, 2008. Fibreglass stone and airplane. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Purchased 2011. Photo © Roman März](/images/content/menuSeeGallery.png)
Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe (Detail), 1770
oil on canvas
152.6 x 214.5 cm
Transfer from the Canadian War Memorials, 1921 (Gift of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, England, 1918)
National Gallery of Canada (no. 8007)
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Blind Leading the Blind, 1966
William Kurelek
Canadian, 1927
- 1977
oil, lacquer, and graphite over gesso on masonite
67.4 x 93.6 cm
Purchased 1985
National Gallery of Canada (no. 28801)
courtesy the Estate of William Kurelek
Based on the parable from Matthew 15:14, the title and subject of this work are derived from Pieter Bruegel the Elder's (c. 1520-1569) painting from 1568 of the same name. Not only are the figures physically blind - they wear dark glasses and fall into the water - but in the eyes of the Roman Catholic artist they demonstrate their spiritual blindness in brandishing the Jehovah's Witnesses magazine "Awake"!. William Kurelek converted to Catholicism in 1957 at the age of 29. Well aware of the tensions between his faith and that of the Jehovah's Witnesses, he devoted his art to "paint the sense of impending doom of our times; and the way of salvation too."
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Arriving on the Manitoba Farm
Green Sunday
The Ukrainian Pioneer, No. 5
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