Additional Images

Provenance:

Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON

Literature:

Ramsay Cook and Avrom Isaacs, Kurelek Country: The Art of William Kurelek (Key Porter Books Limited, Toronto) 1999, page 22

Exhibited:

Regina Collects, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK, no. 56

Note:

Kurelek’s work cannot be separated from his religious faith. A devout Roman Catholic—a faith to which he famously converted in 1957—income from his paintings helped to fund various religious charities. Art historian Andrew Kear, writing for the Art Canada Institute, explains that “although many respected and well-known Western artists of the twentieth century reference or depict Christian themes, narratives, and figures, few went as far as Kurelek did to place their work in the service of church doctrine.”

The artist was interested in using the Christian gospel in a New World, contemporary context, though his intention was not explicitly to convert others. Kurelek explained that “faith is a gift of God, usually given to those who are humble enough to ask for it,” and as such, paintings could only serve as teaching aids.

References:
Ramsay Cook and Avrom Issacs, Kurelek Country: The Art of William Kurelek, (Key Porter Books Limited, Toronto), 1999, p. 21-22.