Inuit art: Hockey Player
Inuit Artist: Samonie Toonoo (1969-2017) RCA
Size: 11" high, 6" wide, 3" deep
Community: Cape Dorset, NU 7/25
Stone: Serpentine
id-dfa-6714L
**This Item is Eligible for Our 0% Interest Layaway Plan.
Masterpiece Carving! Museum quality Sculpture!
HE SHOOTS was one of the last pieces Samonie carved before his death in 2017.
Samonie used his craft to portray the modern life of the Inuit.
Hockey is a favourite sport in the Arctic.
Very rarely, an Inuit carver will sculpt a Hockey player.
HE SHOOTS is an iconic Toonoo piece.
If one were to describe this piece in one word, it would be “timeless".
Although Samonie carved He Shoots in 2016, it could easily be identified as a first generation piece or a modern avant-garde sculpture.
This piece will hold its disposition for eternity.
Samonie loved to challenge our beliefs.
For example, it is very unusual for a hockey player to be a “senior” citizen.
Perhaps this Hockey player has been “sidelined”?
He Shoots’ facial features are intense and dramatic.
This is a Signature style point of Samonie’s.
Samonie Toonoo
Samonie (Sam) Toonoo was a carver born in 1969 in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU.
His father, Toonoo, was a respected carver and his mother, Sheojuk Toonoo, was an accomplished printmaker.
He was also the younger brother of artists Oviloo Tunnillie and Jutai Toonoo.
Although from a family of prominent sculptors, his older brother Jutai has said he “think[s] Sam is the best carver in the family. He’s into his own thing” [1].
The carving Break Dancers (2007) was featured in an ad by TD Canada Trust on the outside back cover of the Inuit Art Quarterly.
