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 touring the country. These are the splendid handmade sculptures sculpted from stone by the Inuit artists residing in the northern Arctic areas of Canada. While in some of the major Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler areas popular with worldwide visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail shops and showed at some museums. Since Inuit art has been getting a growing number of worldwide direct exposure, people may be seeing this Canadian art kind at galleries and museums situated outside Canada too. As a result, it will be natural for lots of travelers and art collectors to decide that they would like to buy Inuit sculptures as great souvenirs for their homes or as extremely special presents for others. Presuming that the intention is to acquire an authentic piece of Inuit art instead of a inexpensive traveler replica, the concern develops on how does one differentiate the real thing from the fakes?
It would be quite disappointing to bring home a piece just to find out later that it isn't really genuine or perhaps 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 presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a regional northern store or straight from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would need to be more cautious somewhere else in Canada, specifically in tourist locations where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, key chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.
The best locations to look for Inuit sculptures to make sure credibility are always the trustworthy galleries that specialize in Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. Some of these galleries have ads in the city tour guide found in hotels.
Reliable Inuit art galleries are also noted in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted completely to Inuit art. When one walks into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and possibly Native art however none of the other typical traveler mementos such as tee shirts or postcards . The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all authentic pieces are signed.
Some of these Inuit art galleries also have sites so you might shop and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from house throughout the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now trustworthy online galleries that likewise specialize in genuine Inuit art. These online galleries are a good choice for purchasing Inuit art since the rates are normally lower than those at street retail galleries because of lower overheads. Obviously, like other shopping on the internet, one should beware so when dealing with an online gallery, make sure that their pieces also include the main Igloo tags to make sure credibility.
Some traveler shops do carry authentic Inuit art as well as the other touristy keepsakes in order to accommodate all kinds of tourists. When shopping at these kinds of shops, it is possible to differentiate the real pieces from the recreations. Authentic Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and therefore ought to have some weight or mass to it. Stone is also cold to the touch. A reproduction made from plastic or resin from a mold will be much lighter in weight and will not be cold to the touch. A reproduction will often have a business 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 artwork and nothing else on the shop shelves will look precisely like it. The piece is not genuine if there are duplicates of a particular piece with precise information. If a piece looks too best in detail with outright straight bottoms or sides, it is most likely not real. Obviously, if a piece includes a sticker label suggesting that is was made in an Asian nation, then it is obviously a fake. There will likewise be a huge price difference between authentic pieces and the imitations.
Where it ends up being harder to figure out credibility are with the recreations that are also made from stone. This can be a genuine gray area to those not familiar with authentic Inuit art. They do have mass and may even have some type of tag indicating that it was handmade but if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too similar in detail, they are most likely not genuine. If a seller claims that such as piece is authentic, ask to see the main Igloo tag that includes it which will know on the artist, place where it was made and the year it was sculpted. If the Igloo tag is not readily available, proceed. The genuine pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the greatest priced and are usually kept in a different ( possibly even locked) shelf within the store.
Given that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more global exposure, people might be seeing this Canadian great art form at galleries and museums located outside Canada too. If one is lucky enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their terrific artwork, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece purchased from a visite site regional northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Trusted Inuit art galleries are likewise listed in Inuit Art Quarterly publication which is devoted entirely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture might be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics but not all authentic pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries likewise have websites so you might go shopping and purchase genuine Inuit art sculpture from house anywhere in the world.