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Okvik figure
Alaska
Human figure
Okvik, Old Bering Sea I culture
Archaic Eskimo
200 BC – 100 AD
Marine ivory
Height: 7.5 cm – 3 in.
Provenance
Excavated from the permafrost in Kialegak, St Lawrence Island, summer 1984
Ex collection Bill & Carol Wolf, Hawthorne, New Jersey, USA
Ex collection Donald Ellis, Ontario, Canada
Ex collection Guy Porré & Nathalie Chaboche
Literature
« Art of the Arctic, Reflections of the Unseen », Donald Ellis, 2016, pl. 17
Sold
This hieratic figure in fossilized ivory constitutes an extremely rare, archetypal example of archaic Eskimo art. It belongs to the very small corpus of the great classic art of the Okvik culture (Old Bering Sea I) which was born and developed on St. Lawrence Island at the southern part of the Bering Strait more than 2,000 years ago.
Okvik figures in marine ivory were used during ceremonies linked to fertility as well as for ensuring successful hunting expeditions.
Objects used to transmit knowledge and as aides for shamanic practices, these sculptures constituted a privileged channel for communicating with the invisible world of the spirits.
This human figure is distinguished by the purity and elongation of its lines. The treatment of the face vividly evokes the work of certain 20th century artists, such as Amedeo Modigliani or Constantin Brancusi.
Okvik figures in marine ivory were used during ceremonies linked to fertility as well as for ensuring successful hunting expeditions.
Objects used to transmit knowledge and as aides for shamanic practices, these sculptures constituted a privileged channel for communicating with the invisible world of the spirits.
This human figure is distinguished by the purity and elongation of its lines. The treatment of the face vividly evokes the work of certain 20th century artists, such as Amedeo Modigliani or Constantin Brancusi.
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