William Kurelek

William Kurelek (March 3, 1927 – November 3, 1977) was a Canadian artist and writer.

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 admitted to the Maudley Psychiatric Hopital in England. There he was treated for schizophrenia. [ [http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/nbb421/student2003/epl8/Blank%20Page%201.htm Cornell case study: Early Onset – William Kurelek] ] In hospital he painted, producing "The Maze", a dark depiction of his tortured youth. [ [http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/reprint/179/5/0.pdf "British Journal of Psychiatry" (2001)] ] (This 1953 work was subsequently used as the cover of the 1981 Van Halen rock album "Fair Warning".) 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, and re-imagined the Nativity as if Christ had been born in a small Canadian town. 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.

Kurelek's art and writing were influenced by his childhood on the prairies, his Ukrainian-Canadian roots and his Roman Catholicism.

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

Film and video

*"Kurelek." Directed by William Pettigrew. 1967, 10 minutes, 7 seconds, color. National Film Board of Canada.

Notes

Further reading

* Michael Ewanchuk, "William Kurelek: The Suffering Genius" Steinbach, Manitoba: Perksen Printers and Michael Ewanchuk Publishing, 1996

External links

* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/2/6/h6-218-e.html Heroes of Lore and Yore]
* [http://www.onf.ca/duneculturealautre/toutvoir_vis.php?mediaid=667904&full Watch the NFB documentary "Kurelek"]