Tips on The Best Ways To Purchase and Look For Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures
Numerous visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the country. Given that Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian great art kind at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. Presuming that the intention is to acquire an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a cheap traveler replica, the concern occurs on how does one tell apart the real thing from the fakes?
It would be quite frustrating 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 wonderful art work, then it can be safely assumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a regional northern shop or straight from an Inuit carver would be authentic. One would need to be more careful elsewhere in Canada, especially in traveler 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 safest locations to shop for Inuit sculptures to make sure authenticity are always the credible galleries that focus on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have advertisements in the city tour guide found in hotels.
Credible Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted totally to Inuit art. These galleries will usually be found in the downtown tourist areas of significant cities. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be only Inuit art and possibly Native art but none of the other normal traveler keepsakes such as tee shirts or postcards . These galleries will have just authentic Inuit art for sale as they do not handle replicas or fakes . Just to be even more secure, 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. Be aware that an anonymous piece may still be certainly genuine.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you could shop and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialized galleries, there are now reputable online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art.
Some traveler stores do carry genuine Inuit art in addition to the other touristy keepsakes in order to deal with all types of travelers. When shopping at these kinds of shops, it is possible to differentiate the genuine pieces from the reproductions. Genuine Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and for that reason should have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A recreation made of plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A recreation will often have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever feature an artist's signature. An genuine Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of artwork and nothing else on the store shelves will look exactly like it. If there are duplicates of a specific piece with specific information, the piece is not authentic. It is most likely not real if a piece looks too perfect in information with absolute straight bottoms or sides. Naturally, if a piece includes a sticker label indicating that is was made in an Asian country, then Kurt Criter Denver it is certainly a fake. There will also be a substantial price difference in between authentic pieces and the imitations.
This can be a genuine gray area to those unknown with genuine Inuit art. If a seller claims that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the official Igloo tag that comes with it which will have information on the artist, area where it was made and the year it was sculpted. The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the greatest priced and are generally kept in a different (perhaps even locked) shelf within the shop.
Because Inuit art has been getting more and more worldwide exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian great art form at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. If one is fortunate enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their wonderful art work, then it can be securely assumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Trustworthy Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is dedicated completely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture might 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 might shop and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world.