Fonds consists of personal and professional records of the artist and writer William Kurelek including drafts of his autobiography "Someone with Me" (1973, revised 1980), personal correspondence, travel journals, manuscript notes on his paintings and films, correspondence documenting the sale, exhibition and publication of his paintings, exhibition notices and reviews, and other material relating to his artistic career, manuscripts relating to his religious beliefs, documentation on his activities relating to the Catholic Church and to the anti-abortion movement in Canada. The fonds is arranged in seven series: Personal Journals series; Autobiography series; Art-Personal series; Art-Business series; Subject Files series; Additional Papers series; and Additional Papers-Second series. The fonds also contains photographs of Polaroid views assembled as 5 studies for paintings in the "Kurelek's Canada" series (1975); copy negative of Kurelek's painting "Cego" (1975) used as a work of art on the cover of an invitation to an exhibition of the artist's work in Brazil. Included are many photographs made by Kurelek as aides-memoire and suggestions for further artistic work, as well as documentation of trips through Canada, South Africa, the near-east, and India. In addition, there are various graphic items such as sketches of farm and historical implements and pottery, historical studies, greeting cards, childhood drawings, a few preparatory drawings for paintings, and two finished works. Fonds consists of architectural drawings relating to an emergency shelter that the artist William Kurelek had constructed in the backyard of his residence at 175 Balsam Ave., Toronto
Kurelek, William, 1927-1977 : William Kurelek, artist and writer, was born in Alberta in 1927, his father an Ukrainian immigrant and his mother the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants. He was raised on farms in Alberta and Manitoba during the Depression, before graduating from the University of Manitoba. Kurelek briefly studied art at the Ontario College of Art and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and then went to England in 1952, to further his art studies and to seek psychiatric treatment for recurring depression. In 1957, Kurelek converted to Roman Catholicism and later wrote about his experiences in the autobiography "Someone With Me". He remained a deeply religious person all his life.
On Kurelek's return to Canada in 1959, he became associated with the Toronto art dealer Avrom Isaacs and built an international reputation for his paintings, which drew on his Ukrainian background, religious conversion and the Canadian landscape. He was a prolific painter and his works have been actively collected by Canadian private collectors as well as public institutions.
Many of Kurelek's paintings were published during his lifetime in books for which he wrote accompanying texts, including series on Ukrainians, Poles and Jews in Canada. These books include "A Prairie Boy's Winter" (Tundra Books, 1973), "O Toronto" (New Press, 1973), "Lumberjack" (Tundra Books, 1974), "The Passion of Christ" (Niagara Falls Art Gallery and Museum, 1975), "A Prairie Boy's Summer" (Tundra Books, 1975), "Kurelek's Country" (Houghton Mifflin, 1975), "Kurelek's Canada" (Pagurian Press, 1975), "Fields" (Tundra Books, 1976), "Jewish Life in Canada" (with A.J. Arnold, Hurtig Publishers, 1976) and "A Northern Nativity" (Tundra Books, 1976). Kurelek also illustrated "Who Has Seen the Wind" by W.O. Mitchell and "Fox Mykyta" by B. Melnyck.
William Kurelek died in Toronto in 1977. Before his death, he received an honorary degree from the University of Windsor and the Order of Canada, in recognition of his contributions to Canadian art. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
