Kurelek's Passion in paint

DVD makes Prairie artist's 160-painting series available to all

- The Crucifixion by William Kurelek; courtesy of Niagara Falls Art Gallery, William Kurelek Collection

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor
Edmonton

William Kurelek was likely Western Canada's greatest Catholic artist and was certainly a unique human being.

Known for paintings of farmers and Prairie landscapes, Kurelek's greatest passion was his religious artwork. Now one of his greatest series of paintings - The Passion According to St. Matthew - has become widely available through the re-release on DVD of a 1981 Philip Earnshaw film.

Born in 1927 in Alberta, Kurelek was raised in Stonewall, Man., and Winnipeg, the child of Ukrainian pioneers.

He had a difficult relationship with a father who had no understanding or sympathy for young Bill's artistic temperament and ability. Later, he suffered a psychological breakdown while living in England. But in his late 20s, Kurelek had a religious conversion to Catholicism, a conversion that gave him healing and enabled him to gain psychological balance.

After this conversion, he returned to Canada, living in Toronto. One of his life goals was something never before done - illustrating the entire Gospel of St. Matthew line by line. Unfortunately, he never did achieve this goal before his death from cancer in 1977.

Kurelek, however, did paint a series of 160 pieces illustrating St. Matthew's Passion. He painted the series between 1960 and 1963, but had no expectation that anyone would ever purchase it.

"This series was done for love, not money," he wrote. "Their prime purpose was to spread the Gospel's story."

Exhibited in 1970

The series was not displayed publicly until a 1970 exhibition in Toronto which drew positive reviews and large crowds. To Kurelek's astonishment, a Toronto couple not only bought the series, but also built the Niagara Falls Art Gallery to accommodate it. They are now on permanent display there.

- The Chief Priests and the Scribes by William Kurelek; courtesy of Niagara Falls Art Gallery, William Kurelek Collection

In 1975, a book of the 160 paintings was published and in 1981 the film made.

The 28-minute film is a simple venture, showing close-ups of various aspects of the paintings while narrator Len Cariou reads St. Matthew's account of Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

It will provide the viewer with a different way to meditate on the passion. For those who found Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ too gruesome to watch, Kurelek's paintings provide an alternative. Kurelek does not sugarcoat the Passion - Jesus' suffering is there writ large.

But the different medium - a still painting as opposed to an action-packed drama - at least makes Kurelek's Passion less upsetting. For some, it may even be too static.

Kurelek had an apocalyptic view of contemporary society - he was the first Toronto resident to apply for a permit to erect a bomb shelter to provide protection from nuclear war. That aspect comes through in these paintings as it does in much of his work.

His depiction of Jesus' prophecy of the end of the world is, as Globe and Mail reviewer Kay Kritzwiser described in 1970, "all purple fire and Kurelek at his brimstone best."

Kurelek intended these paintings to provide a religious education. Take the time to meditate on them - from the evocative scenes in Gethsemane to the two Marys running from the empty tomb - and you may discover aspects of the faith and of yourself that you had not previously contemplated.

The DVD can be ordered on the web at www.christfilm.com.

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