Mary Pudlat
(1923–)
(–2001)
Mary Pudlat
1923–2001
Mary Pudlat (1923–2001) was a printmaker and illustrator involved in the Kinngait graphic movement in the 1970s.
She was born in Povungnituk, Quebec and moved to Baffin Island in the early 1940s after being orphaned at a young age. In 1943, she married Samulie Pudlat and lived a semi-traditional nomadic lifestyle with her family before moving permanently to the Inuit community of Cape Dorset in 1963.
She joined the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative in the 1960s, where she developed her soapstone sculpting and drawing skills, also participating in the group’s first etching workshop in 1979.
Through her work, she depicted traditional hunting, fishing, and birthing scenes. Portfolios of her prints and drawings have been included in the Cape Dorset Graphic Annual Print Catalogue.” She created a colouring book for Inuit children titled “Inuit Spring Time” in 1996. Her work has been exhibited in major museums across Canada, the United States, and Europe, and can be found in several major permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.