Joseph Drapell

Joseph Drapell, (born March 13, 1940, Humpolec, Czech Republic) is a Czech-Canadian abstract painter. He emigrated to Canada in 1966, and during 1968-1970 he studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. At the Cranbrook Academy he met visiting Canadian artist Jack Bush and the American art critic Clement Greenberg, who influenced his work. He moved permanently to Toronto 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. He still resides, and has a studio and maintains a private museum in Toronto. Drapell began his formal career as an artist when he was 28 and has participated in numerous exhibitions. He is a Canadian/Czech artist from the generation after the Painters Eleven and a founding member of the New New Painters. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.