Pudlo Pudlat

Artist Bio: Pudlo Padlat (1916-1992)

Pudlo Padlat lived for much of his life in the Kimmirut region in Nunavut, hunting and fishing with his family. Pudlo began drawing in the early 1960Õs after he abandoned the semi-nomadic way of life and settled in Cape Dorset.

In the late 1950’s, he met Inuit art pioneer James Houston and began his career as an artist. Pudlo spent 33 years creating art. He began by carving sculpture, but he found carving difficult because of an arm injury. He switched to drawing around 1959-1960, and later started printmaking and painting, as these media were introduced in the North.

Pudlo had a natural artistic capacity for mastering each new medium. His subject-matter set him apart from most of the other Inuit artists, who depicted traditional Arctic life and spirituality. Pudlo incorporated images of the new technologies that came to the North, including airplanes, helicopters, powerboats, etc. his body of artistic work is amongst the most enigmatic and exciting to come out of the North.

His artistic ability and subject-matter have made Pudlo one of the most important of the Inuit artists who emerged unto the world scene in the 1950’s and 1960’s. His work has been exhibited across Canada and the United States, as well as in Europe and Japan. He is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Musée des beaux-arts.

In 1972, one of Pudlo’s prints was selected for reproduction on a UNICEF greeting card.