William Kurelek, Canadian Artist Extraordinaire

Old Kitchener Gaol

When I imagined life after retirement, it included spending leisurely time at the public library, sipping a drink from the cafe whilst reading a book or browsing through the day's newspapers. Nothing happened as expected and our local libraries were closed for months due to the pandemic. My post-retirement contract job has lasted much longer than expected and life hasn't been full of leisure time.

The other thing I planned to do after I turned 65 was to enroll in a local program called Third Age Learning. Their website states that 
"TAL presents eclectic, continuing-education challenges for active, mature minds every fall and winter."

The current TAL lecture series is completely virtual and personal interaction is limited to Zoom discussions. I haven't enrolled yet.

Last week I finally spent a couple of hours in our beautiful downtown library which is now fully open. I sat at a window overlooking the old Kitchener Gaol and the reflection of the overhead lights on the window created an interesting picture. I selected a number of books about Canadian artist, William Kurelek, someone I knew nothing about, and planned my own Third Age Learning activity. 

Children's biography/art book- Highly recommended!

William Kurelek was born in 1927 in Alberta to Ukrainian-Canadian parents, the eldest of seven children. His family relocated to Manitoba in 1934 and they struggled with farming during the Great Depression. William suffered from his own depression and while he excelled at school, he suffered from anxiety and troubling hallucinations. His struggles are described in his autobiography, Someone With Me, and also in the children's book Breaking Free- The Story of William Kurelek by May Ebbit Cutler.  This is a quote from the description of the children's book.

"She (Cutler) simplifies his life story but doesn't shy away from Kurelek's painfully unhappy childhood, his difficult relationship with his father, the terrible depression he battled after leaving Canada to study painting in England, or his early death from cancer."

Kurelek suffered from eye pain for several years and when he sought treatment in England in 1955 for his depression, he discovered the pain was psychosomatic. It resolved completely once he understood the cause. He drew the self-portrait pictured here while he was receiving psychiatric care. 

At the time he was an atheist, but he greatly respected the friendship and faith of his occupational therapist, Margaret Smith, and eventually converted to Catholicism. Many of his paintings feature apocalyptic religious themes and he also completed an art book called The Passion of Christ According to St. Matthew. 

Kurelek returned to Canada and became a prolific and successful artist. He married Jean Andrews in 1962 and they had four children. He died prematurely of cancer at the age of 50. The Art Canada Institute website has an excellent biography and a list of his books. His art is exhibited at major galleries across Canada. His love for Canada is portrayed beautifully in his paintings and his artistic expressions of mental illness, faith and his passion for living are profound and moving.

I am happy to have access to a good library as many of Kurelek's books are out of print. I did manage to find one of his children's books on eBay for a reasonable price and will use some of the pictures in my next post.