Tips on How to Buy and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Many visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while exploring the nation. 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 numerous retail shops and displayed at some museums. Considering that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more worldwide exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian fine art type at museums and galleries situated outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for many tourists and art collectors to decide that they would like to purchase Inuit sculptures as great mementos for their houses or as really special presents for others. Presuming that the objective is to obtain an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a low-cost traveler replica, the question occurs on how does one tell apart the genuine thing from the phonies?
It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece just to discover later on that it isn't genuine and even made in Canada. 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 bought from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would need to be more careful in other places in Canada, especially in traveler locations where all sorts of other Canadian souvenirs such as t-shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.
The most safe places to purchase Inuit sculptures to make sure authenticity are always the reputable galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. A few of these galleries have advertisements in the city tourist guides discovered in hotels.
Respectable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted totally to Inuit art. These galleries will generally be located in the downtown tourist areas of major cities. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be only Inuit art and possibly Native art but none of the other typical tourist mementos such as tee shirts or postcards . These galleries will have just genuine Inuit art for sale as they do not deal with phonies or imitations . Just to be even safer, make sure that the piece you are interested in comes with a Canadian government Igloo tag certifying 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 authentic pieces are signed. So know that an anonymous piece may still be indeed genuine.
Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have sites so you could go shopping and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now trusted online galleries that likewise specialize in genuine Inuit art.
Some traveler stores do carry authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy souvenirs in order to cater to all types of travelers. When shopping at these kinds of shops, it is possible to differentiate the real pieces from the reproductions. Authentic Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and therefore should have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A recreation made from plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A recreation will in some cases have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never include an artist's signature. An authentic Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and absolutely nothing else on the store shelves will look precisely like it. The piece is not genuine if there are duplicates of a specific piece with exact details. It is most likely not real if a piece looks too perfect in information with absolute straight bottoms or sides. Naturally, his explanation if a piece features a sticker label suggesting that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is obviously a phony. There will also be a substantial price distinction between genuine pieces and the replicas.
Where it ends up being more difficult to identify authenticity are with the recreations that are also made from stone. This can be a real gray area to those unfamiliar with authentic Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some kind of tag indicating that it was handmade but if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too continue reading this comparable in detail, they are most likely not authentic. If a seller declares that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the main Igloo tag that features it which will know on the artist, location where it was made and the year it was carved. Move on if the Igloo tag is not available. The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are typically kept in a separate (perhaps even locked) shelf within the shop.
Since Inuit art has actually been getting more and more global exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian fine art kind 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 wonderful art work, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a local northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be authentic. Reliable Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly publication 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 authentic 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.