Lot 60
WILLIAM KURELEK, R.C.A.
Additional Images
Provenance:
Private Collection, ON
Note:
In his adult years, Kurelek was able to visit Ukraine, the country of his family’s origins. Under the Communist regime, tourists were not permitted unfettered access to the country, and were instead escorted by government tour operators. On one such trip in 1970, Kurelek noted that his group was taken to admire Soviet triumphs including power stations and dams on the Dnieper. He wrote that “you know such things bore me.” Accordingly, in this painting Kurelek relegates the more industrial elements to the fringes of his composition, almost cropping them out of the frame entirely. The barge, the tugboat, and the bulldozer all become peripheral, secondary to the beauty of the river itself. Patricia Morley, one of Kurelek’s biographers, notes that Kurelek completed five paintings while on his trip to the Ukraine, “done by using every spare moment and by working at night.”
The Shevchenko Monument, from where this view was captured, houses the grave of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861). Shevechenko was the foremost Ukrainian poet of the 19th century, as well as a painter of great renown. Considered as the father of modern Ukrainian literature and a major figure in the Ukrainian national revival, Shevchenko’s work would have undoubtedly been familiar to Kurelek. Art historian Khrystyna Berehovska notes that Kurelek would look for Shevchenko’s books in translation, and also included nods to Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka in his paintings.
Literature:
Patricia Morley, Kurelek: A Biography (Macmillan of Canada: Toronto, 1986), 224.
Additional notes:
For a contemporary view from the Shevchenko Monument, please visit this interactive Google link
CONDITION DETAILS
Very good condition.
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