John McLean 1939-2019
Regarded as one of the outstanding abstract painters of his generation, John McLean, who died in 2019, left a rich and substantial legacy of work stretching over several decades.
Colour, form, and space are the core elements of John's work. From the formal precision of his early work, to the free-flowing painterly expression he later developed, luminosity and rhythm run throughout. In 1981 he made his first visit as a guest artist to the Emma Lake workshop in Saskatchewan, Canada. Critics and artists there had an impact on John’s work, as did the landscape of the North American prairies. Throughout the 1980s John made regular visits to North America, sometimes spending whole summers in the city of Saskatoon to capture the light.
The son of artist Talbert McLean, John was raised in Arbroath and moved to London to study at the Courtauld Institute, spending the 1960s and 1970s at the Stockwell Depot of artists. His first solo exhibition was in 1975 at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, and he has since had more than forty solo exhibitions worldwide. John’s painting has often been described as lyrical, but these are playful too. Bold strokes of colour are suspended, as if agitating independently. He was once described as "an explorative perfectionist" by Tim Hilton. Nothing in these works is accidental, but such is the apparent freedom with which they have been executed we are lulled into a sense of unconfined possibility.
John's work is represented in many public collections including the Boca Raton Museum of Art, U.S.A.; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Glasgow Museums and Galleries; The Hunterian Collection; The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; The Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Southampton City Art Gallery; Swindon Art Gallery; Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. His many awards include an Arts Council Major Award, 1980; The Lorne Award, 1993; Critics Award, Edinburgh Festival, 1994; and a Bryan Robertson Trust Award, 2008.
The Fine Art Society are pleased to represent the estate of John McLean. For further information about John please visit johnmcleanart.com
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John McLean, Giallo, 2007£ 1,400.00
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John McLean, Beaver Creek, 1989£ 3,200.00
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John McLean, Untitled£ 2,800.00
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John McLean, Untitled£ 1,500.00
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Timorous Beasties x The Fine Art Society
14 - 22 Mar 2025Join us for a week of art and design in collaboration with designers Timorous Beasties . This week-long event brings together wallpaper and art, featuring a curated selection of pictures...Read more -
The Print Show
14 Jan - 15 Feb 2025 -
John McLean
Pleasure Garden 20 Sep - 9 Nov 2024I work towards such an interdependence of parts that nothing could be added or taken away: a kind of absolute. When it happens, the eye and the spirit join up,...Read more -
Art & Design
1950 - 2000 26 Apr - 1 Jun 2024The Fine Art Society presents an exhibition of paintings, prints textiles and objects from 1950 to 2000 including a group of textiles by Trinidad-born designer Althea McNish, produced by Heal's...Read more -
John McLean
Momentino 20 Apr - 18 May 2023John was a truly lyrical abstract artist. He spoke of his work as like singing and dancing. To walk into a room of large-scale canvases by him is to be...Read more -
John McLean
Flare 22 Jul - 15 Sep 2022We have produced an online viewing room for this exhibition. Please click here to visit. All works are available to purchase, for prices click 'Enquire' on the relevant artwork or...Read more -
Modern
18 Feb - 27 Mar 202120th century Scottish works of art, including Barbara Balmer, Robert Henderson Blyth, John Boyd, John Byrne, FCB Cadell, Ian Fleming, William Gillies, Jack Knox, William McCance, and John McLean.Read more -
John McLean
Forza: works on paper 14 Jan - 13 Feb 2021As a gallery whose offering spans the centuries, the radical shift in the way our spaces look with John’s work always gives us an uplifting and refreshing surprise. The Boston...Read more -
John McLean
Forza: prints 14 Jan - 27 Mar 2021As a gallery whose offering spans the centuries, the radical shift in the way our spaces look with John’s work always gives us an uplifting and refreshing surprise. The Boston...Read more -
John McLean
Behind the Mirror 3 - 25 May 2019The work in this show was produced in the face of considerable adversity. John was diagnosed with MSA/P – a nasty, neurological disease with some symptoms similar to Parkinson’s -...Read more -
John McLean
The Boston Pictures, 1982 12 Oct - 10 Nov 2018The Boston Pictures, 1982 was an exhibition of works by John McLean, regarded internationally as one of Britain’s most significant abstract painters. In 1982, a teaching job at the Boston...Read more -
Assemblage
Found Objects and Boxed Reliefs 20 Jul - 11 Aug 2018As part of Edinburgh Art Festival (26 July – 26 August 2018), Assemblage focused on Scottish artists’ contribution to the medium pioneered by Cubism and Surrealism, exploring the significance of...Read more -
Modern Paintings 1940-1985
24 Nov - 23 Dec 2017Modern Scottish Paintings 1940-1985 , was exhibition of works created by Scottish artists in a period that emphasised individualism and rebellion against perceived safety and mundanity in the art that...Read more -
John McLean
Another Light: Prairie Journey 6 - 26 Sep 2013In 1981 I was thrilled to be asked as guest artist to the Emma Lake workshop in Saskatchewan. The place had become legendary. Artists preceding me included John Cage, Barnett...Read more -
Talbert McLean
28 Oct - 19 Nov 2011An exhibition of work by pioneering Scottish abstract artist Talbert McLean, shown alongside works by his son, John. Talbert's work is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery of...Read more -
John McLean
Sculpture from Painting 5 Mar - 1 Apr 2010Making sculpture is more an impulse than an idea for me; but writing about the work might make it seem more rational than instinctive. An artist’s intentions are multiplex and...Read more