63" Masterpiece Migration Whale Bone Umiak (Boat) by world famous Bob Kussy & Goota Ashoona

Museum Quality Sculpture!

**One of the nicest carvings we at the gallery have ever received in our entire 12 years of existence.

U.S. buyers cannot purchase this piece due to whale bone restrictions vie customs.

** This is a piece a collector will see only once in their lifetime. The investment will quadruple very quickly.

EXCLUSIVE BENCHMARK CARVING

Renowned Carvers Bob Kussy and Goota Ashoona, have presented my gallery with the most noble and captivating sculpture that I have seen in the last 12 years!

This is a piece that most collectors will see only once in a lifetime. The investment potential for this piece is extraordinarily high. 

“Umiak” will be the featured piece on Inuitsculptures.com’s advertisement page which is the inside cover of the Spring 2020 issue of Inuit Art Quarterly.

Bob Kussy and Goota Ashoona have carved an extraordinarily exquisite sculpture illustrating the voyage of eleven Inuit men in their Umiak on the Arctic Ocean.

An Umiak is a large open wooden boat covered with seal or walrus hide.  This vessel can transport up to 30 people and supplies.  It is typically used in the summer to negotiate the trip to the summer habitat.

But the Umiak has also had a poignant role in providing transportation to Inuit who are migrating by way of the sea. In this situation, the Umiak is frequently referred to as a Migration Boat.

The history of the Inuit Migration Boat, highlights the plight of boat people risking their lives in an attempt to reach safety away from a harsh geographical environment or safety from persecution. This is a tale of marine adventure, suffering and catastrophe but it is also the story of human achievement and the determination to survive.

The Inuit artists who choose to explore this subject must be exceptionally talented and versatile in their carving skills.  I counted over twenty five different materials in this piece alone; baleen whale bone, muskox horn, ivory walrus tusk, mammoth ivory, Maori Mother of pearl, salmon teeth, and Haida blue glass beads. This is the ultimate in a multimedia sculpture. It is an enormous task to take on such a piece. It could overwhelm many artists. 

These legendary large scale sculptures are populated with multiple figures of people and animals. Carving the “passengers” is painstaking. The exacting detail must communicate the Inuits’ struggle for survival. The artist must be able to portray the psychological and physical intensity of the journey. 

The eleven Inuit men in this Umiak are negotiating the frigid waters, stroking the treacherous water with their copper oars. Without these oars, the men are helpless and adrift...likely to die.  

The emotion carved into the faces of these men inspires me with awe and admiration for Kussy and Ashoona.

Each man’s face depicts a different emotion.  I have studied and studied these faces.  Here is where the magic begins.  I see exhaustion, despair, and confusion but amid the overwhelming fear,  Kussy and Ashoona have bestowed upon their charges determination, fortitude and elation. Indeed, one of the men appears to be singing joyfully as if the journey has ended and the ordeal has passed.

Kussy and Ashoona have told an epic story with this piece.  This is a carving for the ages. I am positive that this will be an historical piece similar to Joe Talirunili’s (1893-1976) Migration Boat.

In the last twenty years of his life, Talirunili carved the most iconic series of sculptures ever seen in Inuit art. His Migration Boats were based on a true tale of survival involving 13 Inuit families including his own family.

Over the past fifty years, Talirunili’s Migration series has captured the public’s heart and imagination.  But these carvings are not just a touchstone in Canadian art history.  

Two of the Migration boats have realized the largest amount of money at auction for any Inuit carvings.

In 2006, Waddingtons sold one of the boats for over $200,000.  And in May 2019, another one of Talirunili’s boats realized $408,000  at auction. (First Arts in conjunction with Waddingtons).