ᐳᓗ ᐳᓚ
PUDLO PUDLAT
ᐳᓗ ᐳᓚ
PUDLO PUDLAT
1916 - 1992
Inuit
Near Kamadjuak, Qikiqtaaluk Region
Nunavut, Canada
Graphic Arts, Painting, Sculpture
Pudlo Pudlat was born in Ilupirulik, a small camp in Southern Baffin Island, and spent his childhood in camps along the coastlines of Northern Hudson Bay. Pudlo, along with his wife Inukjuakjuk, moved to a camp near Kinngait (Cape Dorset) on the Isle of Dorset in the late 1950s where they began their artistic careers. Here they became some of the earliest members of the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative and were some of the first artists from the community to produce their art at the now world renowned Kinngait Studios. While Pudlo started out as a carver, he later (due to injury) transitioned towards graphic arts such as drawing and printmaking.
Along with acclaimed artists such as Kenojuak Ashevak, Kananginak Pootoogook, Pauta Saila, and Pitseolak Ashoona, Pudlo was a part of the first generation of graphic artist from Kinngait who pioneered the development of modern Inuit art, their efforts garnering recognition on a national and international scale for the first time. Pudlo in 1990, for example, was the first Inuit artist to ever present a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.
Pudlo was a prolific drawer, producing over 4,000 drawings during his lifetime; many of which resulted in the production of limited edition prints, from special commissions to pieces which were selected to feature in the Annual Cape Dorset Print Collection over the decades. Pudlo’s works were produced at a time when the introduction of modern technologies, in particular new modes of transportation, were rapidly re-shaping the economies, landscapes and cultural traditions of communities across the Arctic. These changes fascinated Pudlo and many of his prints focus on representing a unique blend of traditional and modern modes of travel, many of which continue to underpin contemporary life in the Arctic today.
His landscapes in particular flow between fantasy and realism to highlight the entanglement of more-than-human worlds into these pathways of transit, be they spirits or some of the Arctic’s most iconic migratory animals. For example, while his 1986 print Imposed Migration depicts a Walrus, Polar Bear and Musk Ox suspended from an orange chinook helicopter flying through the sky, his 1983 print Journey Into Fantasy depicts snowmobiles and airplanes being pulled across snow drifts on traditional sledges by a row of Arctic fish.
Continually experimental and playful, his works increased in their level of detail and visual complexity over time through his deployment of mixed media techniques. Elements of painting which he learned alongside artists such as Kingmeata Etidlooie in the 1970s can be found in many of his drawings, bringing emotive colourways and textures to his land and seascapes.
Over his lifetime Pudlo exhibited extensively across North America and internationally in the United States, UK, Sweden, Belgium, Israel, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, and Czechia. His works can be found in many public and private collections throughout North America.
