This raven’s wacky plumage and wild eyes might almost have been designed by Lucy Qinnuayuak, but her birds never have the predatory look of this avian creature. The raven’s teeth would be incongruous if we didn’t remember that we are looking at a creation by Pudlo! This print was released in the same year as Pudlo’s Eagle Carrying Man, an image that is rather less graphic (and, astonishingly, the same year as Running Rabbit, see lot 7). A review of a few graphite drawings by Pudlo from c. 1961-62 indicates more subjects if not “red in tooth and claw” at least well armed with teeth and claws (see reference). Having said that, in the end Raven with Fish is still more comical than unsettling – it begs a “Pudlovian” response from us the viewers: a smile.

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.

Lot 8