John McLean (1939-2019)

MEET THE MAKER

JOHN MCLEAN

John McLean was a leading British abstract painter who saw the language of abstraction as a living part of the legacy of the revolutionary early years of modernist art.   Originally trained as an art historian at St Andrews and the Courtauld, John established a studio in London and balanced studio life with numerous teaching and writing roles. 

Of his own work, he said: “Painting abstractly doesn’t mean independence of the natural world. The most obvious aspect of the natural world that affects my work is light.”  Colour is also at the heart of McLean’s work. Working at scale and applying fluid paint spontaneously to the canvas, his mark-making followed the movement of his body, giving his pictures the feeling of having been choreographed as much as painted.  Both these elements were given exceptional form in 2014 in his designs for a triptych of stained glass windows for Norwich Cathedral.    

Public collections include The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Tate Gallery, London, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.