William Kurelek
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William Kurelek (March 3, 1927 – November 3, 1977) was a Canadian artist and writer.
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[edit] Early Life
He was born near Whitford, Alberta in 1927, the oldest of seven children in an Ukrainian immigrant family: Will, John, Winn, Nancy, Sandy, Paul, Iris. His family lost the farm during the Great Depression and moved to Stonewall, Manitoba. He developed an early interest in art which was not encouraged by his hard-working parents. He later studied at the Ontario College of Art and at the Instituto Allende in Mexico.
In 1952, suffering from depression and emotional problems he was hospitalized at Maudley Psychiatric Hopital in England. There he was treated for schizophrenia.[1] In hospital, he practiced his art, painting the notable work, "The Maze", a dark depiction of his tortured youth.[2] His experience in the hospital was documented in the Time-Life book The Mind, published in 1965.
Originally Ukrainian Orthodox, Kurelek converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1957 and later painted a series of 160 paintings on the Passion of Christ. He maintained a cottage near Wilno (from where he got his inspiration for a book of paintings entitled The Polish Canadians), and was a close friend of the nearby Madonna House Apostolate.
He returned to Toronto and produced a series of classic children's books including his own artwork: He won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award for A Prairie Boy's Winter in 1974 and A Prairie Boy's Summer in 1976. In 1976, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. He died in Toronto in 1977.
Parts of his painting The Maze (1953) were used by rock band Van Halen on the cover of their 1981 album, Fair Warning.
Kurelek's art and writing were influenced by his childhood on the prairies, his Ukrainian-Canadian roots and his Roman Catholic religion.
[edit] Publications
- A Prairie Boy's Winter (1973) ISBN 0-88776-102-X
- Lumberjack (1974) ISBN 0-88776-378-2
- A Prairie Boy's Summer (1975) ISBN 0-88776-116-X
- A Northern Nativity (1976) ISBN 0-88776-099-6g
- To My Father's Village (1988) ISBN 978-0-88776-220-8
[edit] Film and video
- Kurelek. Directed by William Pettigrew. 1967, 10 minutes, 7 seconds, color. National Film Board of Canada.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading
- Michael Ewanchuk, William Kurelek: The Suffering Genius Steinbach, Manitoba: Perksen Printers and Michael Ewanchuk Publishing, 1996
