Vendu pour : 152 100 $

PROVENANCE
The Isaacs Gallery Ltd., Toronto
Mr. and Mrs. D. Pim, Toronto
Private Collection, Vancouver

BIBLIOGRAPHIE
Letter from William Kurelek to Mr. and Mrs. Pim, November 11 (year unknown)
Patricia Morley, Kurelek, A Biography, 1986, detail reproduced page 173
Tobi Bruce, Mary Jo Hughes et al, William Kurelek: The Messenger, Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2011, reproduced page 88

EXPOSITION
Winnipeg Art Gallery, William Kurelek: The Messenger, 2011, traveling to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2012, catalogue #38

Mendelssohn in Canadian Winter can be seen as the antithesis of The Maze (one of William Kurelek’s most iconic works), yet it has a great deal in common with it. In both this work from 1967 and The Maze from 1953, Kurelek uses a similar scene-within-a-scene format to convey numerous ideas and their relationships to one another. In The Maze – a complex depiction of Kurelek’s agonizing personal struggle with mental illness – Kurelek’s skull lies open and exposed on the ground outside of the psychiatric hospital in England where he was treated. Through the skull we see chambered sections containing vignettes from his troubled life: scenes of violence and symbols of moral decay. In Mendelssohn in Canadian Winter, Kurelek once again uses a scene-within-a-scene composition. The work is extremely complex, with vignettes in the distance as in The Maze. In the winter vignette, the end of the world has come, while in the summer scene in the foreground, we have salvation through love.

To say that Kurelek recovered from his mental illness with the help of religion is an understatement. He felt he could only have recovered through accepting religion. He found complete salvation in his god, and through this he was led to his family. Their depiction as the central group of people in the near ground of the smoke-vision image in the lush, green centre of this complex work speaks of his recovery, his devotion to his family, and his having come full circle in the healing process. It also cements his place as an artist who has presented us with some of the most profoundly complex and challenging painting created in Canada. Only Kurelek could have created an image such as this, and only Kurelek could make it work.

Kurelek wrote a letter of thanks to the collectors who acquired this work, stating, “I am penning this note of appreciation to attach to the back of your painting. I hope you continue to get the pleasure from looking at my work as I had pleasure in executing it.” With the letter, he also provided a lengthy note of explanation (artist’s spellings retained): “The painting is an intuitive prophetic type of painting with the scene set in Northern Ontario roundabout 10 years hence. The nuclear haulocost of World War III has just destroyed the southern densely populated districts and the few survivors are fleeing to uncontaminated areas. An anti-christian ‘1984’ type government.....is offering food and comforts (note Utopia Express) in return for apostacy (symbolized by the man trampling on the crucifix).....One family is determined to carry on to independence and have lit a bonfire for warmth as they rest and play a small tape recorder for morale. In the smoke they see a vision of their relatively happy and secure earlier life (symbolized by my wife and 3 children).....The music is Mendelsohns Violin Concerto op. 64 which he wrote to describe a happy time in his life.”

The contrast between the two scenes is remarkable. The winter scene shows us families breaking up, cold, want and poverty - and the distant flash of the nuclear explosion. The summer scene shows us tranquility, lush bounty, dancing and happiness. But most compelling of all are the expressions on the faces of Kurelek’s wife and children. She looks right at us as we stand in the artist’s place, her expression one of gentle contentment and love, and the children gaze off to the left, smiling, sweet, happily looking at something we can only presume to be their father. It is rather humbling to consider The Maze while looking at Mendelssohn in Canadian Winter, and to contemplate the life and the prolific output of intriguing work produced in a small, cramped studio by this masterful Canadian artist.

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