essential chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.
The best locations to look for Inuit sculptures to ensure authenticity are constantly the reliable galleries that focus on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. A few of these galleries have ads in the city tourist guides discovered in hotels.
Reputable Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which adheres completely to Inuit art. These galleries will generally be found in the downtown tourist locations of major cities. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and maybe Native art however none of the other typical traveler keepsakes such as postcards or t-shirts . These galleries will have only authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with phonies or imitations . Simply to be even safer, ensure that the piece you are interested in features 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. Be mindful that an unsigned piece may still be certainly genuine.
A few of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you might shop and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now respectable online galleries that likewise specialize in authentic Inuit art. These online galleries are a great alternative for purchasing Inuit art since the costs are normally lower than those at street retail galleries because of lower overheads. Obviously, like any other shopping on the internet, one should be special info careful so when handling an online gallery, make certain that their pieces likewise feature the main Igloo tags to guarantee authenticity.
Some tourist shops do carry genuine Inuit art along with the other touristy mementos in order to accommodate all types of travelers. When shopping at these types of stores, it is possible to differentiate the real pieces from the recreations. Authentic Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and for that reason must have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A reproduction made of plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A reproduction will in some cases have a business name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never include an artist's signature. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and nothing else on the shop racks will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a particular piece with specific details, the piece is not genuine. If a piece looks too ideal in detail with outright straight bottoms or sides, it is probably not real. Naturally, if a piece features a sticker indicating that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is undoubtedly a phony. There will likewise be a big price distinction in between genuine pieces and the replicas.
This can be a real gray location to those unknown with genuine Inuit art. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the official Igloo tag that comes with it which will have info on the artist, location where it was made and the year it was sculpted. The genuine pieces with the accompanying authorities Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are normally kept in a different ( maybe even locked) rack within the store.
Since Inuit art has actually been getting more and more global direct exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian fine art type at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. If one is lucky 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. Trustworthy Inuit art galleries are also listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is dedicated entirely 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 genuine Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.