Figure

Arviat
Stone
3.25” x 4.5” x 4”

An innovator in the Inuit art world, John Pangnark dedicated his entire artistic career almost exclusively to the single human figure. While his earlier works demonstrated a stronger trend toward realism, by 1973–1974, Pangnark's sculptures had become highly minimal and abstract. As seen with this Figure, where only the slightest suggestion of a face in the raised bridge of a nose and three fine horizontal lines for the eyes and mouth are etched into a form that largely preserves the natural contours of the original stone.

Pangnark’s figures convey abstraction not by altering form, but by refining it—fully realized in shape yet devoid of literal detail. Their smooth contours and surfaces highlight geometric clarity rather than realistic representation.