#33 • An Elaborate James Kivetoruk Moses Drawing

Part of December 2025 Premier Auction (live auction by Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals)

High bid $8,700.00

Status: Sold

Category: Art

A superb original mixed media artwork rendered in pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper, by James Kivetoruk Moses (Inupiaq, 1903-1982), one of the most coveted of top-tier Alaska Native artists by contemporary collectors. Moses spent the first half of his life as a subsistence hunter, but after a debilitating airplane crash in 1953 left him unable to continue hunting, he began a second career as an artist. Collectors and scholars have praised him not only for the drama but also for the anthropological accuracy of his work. This dramatic scene of a successful seal hunt by a polar bear and her cub shows why his work is held in such high esteem and is represented in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Note the detail of the kayak hunter stealthily stalking the bears in the middle ground. Signed by the artist in the lower left corner, the unframed work measures approximately 10" x 14".