Tudlik
Settlement: Cape Dorset / Kinngait
(1890-1966) — E7-1050
Tudlik was born near Kimmirut in 1890 before relocating to a camp near Kinngait in 1951. He began his career in carving and print making in Kinngait by selling his work to notable artist and pioneer of the Inuit art market James Houston. His work was very well received in the south, allowing his work to be exhibited in 1951 at the National Gallery of Canada and the Coronation Exhibition at Gimpel Fils Gallery in London in 1953.
He is best known for his stylized representations of birds with round eyes and flattened wings in both his carvings and prints. Four of Tudlik’s prints were included in the inaugural Cape Dorset Print Collection in 1959, and a fifth was included in 1961.
Tudlik represents important traditional knowledge about camp life in his prints, including techniques for butchering and dividing seal meat between hunting partners.
His son Latcholassie Akesuk followed in his footsteps by learning to carve in the early 1950s and had a very long and successful career until he passed in 2000.
Tudlik’s pieces have been collected by major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York City, USA), the Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Canada), The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, Canada).
After reducing his artistic production due to failing eyesight, Tudlik died in 1966.
Exhibitions
- Arctic Mirror, Canadian Museum of Civilization
- Arctic Spirit 35 Years of Canadian Inuit Art, Frye Art Museum
- Arctic Wildlife: The Art of the Inuit, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal
- ART ESKIMO, Galerie de France
- Cape Dorset, Winnipeg Art Gallery
- Cape Dorset - A Decade of Eskimo Prints & Recent Sculpture, National Gallery of Canada, in cooperation with the Canadian Eskimo Art Committee
- Cape Dorset - Selected Sculpture from the Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery
- Cape Dorset Graphics *59, (annual collection)
- Cape Dorset Graphics *61, (annual collection)
- Cape Dorset Revisited, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
- Cape Dorset Revisited - a collection of previously unreleased prints, exhibited at selected commercial galleries, organized by, West Baffin Eskimo Co-op
- Cape Dorset Sculpture, Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec
- Contemporary Canadian Eskimo Art, Gimpel Fils
- Die Kunst aus der Arktis, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, presented by Commerzbank
- Eskimo Art, National Gallery of Canada
- Eskimo Art of the Canadian Eastern Arctic, circulated by the Smithsonian Travelling Exhibition Service, organized by Eskimo Art,Inc.
- Eskimo Carvings: Coronation Exhibition, Gimpel Fils
- Eskimo Sculpture, arranged by the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, and the National Gallery of Canada
- Eskimo Sculpture, Winnipeg Art Gallery presented at the Manitoba Legislative Building
- Graphic Art by Eskimos of Canada: First Collection, Cultural Affairs Division, Department of External Affairs, Canada
- Graphic Art by Eskimos of Canada: Second Collection, Cultural Affairs Division, Department of External Affairs, Canada
- Inuit Art From the Glenbow Collection, Glenbow Museum
- Inuit Sculpture from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene B. Power, University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, Canadian Eskimo Arts Council
- Selections from the McMaster Art Gallery Collection, McMaster Art Gallery
- Spoken in Stone: an exhibition of Inuit Art, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
- The Art of the Eskimo, Simon Fraser Gallery, Simon Fraser University
- The Cape Dorset Print, Presented at Rideau Hall by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
- The Inuit Print/L'estampe inuit, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and the National Museum of Man
- The Jacqui and Morris Shumiatcher Collection of Inuit Art, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina
- The Swinton Collection of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery
- We Lived by Animals/Nous Vivions des Animaux, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in cooperation with the Department of External Affairs
Collections
- Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston
- Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
- Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec, Montreal
- Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull
- Department of Foreign Affairs, Ottawa
- Fitzgerald Collection, Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff
- Glenbow Museum, Calgary
- London Regional Art Gallery, London
- McMaster University Art Gallery, Hamilton
- McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, Montreal
- Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
- Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff
- Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg
Publications
- ESKIMO SCULPTURE: Selections from the Twomey Collection., Author: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Publication: Winnipeg: The Winnipeg Art Gallery (1972)
- TUNA IQULIQ., Author: Inuit Galerie, Publication: Mannheim, Federal Republic of Germany : Inuit Galerie. (1981)
Artwork
| Title | Last Sold At Auction | |
|---|---|---|
| BIRD DREAM FOREWARNING BLIZZARD | 2012-04 (April 2012) | |
| BIRD DREAM FOREWARNING BLIZZARDS | 2009-04 (April 2009) | |
| BIRD WITH LEMMING | 2010-11 (November 2010) | |
| BIRD WITH SPREAD WINGS | 2014-11 (November 2014) | |
| CURIOUS OWL | 2014-06 (June 2014) | |
| DIVISION OF MEAT | 2012-04 (April 2012) | |
| MAN KILLING SEAL | 2015-11 (November 2015) | |
| OWL | 2009-11 (November 2009) | |
| SEAL THOUGHTS OF MAN | 2011-11 (November 2011) | |
| YOUNG OWL | 2011-11 (November 2011) |