First Nations

About First Nations

This contemporary abstract painting is by one of Canada’s most important abstract artists, Joseph Drapell.

Lauded by critics and art lovers alike, Joseph Drapell has been called ‘a towering figure’ and 'one of the great masters of our age.’ At the age of 25, the Czech-born artist left behind his Russian-occupied village, convinced that he needed to be in the ‘free world’ to pursue his art. Drapell is known for his innovative style and unique talent in creating emotive and dramatic abstract work. He developed a compression technique using trowels, serrated blades and his own fingers to add remarkable detail and depth to his paintings.
Living on an island in Georgian Bay, Drapell learned to appreciate the powerful mystical culture of the First Nations residents living there. This is one of a series of paintings he created, named for Canada’s indigenous people.
The colour palette is characteristically rich—jewel tone hues of purple, blue, aubergine, and burgundy contrast with melon, slate gray, black and a slash of orange. Drapell’s signature impasto--layers of thick paint applied in expansive swirls and lyrical lines underscores the painting's palpable energy.

“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 and Jack Bush, among others, 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 and the National Gallery in Prague, among others. The artist divides his time between Toronto and a beloved island retreat in Georgian Bay.