Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1927 Whitford, Alberta, Canada

Died: 1977 Toronto, Canada

Year of Migration to the UK: 1952

Other name/s: William Kurelek CM RCA

Biography

Painter William Kurelek was born into a Ukrainian Orthodox immigrant family in the rural area of Whitford, Alberta, Canada, on 3 March 1927, as the eldest of seven children. His father was a first-generation Ukrainian immigrant, and his mother was a second-generation Canadian-born Ukrainian. Between 1946 and 1949, Kurelek studied at the University of Manitoba and later continued at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, despite his parents’ lack of support for his decision to pursue the arts. Kurelek greatly admired contemporary Mexican artists, particularly the muralists, which led him to study at the Instituto Allende in Mexico before returning to Canada in 1951. Despite his formal education in Canada and Mexico, Kurelek’s artistic development was primarily shaped by a self-taught approach, heavily influenced by the book Zaporozhian Cossacks.

Throughout university, Kurelek struggled with mental health issues. In the spring of 1952, he moved to England to seek treatment for clinical depression and to broaden his experiences. Soon after his arrival, he was admitted to a psychiatric treatment centre at London’s Maudsley Hospital. After leaving the hospital, he travelled across Europe to study works by Northern Renaissance painters, including Pieter Bruegel, Jan van Eyck, and Hieronymus Bosch. In 1953, Kurelek was readmitted to the Maudsley. During his second stay, he painted The Maze, one of his most celebrated works, which provides a detailed and Bosch-like narrative depiction of his personal history and mental distress. While at the hospital, Kurelek met occupational therapist Margaret Smith, who influenced his spiritual journey by giving him a book of poetry wrapped in a dust jacket made from a Catholic newspaper. Although Kurelek was then a committed atheist, this gesture sparked his interest in Catholicism. In November 1953, he was transferred from the Maudsley to Netherne Hospital, known for its pioneering art therapy programme, and he remained there until January 1955, producing additional artworks. A key figure for Kurelek during this period was Edward Adamson, considered the father of art therapy in the UK, who worked at the hospital. In 1955, Kurelek was discharged and began working at an art framing studio, F. A. Pollak Limited, which frequently made frames for the Louvre. This framing shop was established by Frederick Pollak, an Austrian Jew who had fled Germany in 1938. At Pollak’s studio, Kurelek learned the closely guarded secrets of gilding, which he later integrated into his painting techniques. In 1957, Kurelek converted to Roman Catholicism and regularly attended mass at the Church of the Assumption in Soho. During his time in London, he visited art galleries, including the Tate and the National Gallery, where he was particularly interested in works by Vincent van Gogh and Bosch’s The Mocking of Christ. Kurelek returned to Canada in 1959. Although he spent less than a decade in England, the medical treatment he received, his exposure to art therapy, and his engagement with European artists had a profound impact on his artistic practice.

Kurelek’s style is characterised either by very dense, Bosch-inspired compositions or by minimal depictions of rural landscapes. Sometimes, the combination of yellow fields and blue skies in rural Alberta, Canada, recalls the Ukrainian flag, reinforcing the connection between the two places. Mental illness, loss, faith, and post-apocalyptic landscapes are his main thematic preoccupations. At other times, his portrayals of Canadian rural life evoke a bucolic, Bruegel-like innocence. After his religious conversion, Kurelek painted a series of Roman Catholic themes, such as the Passion of Christ. Although he was slow to gain recognition in both the UK and Canada, his works featured in London’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions from 1956 to 1958. His first solo exhibition was held in 1960 at the gallery of Canadian art dealer Avrom Isaacs in Toronto, where he presented Experiments in Didactic Art in 1963. In 1965, the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada commissioned Kurelek to create a work celebrating their contributions to the country. In the 1970s, he met the historian and activist Abe Arnold and collaborated with him on the publication Jewish Life in Canada, providing sixteen paintings documenting the varied experiences of early Jewish immigrants. These paintings formed the basis of the 2023 exhibition, William Kurelek’s Jewish Life in Canada displayed at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Kurelek also produced series depicting Inuit peoples and Polish Canadians.

In addition to painting, Kurelek was also a writer and an avid traveller, often undertaking pilgrimages. He was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. William Kurelek died in Toronto, Canada in 1977. His works are held in several UK public collections, including the Adamson Collection, Bethlem Museum of the Mind, the London Transport Museum, and the Wellcome Collection. Posthumously, his reputation has grown, both in the UK and Canada; in 2013 his work featured in Art in the Asylum, held at the Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham in 2013.

Related books

Sarah Milroy, Jewish Life in Canada: William Kurelek, exh.cat. (New Brunswick: McMichael, 2023)
Khrystyna Beregovska, 'The London period of William Kurelek: life and work (1952-1959)', Bulletin of Lviv National Academy of Arts, No. 44, 2020, pp. 55-60
Andrew Kear, William Kurelek: Life & Work (Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2017)
Michael D. O'Brien, William Kurelek: Painter and Prophet (Ottawa: Justin Press, 2013)
Ramsay Cook, Kurelek Country: the Art of William Kurelek (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1999)
William Kurelek and Abraham Arnold, Jewish Life in Canada (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1976)

Public collections

Related organisations

F. A. Pollak Limited (framer)

Selected exhibitions

If Only It Were This Easy to See My Cries for Help (group show), Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham, Kent (2023-24)
William Kurelek: Jewish Life in Canada (solo exhibition), McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada (2023)
William Kurelek: The Presence Of Melancholy (solo exhibition), Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada (2022-23)
In the Middle of Everywhere (group show), Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (2022-23)
Art in the Asylum (group show), Djanogly Gallery, University of Nottingham (2013)
William Kurelek: The Messenger (solo exhibition), Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada (2011)
Experiments in Didactic Art (solo exhibition), Avrom Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, Canada (1963)
Recent Acquisitions (group show), MoMA, New York, USA (1962-63)
William Kurelek (solo exhibition), Avrom Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, Canada (1960)
Summer Exhibitions (group show), Royal Academy, London (1956, 1957 and 1958)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [William Kurelek]