The Maze

The Maze was a film about a Canadian Artist. The artist seems to have experienced psychosis - which is a mental state of influx. This seems to have been a source of inspiration for his artworks. There is a fine line between mental illness and art. At times it seems that artwork is a form of therapy for an individual, and then the question is, if the art is art or if the art is therapy. Can an artwork be independent of a therapy? Or is it linked completely to the soul of man and hence will always remain a part of his consciousness or unconsciousness? Art in this case seems to be a tool for the Canadian artist. It seems that once the artist reached adulthood, his only mission was to create artwork in order to survive some of the inner demons the artist seemed to have been facing. Is art child-like? Or is there a psychic-knowledge to artwork? Is artwork only about the individual creating it, or is there something special that all viewers can relate to? What makes good art and what makes art have some kind of universal quality to it? The Maze has artworks that remind me of Jeroen Bosch, a Dutch artist from the past. Jeroen Bosch in a sense created the Surrealist movement and inspired artists such as S. Dali. This Canadian artist no doubt followed in the trend of the Surrealists. His artworks were of both reality and non-reality. Perhaps, to him both reality and non-reality seemed real enough to him, as to lead him to a sense isolation - which could have been why he searched for some kind ofspiritual meaning in his life. Which, in a sense, he seems to have found in the end. A good movie. It could have focused solely on onepainting versus his life, his paintings and his Existentialism.

The Maze is a documentary like no other, I can tell you that. Right from the start we're given a in depth glimpse into William Kurelek's maze, animated with great love. As the life events unfold, as we're left wondering, so too the story unfolds. Like William stated: " the painting is that of a man with anunraveled head lying in a wheat field. A curled up laboratory rat, representing his spirit, is trapped inside a maze of unhappy thoughts and memories", so too you'll find a call for introspection. The documentary follows Williams life, from a simple boy born in an canadian-ukrainian family, a troubled life, up to the point of him becoming Canada's most celebrated artist. We should all give thanks to mr. Robert Young, from the moment he started creating the documentary in 1969, and the moment the longer version was found, and put so respectfully together by Nick Young and Zack Young. Nick and Zack have rephotographed the original paintings and with the use of modern visual effects the results speak for themselves. The score works superbly with what the Young brothers have so masterfully put together, you'll find moments of great depth. The interviews, Williams thoughts about life, the people around him add so much flavor to an already great documentary. One last detail, the documentary does little to dissipate the air of mystique surrounding William Kurelek's life and art, rather it welcomes the viewer to empathize with him and experience his art.