Museum of Contemporary Circumpolar Art (MCCA)

LUKE HALLAUK (1931-1993) Luke Hallauk was Andy Miki’s brother; he and his wife Joy Kiluvigyuak lived at the Ihalmiut (Caribou Inuit) camp at Ennadai Lake before their famine-triggered relocation to Eskimo Point in the 1950s. Luke and Joy enjoyed carving together, and it has been quite difficult to differentiate between their styles. Because Kiluvigyuak outlived Hallauk and became quite prolific, there is a general tendency to automatically attribute works to her. Our hunch is that this superb small sculpture is by Hallauk. The faces of his figures tend to have blunter, squarer features, while those by Kiluvigyuak are a bit sharper and more angular. Either way, this sculpture is a superb composition, beautifully balanced and profoundly moving - different from but certainly rivalling contemporaneous examples by fellow Arviat artist Lucy Tasseor. Literature: Very few works definitely attributed to Luke Hallauk have been published. See the Arviat show catalogue Rugged and Profound - Sculpture from Eskimo Point (Toronto: Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art, 1987) for a similar work attributed to Luke Hallauk - and a somewhat different-looking one attributed to his wife.