Tips on How to Buy and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Lots of visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while visiting the country. These are the spectacular handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic areas of Canada. While in a few of the significant Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler locations popular with international visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at different retail stores and showed at some museums. Considering that Inuit art has actually been getting a growing number of worldwide direct exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian fine art kind at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for numerous travelers and art collectors to choose that they would like to purchase Inuit sculptures as great mementos for their houses or as really special gifts for others. Assuming that the intention is to get an authentic piece of Inuit art instead of a low-cost traveler imitation, the question occurs on how does one differentiate the real thing from the phonies?
It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece only to find out later on that it isn't really 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 terrific art work, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would have to be more careful elsewhere in Canada, specifically in tourist areas where all sorts of other Canadian souvenirs such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, key chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.
The most safe places to look for Inuit sculptures to make sure authenticity are always the trustworthy galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have ads in the city tour guide found in hotels.
Trustworthy Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which adheres completely to Inuit art. These galleries will generally be found in the downtown tourist areas of major cities. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be only Inuit art and maybe Native art however none of the other usual traveler souvenirs such as postcards or t-shirts . These galleries will have only authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with imitations or fakes . http://journals.oregondigital.org/index.php/OURJ/user/viewPublicProfile/5504 Simply to be even safer, make sure 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 might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all genuine pieces are signed. So understand that an unsigned piece might still be certainly genuine.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you could shop and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from house throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now reliable online galleries that also concentrate on authentic Inuit art. These online galleries are a great alternative for purchasing Inuit art considering that the prices are typically lower than those at street retail galleries because of lower overheads. Naturally, like any other shopping on the internet, one need to be careful so when handling an online gallery, ensure that their pieces also feature the main Igloo tags to ensure credibility.
Some tourist shops do bring genuine Inuit art as well as the other touristy keepsakes in order to cater to all types of tourists. Genuine Inuit sculpture is carved from stone and therefore should have some weight or mass to it. An http://journals.oregondigital.org/index.php/OURJ/user/viewPublicProfile/5504 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.
Where it ends up being more difficult to determine credibility 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 comparable in detail, they are most likely not authentic. If a seller declares that you could try these out such as piece is authentic, ask to see the official Igloo tag that includes it which will have information on the artist, area where it was made and the year it was sculpted. If the Igloo tag is not readily available, carry on. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will constantly be the greatest priced and are typically kept in a different ( maybe even locked) rack within the shop.
Since Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide direct exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian fine art type at museums and galleries located outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be traveling in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful artwork, then it can be securely assumed that any Inuit art piece acquired from a regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Reputable Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted entirely 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 might shop and purchase authentic Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world.