The Winnipeg Art Gallery Surveys the Work of William Kurelek

Written by Chuck Robertson Saturday, 29 October 2011 01:24

Winnipeg, Canada - The Winnipeg Art Gallery is proud to present "William Kurelek: The Messenger", on view at the gallery through December 31st. Throughout a 20-year career that spanned from roughly the mid-1950's until his death, William Kurelek (1927-1977) and his art have meant many different things to many people. The Alberta-born, Manitoba-raised artist was a painter of innocence and fun, his scenes reminiscences of a simpler and timeless past. He was also a chronicler of the experiences of various cultural groups in Canada, devoting entire series to Ukrainian, Jewish, Polish, Irish, French Canadian, and Inuit peoples. But there is another Kurelek—the tortured man who spent two years in mental hopsitals,  the anguished prophet of a modern apocalypse, whose art is an indictment of the secular age and a testament to unwavering faith.

An important and unique aspect of this exhibition for Canadian audiences will be the inclusion of several works from Kurelek’s crucial and highly formative period in England from 1952 to 1959. During this time the young artist underwent psychiatric treatment and converted to Roman Catholicism, which profoundly altered his subsequent approach to life and art making. It is in consideration of these early works that the exhibition reveals Kurelek’s complex psyche and the central role it played in everything he produced. As the first large-scale survey of William Kurelek in thirty years, The Messenger seeks to bring together the most important and engaging works executed by the artist during his career. The exhibition, which will be mounted in Hamilton and Victoria following its inaugural opening in Winnipeg, includes over 80 key paintings and drawings that encompass the artist’s entire practice. The works are drawn from major private, corporate, and public collections in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The exhibition is the result of a partnership between the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.


William Kurelek was born near Whitford, Alberta in 1927, the oldest of seven children in an Ukrainian immigrant family. His family lost their grain farm during the Great Depression and moved to a dairy farm near Stonewall, Manitoba. He developed an early interest in art which was not encouraged by his hard-working parents. He studied at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto and at the Instituto Allende in Mexico, but was primarily self-taught from books. By his mid-twenties he was living in England. In 1952, suffering from clinical depression and emotional problems he was admitted to the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital in London. There he was treated for schizophrenia. In hospital he painted, producing "The Maze", a dark depiction of his tortured youth. This 1953 work was used as the cover of the 1981 Van Halen rock album Fair Warning. His experience in the hospital was documented in the LIFE Science Library book "The Mind", published in 1965. He was transferred from the Maudsley to be at Netherne Hospital from November 1953 to January 1955, to work with Edward Adamson, a pioneer of art therapy. At Netherne he produced two masterpieces - "Where Am I? Who Am I? Why Am I?" (donated to the American Visionary Arts Museum by Adamson) and "I Spit On Life" (still in the Adamson Collection). Originally Ukrainian Orthodox, Kurelek converted to the Roman Catholic Church in 1957. He painted a series of 160 works on the Passion of Christ, and a series of 20 depicting the Nativity as if Christ had been born in Canadian settings: an igloo, a trapper's cabin, a boxcar, a motel. He maintained a cottage near Wilno, Ontario, where he got his inspiration for a book of paintings entitled The Polish Canadians, and was a friend of the nearby Madonna House Apostolate. He returned to Toronto, writing and illustrating a series of children's books, several of which have become modern classics. In 1974 he illustrated a new edition of W.O. Mitchell's 'Who Has Seen The Wind'. 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 visited the Ukraine in 1970 and again in 1977, publishing 'To My Father's Village'. He died in Toronto in 1977. His archives, and a substantial body of his work, including the Passion mentioned above, are held at Niagara Falls Art Gallery.


The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) was established in 1912 when a group of Winnipeg businessmen, recognizing "the civilizing effects of art," each contributed $200 and rented two rooms in the old Federal Building at the corner of Main and Water Streets. Thus, the WAG was born, becoming the first civic art gallery in Canada. As it expanded, the WAG relocated premises several times to accommodate its growing collection, including its former residence in what is now the Manitoba Archives Building on St. Mary Avenue. Under Dr. Ferdinand Eckhardt, curator from 1953 to 1974, the WAG grew in stature, presenting significant exhibitions. Its juried exhibitions, such as the Winnipeg Show(s), drew entries from across Canada, proving crucial to the definition of Modernism in Canadian art. The collection also grew rapidly with important acquisitions such as the Gort Collection of late Gothic and early Renaissance art. The 1950s also witnessed the beginning of several of the WAG’s specialized collections, including that of Inuit Art. The Decorative Arts collection, another area of specialized collecting, also began in the 1950s with the acceptance of a collection of objects at the bequest of Melanie Bolton-Hill. Since then the WAG has amassed over 4,000 pieces of decorative art, covering diverse media of ceramic, glass, metal, and textiles dating from the 17th century to the mid-20th century. The third specialized collection began considerably later in the 1980s with the designation of the photography collection which now numbers some 1,300 works, largely of contemporary Canadian origin. The present WAG building was designed by Winnipeg architect Gustavo da Roza. It was opened by Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, on September 25, 1971. In addition to eight galleries, the building contains a 320-seat auditorium, a rooftop sculpture garden and restaurant, a research library, a gift shop, and extensive meeting and lecture space. The WAG footprint expanded in October 1995 with the opening of the new WAG Studio Building next door in the renovated Mall Medical Building. Home to the Gallery's art classes, the WAG facility is the largest program of its kind in Canada, offering children and adults art classes taught by professional artists. Exhibitions and programs are at the heart of the WAG, and over the years the Gallery has established itself as one of Canada's leading art museums, organizing exhibitions of local, national, and international artists. By developing and maintaining Manitoba's visual arts heritage, it ensures the preservation of this legacy for future generations. The WAG is also at the forefront in promoting Manitoba artists nationwide and abroad. With its connections to international curators and artists, the WAG has toured exhibitions around the world—Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Taiwan, Norway, China, Italy, and the United States. Today the WAG has almost 24,000 works of art ranging from 15th-century European paintings to 21st century American multi-media art, and represents artists from countries and cultures around the globe.  Visit the museum's website at ... http://wag.ca

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