In 1970, John Tiktak became the first Inuit artist to be represented in a solo exhibition. Fifty of his sculptures were featured in an exhibition curated by George Swinton at the University of Manitoba’s Gallery 1.1.1. A number of these are now among the 36 sculptures by Tiktak in the WAG Collection. Swinton compared the artist’s sensitive abstractions to those of British sculptor, Henry Moore. Tiktak’s primal forms are almost exclusively concerned with the human form and are characterized by an economy of shape and line. His earliest carvings, beginning in 1963, have elegantly smooth surfaces and curved lines and volumes. Later works, often clusters of heads, were closer to the aesthetic of the other great Rankin Inlet sculptor, John Kavik, with rough, more expressionistic forms.

NFB and Geronimo Inutiq, Riders

In 2006, a major collection of 246 sculptures was donated to the Gallery by Vancouver collector Dr. Harry Winrob. Originally from Winnipeg, Winrob had made occasional purchases of Inuit carvings beginning in 1968. He became interested in seriously collecting Inuit sculpture in 1971, and soon focused on acquiring works made of organic materials from game animals (whalebone, walrus ivory, and caribou antler). Fifty-four sculptures in Winrob’s collection are created from organic materials, and thirty-six of these are of whale bone. Winrob once gave his background as a physician as the reason for his interest in these materials. However, much of his interest was also aesthetic. He was particularly interested in the flamboyant sculpture by Nattilingmiut (Netsilik) artists from Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, and Kugaaruk. Sculpture with shamanic content fascinated him, particularly animal/human transformations. He explained that it was not the “classic” but the atypical, even the bizarre that held a strong attraction for him. In March 2008, Harry Winrob’s collection was the subject of a major WAG exhibition and catalogue.