Tips on The Best Ways To Buy and Shop for Genuine Canadian Inuit Art (Eskimo Art) Sculptures



Lots of visitors to Canada will be exposed to Inuit art (Eskimo art) sculptures while touring the nation. These are the splendid handmade sculptures carved from stone by the Inuit artists living in the northern Arctic areas of Canada. While in some of the significant Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City) or other traveler locations popular with international visitors such as Banff, Inuit sculptures will be seen at numerous retail shops and showed at some museums. Considering that Inuit art has actually been getting more and more international 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 many tourists and art collectors to decide that they wish to acquire Inuit sculptures as good keepsakes for their houses or as extremely special presents for others. Assuming that the objective is to acquire an authentic piece of Inuit art rather than a low-cost traveler replica, the question arises on how does one differentiate the genuine thing from the fakes?

It would be quite frustrating to bring home a piece just to discover later on that it isn't authentic or even made in Canada. If one is fortunate 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 bought from a local northern store or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. One would have to be more careful elsewhere in Canada, especially in traveler areas where all sorts of other Canadian keepsakes such as tee shirts, hockey jerseys, postcards, crucial chains, maple syrup, and other Native Canadian arts are sold.

The most safe locations to look for Inuit sculptures to ensure credibility are constantly the reliable galleries that concentrate on Canadian Inuit art and Eskimo art. A few of these galleries have advertisements in the city tour guide found in hotels.

Reliable Inuit art galleries are also listed in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted completely to Inuit art. When one strolls into these galleries, one will see that there will be just Inuit art and perhaps Native art however none of the other usual tourist mementos such as postcards or t-shirts . The Inuit sculpture may 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 could go shopping and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world. In addition to these street retail specialty galleries, there are now trusted online galleries that also specialize in genuine Inuit art.

Some tourist stores do carry genuine Inuit art in addition to the other touristy souvenirs in order to deal with all types of travelers. When shopping at these types of shops, it is possible to tell apart the genuine pieces from the recreations. Genuine Inuit sculpture is sculpted from stone and for that reason should have some weight or mass to it. Stone is likewise 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 sometimes have a company name on it such as Wolf Originals or Boma and will never ever feature an artist's signature. An authentic Inuit sculpture is a one of a kind piece of art work and nothing else on the store racks will look precisely like it. The piece is not genuine if there are duplicates of a particular piece with exact details. If a piece looks too perfect in detail with absolute straight bottoms or sides, it is probably not real. Naturally, if a piece features a sticker label indicating that is was made in an Asian country, then it is certainly a fake. There will also be a huge price distinction between genuine pieces and the replicas.

Where it becomes more difficult to determine authenticity are with the recreations that are also made from stone. This can be a real gray area to those not familiar with authentic Inuit art. They do have mass and might even have some kind of tag suggesting that it was handmade however if there are other pieces on the shelves that look too similar in detail, they are more than likely not genuine. If a seller declares that such as piece is genuine, ask to see the official Igloo tag that includes it which go to this site will have information on the artist, area where it was made and the year it was carved. If the Igloo tag is not available, proceed. The authentic pieces with the accompanying official Igloo tags will always be the highest priced and are normally kept in a different ( maybe even locked) shelf within the shop.


Since Inuit art has been getting more and more global exposure, individuals may be seeing this Canadian fine art type at museums and galleries situated outside Canada too. If one is lucky enough to be taking a trip in the Canadian Arctic where the Inuit live and make their fantastic art work, then it can be safely presumed that any Inuit art piece bought from a local northern shop or directly from an Inuit carver would be genuine. Reliable Inuit art galleries are likewise noted in Inuit Art Quarterly magazine which is devoted completely to Inuit art. The Inuit sculpture may be signed by the carver either in English or Inuit syllabics however not all authentic pieces are signed. Some of these Inuit art galleries also have websites so you might shop and buy genuine Inuit art sculpture from home anywhere in the world.

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