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Joseph DrapellDescent of Light - rich, dark, impasto, gestural abstract, acrylic on canvas1990s
1990s
About the Item
This deeply dramatic abstract painting is by the masterful Canadian expressionist Joseph Drapell. Thick layers of swirling paint in black with patches of red, green and turquoise are highlighted by curated markings in yellow and white. Drapell is known for his innovative style and unique talent in creating emotive abstract work. He developed a compression technique using trowels, serrated blades and his fingers to add remarkable texture and depth to his paintings.
“My painting did not start with an agenda to return what art had lost in the postmodern period—not at all—instead it was my free, idealistic, non-conforming character that forced me to build myself without much concern for trends, for being “in”. It gave me the ability & willingness to be “out of sync.” Joseph Drapell
“Drapell incorporates personal history—and art history—into the work … it is based on deeper truths, bravely expressed.” Matthew Kyba, Artist
Joseph Drapell was born in Czechoslovakia in 1940. He emigrated to Canada in the mid-1960s in search of Western freedom. Drapell studied art at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Inspired by the abstract paintings of Morris Louis, he experimented with different techniques to apply wide swaths of paint in thick layers. In the 1990’s he was a founding member of a group of artists called the New New Painters devoted to exhibiting advanced art internationally. Drapell is a member of the Royal Academy of Art.
His works are held in national and international collections—both private and public including the Guggenheim, the British Museum, the National Gallery in Prague, and others. The artist divides his time between Toronto and a beloved island retreat in Georgian Bay.
- Creator:Joseph Drapell (1940, German)
- Creation Year:1990s
- Dimensions:Height: 42 in (106.68 cm)Width: 42 in (106.68 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Bloomfield, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU29114041572
Joseph Drapell
Joseph Drapell was born into the German- (and later Soviet-) occupied small town of Humpolec (near Prague) in 1940. His parents brought up their three boys not to believe in the official propaganda of the occupying regimes. Like the Czech novelist Milan Kundera, Drapell felt that life was elsewhere. Drapell escaped his birth country at his first opportunity at the age of twenty-five in order to develop his art in the free West. He landed in Halifax in 1966, grateful to Canada for accepting him. Drapell adopted an island (B-109) in Georgian Bay as his new spiritual home. The island has inspired (directly or indirectly) all his mature artistic developments to date. Drapell's aim was to contribute to the art of painting, rather than to merely make a living as an artist. Between 1968 and 1970, he studied under various visiting artists and lecturers at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. This is where he first started to develop his compression technique as a response to the paintings of Morris Louis. He settled in Toronto in 1970. Drapell walked the streets of New York with a roll of large paintings, until he was discovered by the Robert Elkon Gallery on Madison Avenue. After three exhibitions there (and several in Toronto where he was discovered by Jared Sable of the Dunkelman Gallery), Drapell achieved his first artistic breakthrough in 1974 with the Great Spirit Paintings. Joseph divides his time between Toronto and Georgian Bay (Lake Huron).
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