User:Simonewharton/Sandbox13

The Painter is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Description
The Painter (1974) is a mixed media work by the Canadian artist William Kurelek. It is from his series “Happy Canadian” which comprised of three paintings for each of the provinces framed with a custom wood frame and each one painted in different by Kurelek and decorated with a fanciful vine motif of maples leafs. “Happy Canadian” was a response to the public’s seemingly unshakable view of Kurelek’s works as somber often with a depressing atmosphere. Kurelek acknowledged his exploration of foreboding messages, but these were usually done in a compare and contrast dynamic with more uplifting themes – ex. Hate vs Love, Construction vs Deconstruction, and Faith vs. Superstition. However, despite Kurelek’s efforts to maintain a balance his overall subject matter was still interpreted as dark and dispiriting. The “Happy Canadian” series was received with great excitement and public admiration, and Kurelek was reviewed as a new and joyful Canadian painter.

The Painter belongs to the Manitoba trio. It is of a very specific location, a bog near Kurelek’s parent’s farm, that is a place Kurelek often frequented as a troubled youth in order to be alone and gain perspective.

'''[The bog] speaks to me because it is flat and it is lonely, as I often was and sometimes still am. It is moist and has these mysterious springs … [On] Sunday afternoon when we boys were freed from farm duties, we often headed out there, either alone, or with playmates. Maybe that, too, is a key word – ‘Freedom’ … There were no fences in those days on the bog, or hardly any worth mentioning, and no people and no buildings …''' - William Kurelek

This sense of freedom and wide-open space is very present in The Painter. The work is very autobiographical in nature (as are most of Kurelek’s works) and it is itself a very powerful response to the accusations of his subjects being negative and unhappy. The expansive sky is a crystallized blue, conveying endless possibilities and a creative and emotional freedom. The clouds are rendered in a joyous, painterly fashion expressing Kurelek's happiness just in the very act of painting and thus resonating an equal happiness and levity in the view. The Painter is the result of several weeks spent living and working out of his car, completely enveloped by his subject. The sense of isolation is clearly felt in the vast sky and the small farms far away on the horizon line.

Acquisition
This piece is part of the 2002 Ken Thomson gift to the AGO.