Lot 59
PUDLO PUDLAT (1916-1992) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Printmaker: IYOLA KINGWATSIAK (1933-2000) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Umayuluk (Big Animal or Big Living Creature), 1970
stonecut, 17 x 24 in (43.2 x 61 cm)
50/50
ESTIMATE: $400 — $600
PRICE REALIZED: $606
Provenance
With Galerie Dresdnere, Montreal;
Ex. Coll. Gerry Moses;
bequest;
Estate of the above.
The drawing for the present print is cited by Marie Routledge in the 1990 publication, Pudlo: Thirty Years of Drawing, as being amongst the earliest drawings done by Pudlo after his return from Resolute [1]. From May to September 1969, Pudlo was hospitalized for tuberculosis in Toronto. On his return home, he joined a group of men that were hired to assist with sealift in Resolute. On their return flight, near Bathurst Inlet, Pudlo recounted that the pilot swooped toward a herd of musk ox. The umingmak or musk ox do not inhabit Baffin Island and the novelty of their great, hulking forms left quite an impression on the artist. In interviews from 1978 and 1979, Pudlo intimated, “I have seen two kinds of musk oxen, one near Resolute and one down in Northern Quebec. I like the ones near Resolute better. Those musk oxen were bigger and had softer fur [2].”
The creature in the present print, does not contain the exacting realism that Pudlo would attempt to attain in his other works, such as Musk Ox Trappers (Lot 67). Instead, Umayuluk or Big Animal / Big Living Creature is a decided departure from naturalism and shows a fantastical beast with the antlers and tail of a caribou.
1. Marie Routledge & Marion Jackson, Pudlo: Thirty Years of Drawing, [Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1990], p. 24
2. Marion E. Jackson, “Unedited Transcripts of of Interviews with Pudlo Pudlat, Conducted in Cape Dorset, N.W.T. May - July 1978” and “March - June 1979,” On file in the Documentation Centre, Inuit Art Section, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Hull, QC, as cited in Marie Routledge, Pudlo: Thirty Years of Drawing, [Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1990], p. 24, footnote 39.