Joseph Drapell was born in 1940 in Humpolec, Bohemia and grew up under the totalitarian systems of WWII. He escaped from Prague at the age of 25 and emigrated to Canada in 1966. Drapell is one of the most important abstract painters from the generation following the Painters Eleven. He developed his own unique technique of applying paint with a broad spreading device attached to a movable support, creating various moving shapes.
Between 1968 and 1970, he studied under various visiting artists and lecturers at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. Drapell now divides his time between Toronto and his island in Georgian Bay (Lake Huron).
