The London period of William Kurelek: life and work (1952-1959)

Background. Historiography shows considerable interest in the work of William Kurelek in Canadian literature and in Ukrainian diaspora periodicals. Many researchers have turned to the study of his painting heritage, as well as considered his art in the context of religious studies and cultural journalism. Painting was also considered in a psychoanalytic way, resorting to pictorial content as a tool of art therapy in the context of psychoanalysis. The psychoanalytic approach to W. Kurelek's painting was applied by J. Harris [2], who chose the most complex works of the "dark" English period, which became open "reading maps" of the artist's creative biography. According to the author, the art of W. Kurelek had a strong and reliable core of Canadian consciousness [2, p. 1082]. It is worth noting that the author never mentioned the Ukrainian origin of the author, and how important it was in his life, and most importantly in the choice of his individual thematic plots, as well as how his ethnic roots influenced the harmony of his psycho-emotional state. Valuable for our study was a thorough work on certain aspects of the life and work of W. Kurelek, authored by M. O’Brien “William Kurelek: Painter and Prophet” [7]. This scientific exploration highlights important events in the life of the artist, emphasizing the religious outline of his creative work, personal psychological suffering, which are reproduced in detail in his color and signmythical systems.

Objectives. The article for the first time comprehensively studies the London period of William Kurelek 's life and work, analyzes his creative experiments during treatment and study, and articulates one of the most important situations in his life - spiritual conversion to the Catholic faith.

Methods. The historical method helped to study the historical context and the influence of the English cultural and artistic environment on the formation of the artist's creative personality. Thanks to the iconographic method, we were able to classify the themes of paintings. Methods of analysis and synthesis and the method of hermeneutics helped in understanding the work of art as an "aesthetic organism" and in the disclosure of artistic (practical and theoretical) activities of the artist.

Results. William Kurelek went to the United Kingdom with two clearly defined tasks: treatment and training. The artist understood the problem of his mental health and in 1950 wrote a letter to the London professor D.L. Davies asking for help to overcome depression and the constant state of paranoia. After receiving a positive response, on June 4, 1952, W. Kurelek arrived to Professor D.L Davies, at London's Maudsley Hospital.

W. Kurelek in the hospital was constantly worried about the desire to get a "serious" art education. He was convinced that Paris was the best environment for this. In August of the same year he began his first three-week trip to Europe.

Returning to London, W. Kurelek got a job as a worker in one of the transport companies for the construction of tram lines. He recorded this fact in the artwork Tramlines (1952). To enhance the author's technique, the artist attends a two-month course in "living drawing" at a local school, where he wants to learn how to draw "living still lifes". [9, p. 304]. In Canada, W. Kurelek dreamed of a course at the Royal Academy of Arts, even attended several open lectures on drawing and art history, but his health did not allow him to continue his studies. On November 3, 1953, after 17 months of treatment at Maudsley Clinic, Dr. Carsters referred 26-year-old W. Kurelek to Netherne Psychiatric Hospital.

Psychotherapist Edward Adamson had a great influence on W. Kurelek. Together they created a unique system of art therapy to save and stabilize the mental state of mentally traumatized patients. An important event that rapidly raised the self-esteem of the Canadian artist was his entry in 1955 into the Guild of London Artists and Craftsmen. Later W. Kurelek got a job as a framer in the Polak Gallery. At that time, W. Kurelek also attended the Hammersmith School of Building Arts and Crafts twice a week in order to professionally acquire the profession of framer and carpenter.

Conclusions. The British period of Kurelek 's work reflected the influence of the relevant geopolitical and sociocultural environment (open and closed environment), which is traced primarily in the thematic and conceptual key of the Canadian-Ukrainian artist's painting, which was clearly intertwined and rather imbued with his psychoemotional experiences.