William Kurelek, artist
Myron Hlynka
Re: William Kurelek, artist
Ukrainian Canadians are very familiar with the art of William
Kurelek. However, most non Canadians of Ukrainian ancestry are
not familiar with his work.
The following is a summary of his life.
William Kurelek is one of Canada's most famous artists.
His paintings today are very expensive ($10,000 for a small
painting.)
He died in 1977 of cancer at the age of 50.
He was born in Alberta of Ukrainian ancestry.
He painted a variety of topics that make him very "Canadian".
He painted several of Canada's ethnic groups - Ukrainian, Polish,
Jewish. (The Ukrainian Pioneer, Niagara Falls Art Gallery, 1980;
The Polish Canadians, Tundra Books, 1981;
Jewish Life in Canada, by W. Kurelek and A. Arnold)
He painted on the old style logging industry in Canada
(Lumberjack, Tundra Books, 1974)
His books "A Prairie Boy's Summer" and "A Prairie Boy's Winter"
were immensely popular even outside Canada, and are still being
reprinted.
He painted on Canada's native people (The Last of the Arctic,
McGraw Hill Ryerson, 1976; A Northern Nativity, Tundra Books,
1976)
He was very religious (Roman Catholic, not Ukrainian Catholic),
almost to the point of fanaticism.
Many of his paintings had relgious messages hidden in them.
He did a whole series of impressive large paintings (160?) called
"The Passion of Christ according to St. Matthew", which are housed
in the Niagara Falls Art Gallery. It's worth a two hour drive
from Toronto, IMHO. The art gallery published a book with the
complete set of paintings.
Kurelek was also very proud of his Ukrainian roots. He illustrated
an English translation of Lys Mykyta by Ivan Franko (Fox Mykyta,
1978, I can't remember the translater, ??? Melnyk). He was
commissioned by the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada to do
a series of paintings on Ukrainian Canadian life. He visited Ukraine
shortly before his death and completed a huge series of drawings and 6
paintings from the visit.
Some of his books are still available (try the Edmonton Ukrainian
Bookstore) but most are out-of-print. There are at least 15 books
of his art. The major book is Kurelek's Canada, 1975, Pagurian
Press.
For those not familiar with his art, or his strange life, I
recommend him as an interesting subject.
Myron Hlynka
Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
(hly...@server.uwindsor.ca)