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- Title
Framing Kurelek.
- Authors
BAKER, MARILYN
- Abstract
In the 1960s and 1970s William Kurelek was a widely recognized Canadian artist whose paintings were purchased for public and private collections in Canada and abroad. Kurelek was a celebrity when he died of cancer at fifty years of age in Toronto on November 3, 1977. This paper describes Kurelek's career—focusing on his exhibition history, his illustrated books, and the role played by his art dealer, Avrom Isaacs. His exhibition history showed him to be an incredibly prolific artist, one whose art was inspired by his religious and moral passions, by the prosaic stories of ordinary Canadians, by the Canadian landscape, and by his fascination with history. His illustrated books typically consisted of paintings and drawings organized into a series designed to tell a story—a device also used for many of his exhibitions. Kurelek's own life story, told in his own words, provided the story line for his best loved books such as A Prairie Boy's Winter and Lumberjack. Isaacs and Kurelek formed a comfortable and useful business relationship whereby Isaacs encouraged Kurelek to paint what he wanted and made Kurelek known to the press, the public, and the Canadian art establishment. Finally, the paper reviews William Kurelek: The Messenger, the 2011 catalogue for Kurelek's latest major retrospective exhibition.
- Subjects
CANADA; KURELEK, William, 1927-1977; BIOGRAPHIES of artists; 20TH century Canadian painting; ARTISTS; UKRAINIAN Canadians; ART exhibitions
- Publication
Canadian Ethnic Studies, 2015, Issue 4/5, p11
- ISSN
0008-3496
- Publication type
Biography
- DOI
10.1353/ces.2015.0042