A favourite theme of William Kurelek’s paintings was the celebration of life. His simple, heart-warming Nativity scenes done in different settings were collected into a lovely 1976 book, A Northern Nativity, which is still popular. The joy of life awed him.
That’s probably why he was so appalled by abortion and why he decided to depict the graphic horror of abortion in several paintings.
He was a dedicated pro-lifer and one of the Toronto Right to Life’s original members back in 1970.
He contributed to pro-life educational work by prevailing upon his Montreal publisher to allow RTL to have the first rights to reprint several of his Nativity paintings on Christmas cards. Those Kurelek cards, which ran for several years, raised thousands of dollars for RTL.
Kurelek was one of the first artists to portray the stark truth about abortion. We are thankful for his inspiration.
