FEMALE FIGURE |

Paul Steinhacker, New York, collected in situ in 1974
Lance and Roberta Entwistle, London, acquired from the above
Howard and Saretta Barnet, New York, acquired from the above on October 22, 1976

Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait, July 13 - September 7, 1986, and travelling: the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley,  October 18, 1986 - January 9, 1987; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, January 25 - March 22, 1987; the American Museum of Natural History, New York, October 2, 1987 - January 3, 1988
Musée du Cinquantenaire, Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, Trésors du nouveau monde, September 15 - December 27, 1992
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, October 3, 2009 - January 10, 2010

Entwistle, advertisement, Apollo, Vol. CIV, No. 175, September, 1976, p. 41
Allen Wardwell, Ancient Eskimo Ivories of the Bering Strait, New York, 1986, p. 52, cat. no. 37
Lin and Emile Deletaille, eds., Trésors du nouveau monde, Brussels, 1992, p. 97, fig. 1
David W. Penny and George C. Longfish, Native American Art, New York, 1994, p. 244
William W. Fitzhugh, Julie Hollowell, and Aron L. Crowell, Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, Princeton, 2009, p. 76, fig. 11 and p. 305, cat. no. 121

Excellent condition overall for an object of this type and antiquity. Some ancient losses, naturally patinated, as visible in the photographs; some superficial surface scratches, and some stable vertical fissures in the ivory, as often found in Okvik/OBS I figures. A channel in the ivory, inherent to the material, to the rear of the head. Exceptional patina as a result of centuries buried in the permafrost.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The Barnet Okvik figure is both one of the largest and the most profoundly lyrical illustrations of the artistic accomplishment of the people of the Old Bering Sea. It was made during the earliest phase of its culture’s art which, at the most conservative estimate, dates to circa 100 – 400 AD. Both within its own corpus and the wider field of Old Bering Sea art it stands out as a paradigm. With its oval face elongated and taut and a slightly asymmetric smile plays across the mouth, the figure's expression is pregnant with meaning and imbued with a deeply poetic and spiritual presence. From the base of the long, thin nose two delicately incised lines indicating tattoo marks run to the high, subtly modeled cheekbones. The narrow eyes are carefully incised below the narrowed brows, which are shown with great naturalism. The torso has a monolithic quality, its form animated by the subtle curves of the sagittal and coronal planes. The pose possesses a solemn stillness which, together with the skyward gaze, suggests a frozen moment of meditation. The simplest indication of the limbs is present, their arcing form accentuating the grandeur of the head. The torso and back are covered with a tracery of finely incised lines which may represent a garment, tattoos, or charm straps and waistbands.¹ Within the corpus there is considerable variety in the forms of decoration, which raises the question of whether there was perhaps an intention to depict specific individuals, or purely to make each sculpture individual in its own right. The quiescent pose and meditative air encourages the viewer to transpose one's own thoughts upon this sculpture, which does not reconcile its own purpose for us. On the basis of comparison with objects from the historic period (post 1732 AD) some scholars have posited that these figures were dolls, a suggestion which has not been met with entirely widespread approbation. Dissent perhaps arises because of the prosaic purpose suggested by the word "doll", which in this context is also somewhat misleading since such objects were not mere playthings even in the historic period, but rather had "apotropaic functions, including protecting against disease, serving as fertility and birthing amulets, and acting as general household guardians and deities."² Other suggestions for their function include that they were charms used to ensure success in hunting, or to transmit knowledge, perhaps as aides for shamanic practices, in which role the sculpture might have acted as a channel to the invisible world of the spirits. This range of suggested purposes indicates that the role of these sculptures was probably complex and protean; it also reveals the limitations of our knowledge of these beautiful and enigmatic objects.

To the contemporary viewer the air of shadowed mystery which cloaks the original "meaning" of this sculpture is surely part of its deep allure. As modern in form as it is archaic, this sculpture contains an irresistible echo of the work of Amedeo Modigliani, the artist who wrote: "what I am searching for is not the real, nor the unreal, but the subconscious, the mystery of what is instinctive in the race."³ Modigliani could never have seen one of these prehistoric masterpieces from the far north, for none was found until several years after his death in 1920. Yet across time and space these two artists, one renowned, the other forever unknown to us, conceived sculptures of a crystalline beauty which exist on an eternal plane.

¹ See Fitzhugh, Hollowell, and Crowell, eds.,Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, Princeton, 2009, p. 76 (the Barnet figure), pp. 192-193, 198
² Ibid., p. 292
³ Klein, Modigliani Unmasked, New Haven and London, 2017, p. 147