Mexican Coconut Factory, 1976

Isaacs Gallery Ltd., Toronto Collection of a Prominent Estate, Toronto

William Kurelek, “Someone With Me”, Cornell University, Ithaca, 1973, page 225, 258 and 272

While enrolled at the Ontario College of Art in 1949, Kurelek grew dissatisfied with the emphasis on academic performance and hierarchy. It was in 1950 that he decided to set out and study art in Mexico. In his autobiography, “Someone With Me”, Kurelek explains this realization to find himself as an artist in Mexico: “In the art books which our O.C.A. inner group discussed were illustrations of Mexican artists’ works. The seemed to have something to offer. Things were really ferment there, I thought, and my friends urged me to give Mexico a try.” Living mainly in San Miguel while studying at the Instituto Allende under Sterling Dickenson, Kurelek also travelled to Mexico City and Tampico along the Gulf of Mexico. Though faced with difficulties fitting in with his peers in a foreign county, it was during the end of his tenure in Mexico that Kurelek began to appreciate the experience. He notes that “the Mexico adventure was a great growing-up experience nevertheless, well worth the time and what little expense I put into it…my geographical horizon was pushed back dramatically.” While journeying back to Canada, Kurelek made his way by bus to Tampico, along the Gulf of Mexico. A well-connected port city, the location offered a geostrategic point for import and export business for the economy and was a hub for agricultural products like bananas and coconuts. Kurelek notes, “The palm trees and banana plantations in the coastal regions were the closest I was to come to jungle that time. One of my dreams of my joyous life of freedom and romance was the experience of immersing myself in a jungle.” The work captures some hallmarks of Kurelek’s practice—the play of horizon line, layered foregrounds and textured paint surface. The bright tall palm tree focuses the viewer and draws the eye down to the large pile of coconuts at the base of the shack. Though only a short period of time was spent in Mexico, the time spent in a foreign country made a lasting impression on the artist as he frequently recalled these experiences in his drawings and painted works.