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Artworks
PUDLO PUDLAT (1916-1992) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Raven With Fish, 1963 #37Printmaker: LUKTA QIATSUK (1928 - 2004) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
stonecut, 18 x 24 in (45.7 x 61 cm)
27/50LOT 68
ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500
PRICE REALIZED: $2,160.00Much of Pudlo Pudlat’s later art features cultural contrasts of some kind, whether it be a helicopter being observed by a muskox, or a plane flying by a kayaker. Raven...Much of Pudlo Pudlat’s later art features cultural contrasts of some kind, whether it be a helicopter being observed by a muskox, or a plane flying by a kayaker. Raven With Fish, a relatively early print, presents us with contrasts of a different sort. Stark against the handmade paper, this bird is almost unrecognizable as a raven, given his fantastical appearance with gnashing teeth and wild head plumage (incongruous in comparison to its carefully feathered wings). His supper, however — a fish with finely carved scales and splayed tail fin — looks as it should: snatched from the water and less than pleased to say the least! The colour contrast is interesting too; the heavy black of the predator versus the subtle ombre of the deep-red fish. The final contrast in Pudlo’s arsenal is the clash between violence and almost slapstick humour.
References: For three graphite drawings from c. 1961-62 see Marie Routledge and Marion Jackson, Pudlo: Thirty Years of Drawing, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1990), cats. 10-12. This catalogue accompanied the National Gallery’s first-ever solo exhibition of an Indigenous Canadian artist. See also the exhibition Close-Ups: Prints and Drawings by Pudlo Pudlat, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, 16 February -16 April 2001.Provenance
Private Collection, Hamilton.