The Maze (drawing)

After Kurelek became disillusioned with the education he received at art schools in Canada and Mexico , he sailed from Montreal to London in a cargo ship. ^[6] In the spring of 1952 he arrived in London, according to his admission, “with two main goals”: ​​to complete his art education and go to a psychiatric hospital, where he hoped to get rid of depression and chronic eye pains. ^[7] In addition, during his stay in Europe Kurelek visited a number of art galleries in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. He was especially impressed by the works of Jerome Bosch , Peter Brueghel the Elder and Jan van Eyck .

In his autobiography, Kurelek notes that during his stay in the hospital he became more and more disappointed in psychotherapy and began to more acutely feel the need for treatment. To this was added the artist’s anxiety that he would not be able to continue to pay for the clinic. However, his attending physician remained “calm and indifferent” and was in no hurry to enter his position. “Like current demonstrators who have lost hope of attracting attention in peaceful ways that set themselves on fire and damage private property, I decided that self-violence was the only way out for me.” Kurelek deliberately cut his hand. ^[eight]

After this incident, he replaced the attending physician. The new doctor provided him with a separate room where he could paint. Kurelek felt that he should thank the doctors for the service rendered to him, and set to work on gouache, "depicting all [his] mental problems in an elegant shell." ^[9]

The meaning of the work was personally interpreted by Kurelek in the autobiography of Someone With Me and explanations for the Betlema Royal Hospital .

Outside the skull

The external environment is not opposed to the space inside the skull: in the understanding of the artist, this is also a repulsive and terrible place. ^[ten]

Wheat field : in the background of gouache under the scorching sun is a wheat field destroyed by locusts (a reference to William’s childhood when he was still a child living on a farm with his parents). Kurelek writes: “This refers to my belief that my problems were caused by the behavior of my father, who was ripping off his anger at me because of powerlessness in the face of failures on the farm.” ^[eleven]

Torso : an exhausted body, which is visible through the eyes, nose and mouth, lies face down; this means that Kurelek "could no longer endure his life." ^[five]

Excrement : products of human life with a swarm of flies above them are depicted just in front of the nose. Kurelek finds in this a reference to the ideas of Swift and Shakespeare : "The world is a pile of manure, and humanity is a swarm of flies flying over it to suck out everything suitable for life from there." ^[five]

Mouth : the oral cavity of the skull is filled with sawdust, under which lie a collection of poems, an envelope from a phonograph record and a picture of Michelangelo . By this, the author tried to say that aesthetic sensitivity - the only thing left to live for - left him. At the same time, Kurelek indicates the presence of depersonalization syndrome. ^[five]

Spines : several chestnut fruits are shown to the right of the mouth. As a boy, Kurelek felt as if they were stuck in his throat. One of the fruits is cut, in its core you can see a curled worm. This is a reference to the attempts of doctors to analyze the mental disorder of the artist, who "did not justify the effort." The thorns of the other fetus are turned inward and pierce the body of the child, on both sides of which are two faces, smiling and angry, personifying the two sides of the personality of Kurelek’s father. ^[12] Further, the artist develops the image of his father: “Rising above others, the blue fruit reveals soft yellow - my mother - to release a large group of fruits - my brothers and sisters - and with them one orange, unlike any other, - me ". ^[3]

Inside the skull

Policy (upper left)

Ukraine : this fragment depicts a Ukrainian peasant woman with a gag in her mouth tied to a pillar. Above it rises a giant faceless creature. The woman personifying Ukraine is about to be raped by Russia, and the depiction of her plight destroys Kurelek’s passing fascination with the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism . ^[3] The plight of Ukraine caused the artist depression, and he asked himself: “Would I go to war to protect or save it? ... The words of the poet of the times of the First World War (was it Siegfried Sassoon ?) Circled in my head: “Sweet death is beautiful for the homeland - an old lie. ” ^[13]

Chinese soldier : the image in this segment is designed as a shield with an emblem. It depicts a Chinese soldier in Korea, stabbing Kurelek himself with a bayonet. This symbolizes the author’s fear of the war, inherited from his father, who did not let his son into the army. ^[14]

Political protest : in this scene, men, women and children march down the street with posters on one of which says: “War is peace”, which indicates Kurelek’s disappointment in the “idealistic zeal” of his “Communist friends and sympathizers” . He writes: "Those who shout the loudest about freedom are the most cruel despots if they manage to overthrow the established conservative system." ^[14]

Childhood (upper right)

Little boy : the fragment depicts a little boy who is sitting alone in a field, while other children are playing in the background. Kurelek describes this plot as “a true memory from the time when my mother complained to the teacher that children from our family were abused, and then they paid us off with complete isolation.” ^[15]

Hooligan : here a huge hooligan beats Kurelek himself. This did not actually happen, but it was what the artist was always afraid of. In the foreground, a girl and a boy are watching and smiling. The last observation was well imprinted in the memory of Kurelek; he notes: "The girls who harassed me especially liked that I was harassed every time I tried to fend for myself." ^[sixteen]

Fish : five fish lie in a puddle filled with water, while the other two nearby, in an already dried up one. Kurelek recalled that he and his brother had killed them because "they had nowhere to run to." Then he began to think that this might be a suitable symbol for "the cruelty of such a ruthless closed society that can be found in rural schools." ^[17] Kurelek also called this fragment the embodiment of "the philosophy of [his] father about the survival of the most cunning, as indicated by the fate of a stupid fish." ^[3]

Peasant : the plot shows a peasant who pushes his barefoot son into the street with a kick in a blizzard. Other children are sitting in the house, apparently at the dinner table. This again is not a real memory, but a fear of what might happen. Kurelek also claimed that this scene means "the cruelty of parents from Central Europe who consider their child their property only because they gave him life." ^[17]

Social Pleasure (middle left)

Carousel : puppet pairs spin in dance, driven by threads attached to a carousel under the ceiling. Kurelek describes them as rag dolls with smiled faces. Due to depersonalization, they cannot enjoy the dance. This scene is a reference to the choreographic lessons in Maudsley, where Kurelek was treated. Flowers are painted on the walls "to pay tribute to those who cannot receive an invitation to dance." ^{[18] [19]}

Bull : this fragment depicts a shackled bull running after a cow. His passion, transmitted through the red color of the animal, dulls the pain of shackles. ^[18] Kurelek writes that the bull "personifies my fear of the animal side of the sex drive within me." ^[3]

Museum of Hopelessness (middle right)

This relatively large fragment represents hopelessness. Kurelek shows "the futility of efforts in a meaningless world." On the wall is a series of posters about the evolution of life on Earth, which culminates in the appearance of man. Another poster is called The Future, which depicts a nuclear mushroom. ^[17] There are several installations in the “museum”:

• Courage - a determined individual beats his head against a brick wall;
• Love - two wooden figures “pass through the action of a kiss, but feel nothing because of depersonalization ”; ^[17]
• Patience - a glass pyramid in an unstable position balances on a ball;
• Friendship is “a mechanism constructed by such a principle that it works only if the victim stands strictly in its place at a safe distance: the frog cannot move, otherwise the circuit will be closed and it will be shocked”; ^[17]
• Religion is a wooden crucifix stuck in an anthill. It is almost destroyed by ants devouring it, which embodies the arguments of rationalists and atheists; ^[20]
• Industry - the squirrel in the wheel symbolizes that “the harder you work, the more they demand from you”; ^[18]
• Abstinence - a pan on fire means that "if you suppress sex drive and anger, they can probably break out someday and hurt you"; ^[18]
• Hope is a man trying to break out of a museum of hopelessness. His muscles, brain and spine are extracted, his hoe is blunt, which makes his attempt hopeless. ^[18]

Scientists (bottom left)

In four segments in the lower left part of the skull, Kurelek’s choice is shown: between the outside world (the leftmost segment) and the hospital (the other three). The test tube fragment depicts Kurelek’s perception of himself being examined by doctors. However, two scenes to the left mean two interpretations of this examination: a conspiracy with good intentions (from below) and persecution with malicious intent (from above). ^[3]

Glimpses of the sun : in this story, a man crawls across a dark patch of terrain like a forest. With hedges, it is separated from people walking in the sun. A man crosses several streaks of light in his attempts to move in the same direction with the crowd. It depicts Kurelek, who has already left the hospital, which, however, is still cut off from "normal society." ^[21]

Test tube : many doctors, some of them publicly known, examine a person in vitro. Kurelek believed that science could be a panacea for all diseases, but at the same time sometimes it was unpleasant for doctors to constantly monitor him. He believed that most of them were Freudians and reduced many of his problems to sexual maladaptation, so he conveys his discomfort through the nakedness of the object of study. A serpent is depicted above a half-naked patient, which serves as an accelerator of processes that will allow you to learn more about him. Kurelek writes: "In this case, the doctor may express some unpleasant thought at the council, which will make me writhe in shame." ^[22]

A conspiracy with good intentions : each doctor tries in his own way to help and please Kurelek. One gives him a goblet symbolizing nobility. Another brings food. The third brings him a woman. The nurse "gently cares for him, showing complicity." ^[23]

Persecution with malicious intent : in this scene, black crows peck a lizard, which means the artist’s other extreme in the perception of doctors. He writes: "Doctors who wear white coats are depicted in their true color - black, like birds of prey." Kurelek described them as completely indifferent to whether the patient would be cured or not, although he later claimed that this was a fallacy and attributed it to the fear of hospitals inherent in his father. This phobia developed in his father after an incident that happened to William when he was still in college. ^{[23] The} doctor recommended that he remove the tonsils. Parents refused to pay, and then William took his money, which he earned while he was still a lumberjack. However, something went wrong and Kurelek bleeding; he began to cough up blood and lost consciousness. The first thing he saw when he woke up was his parents, who stood above him, "seething with anger." According to his autobiography, this is the first evidence in the life of Kurelek that his parents did not care about the fate of their child. ^[24]

Physical Destruction (bottom right)

Self-torture : a young man opens his hand and examines his bones. He is in the studio with a skeleton and coffins, but he resorts to "information from indirect sources", to the drawing. ^[3] Kurelek interprets this plot in different ways: 1) an attempt by observation to find out if it is real, like other people; 2) an attempt to escape from depersonalization, faced with the "reality of death and the decomposition of the body"; 3) a form of violent protest to force society to help [him] and pay attention to [his] needs. ^[15]

Conveyor belt : a person tied to a conveyor belt with a watch fixed on his leg is sent to death. For Kurelek, this symbolizes not only himself, but also all of humanity, since the “inevitability of death" for all is only a matter of time. ^{[15] The} clock only means how much more time is left; the man personifying Kurelek himself has gone one third of the way so far. ^[3]

Soon after writing the gouache, Kurelek was transferred to the Nefern Psychiatric Hospital . Under the supervision of Edward Adamson , “the father of art therapy in the UK” ^[25] , Kurelek continued to create new paintings, some of which are still in Adamson’s collection . ^[26] However, by no means medical science led to the final recovery of the artist. Describing his walks around the hospital, Kurelek writes: “I walked and walked, spinning again and again in the labyrinth of my mind, like that rat in my picture. If the doctors could not or were not eager to unravel this tangle, then at least I had to do or try to do everything in my power before finally giving up. ” ^[27] A year after writing The Maze, the artist attempted suicide. ^[6]

The final release from prison of his labyrinth was marked by the adoption of Catholic Christianity by Kurelek, which was reflected in the film "William Kurelek's The Maze" ("The Labyrinth of William Kurelek", 2011) ^[2] . In 1971, he painted The Out of the Maze (Out of the Labyrinth) as a gift to Moodsley Hospital. It depicts Kurelek with his wife and four children, who are reading a prayer before a picnic on the lawn near the pond. Despite the pacified atmosphere of the picture, it contains references to the dark perception of reality by Kurelek. The skull cut in half in the lower left corner recalls the artist’s difficult past. A storm looms on the horizon in the upper right corner. ^[7]

The painting, along with "The Maze", is part of the collection of the Betlema Royal Hospital Museum.

Many cite the work of Jerome Bosch and Peter Bruegel the Elder as having the greatest influence on the work of Kurelek in general and the picture of “The Maze” in particular. In his autobiography “Someone With Me,” the artist refers to Jonathan Swift and William Shakespeare : “The psychological symbolism in“ The Maze “gradually turned into spiritual and took the form of a Swift satire.” ^[28]

Separate fragments of gouache were used in psychology classes, including by James Maas at Cornell University . Maas was also involved in the film “The Maze: The Story of William Kurelek” (“Labyrinth: The Story of William Kurelek”, 1969), where through the author’s work, the main role is given to the film “The Maze” - and the interview with him is transmitted Kurelek's way. The rethinking of the film resulted in an expanded version of the film: "William Kurelek's The Maze . " The new version presents images of better quality, the original soundtrack was specially recorded. Characters in some gouache segments are animated. All of this "makes it possible to better understand at least one figure that Kurelek captured in his mysterious painting, written in 1953, - his father." ^[29]

Several fragments of gouache in 1981 were used in the cover artwork for the album "Fair Warning" by American hard rock band Van Halen . At that time, the fourth album of the group was the most gloomy in sound, so the musicians were looking for images suitable for the spirit. When the founder of the group, Alex Van Halen, discovered The Maze, initially he wanted to use only one plot - “Courage”, where a person bangs his head against a brick wall. As a result, gouache “was thoroughly cut into pieces and altered to specifically emphasize the most spectacular scenes in the work.” ^[thirty]

• Adamson, E. (1983). Art as Healing. London, Coventure
• Biography , William Kurelek: The Messenger .
• “Fair Warning,” Van Halen News Desk .
• Goddard, Peter (Spring 2012). "William Kurelek: The End Time" , Canadian Art 110-4.
• Goddard, Peter. “Unravelling the puzzle of William Kurelek's The Maze,” TheStar.com , Toronto, November 8, 2012.
• Grubin, David & Robert M. Young (Directors) (2011). William Kurelek's The Maze (Feature film). Los Angeles: MACHINEYES.
• "In the Frame for June 2011," Bethlem Blog , London, June 9, 2011.
• Kurelek, William (1927-1977) / The Maze / LDBTH149 , Bethlem Royal Hospital: Archives and Museum Services , London.
• Kurelek, William. Someone With Me . Ithaca, NY: Center for the Improvement of Undergraduate Education, Cornell University, 1973.
• Walker, J. (1992). 'Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945', 3rd. ed. London, Library Association Publishing
• "William Kurelek (1927-1977): The Maze (Canada, 1953)," Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries , London.