Joseph Drapell (born March 13, 1940) is a Czech-

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

abstract painter.

Early life

Drapell was born in Humpolec, Czechoslovakia, and emigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

in 1966. From 1968-1970 he studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Birm ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. At the Cranbrook Academy he met visiting Canadian artist Jack Bush and the American

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

Clement Greenberg. Bush influenced his work by telling him to pay more attention to intuition. He moved permanently to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

in 1970 and during the period from 1972 through 1974, in Toronto, he developed a technique of applying paint with a broad spreading device attached to a movable support having also been influenced by the American painter Morris Louis.

Career

Drapell began his formal career as an artist when he was 28 and has participated in numerous exhibitions. In 1968 Drapell designed and built a public sculpture titled ''Life'' in Halifax. He is a Canadian/Czech artist from two generations after the Painters Eleven but does not see any connection to that group as well as a founding member of the

New New Painters The New New Painters were a self-labeled art group whose core members are twelve abstract artists (Lucy Baker, Steve Brent, Joseph Drapell, John Gittins, Roy Lerner, Anne Low, Marjorie Minkin, Irene Neal, Gérard Paire, Graham Peacock, Bruce P ...

, a group that has exhibited together internationally since the 1990s. The core of this group is from the United States: it has two Canadian members: Drapell and Graham Peacock from Edmonton. Drapell and his wife, the poet Anna Maclachlan, founded the first Museum of New New Painting in 1998 devoted to exhibiting New New art. One writer calls it everything meretriculous and impure, but admits Drapell can produce impressive effects, often based on a Georgian Bay retreat bought in 1971. Drapell is also a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor Genera ...

References

External links

official website.

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drapell, Joseph 1940 births Living people People from Humpolec Czechoslovak emigrants to Canada 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters Czech male painters Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 21st-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian male artists Canadian abstract artists