William Kurelek’s Jewish Life in Canada

William Kurelek (1927–1977) is a beloved figure in Canadian art, a revered Ukrainian Canadian painter whose works express his deeply felt immigrant experience and his compassionate vision of humanity. Many of his richly detailed, jewel-toned works reflect memories of his hardscrabble childhood in Manitoba, others his sometimes apocalyptic ruminations on a darkening world.

His suite of paintings titled Jewish Life in Canada was made to honour his friendship with the Toronto art dealer Avrom Isaacs, who offered the artist a framing job at his gallery before discovering his employee’s remarkable creative gifts. A devout Roman Catholic, Kurelek intended Jewish Life in Canada as a gesture across the cultural divide, implicitly demonstrating his open-mindedness toward Canadians of cultural and religious backgrounds different from his own.

Join Chief Curator Sarah Milroy and Executive Director Ian A.C. Dejardin in conversation with Associate Curator John Geoghegan, artist Natalka Husar and York University Professor of Canadian Jewish Studies David Koffman for a discussion of this remarkable series of paintings.