Obituary | PIFO artist John McLean has passed away in London

John McLean, a prominent British abstract artist, died on June 11, 2019 at the age of 80. As one of the most important abstract artist in the world, McLean’s work can be found in many public collections, including Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and China Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, Guangdong Art Museum.

                   John McLean in his studio, 2015 | ? Michael Proudfoot

John McLean, British, b.1939 in Liverpool to Scottish parents. Lives and works in London. McLean studied at St Andrews University from 1957 to 1962 and at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London from 1963 to 1966. McLean taught at various art schools in London from 1966 and had his first solo exhibition in 1975. He lived in New York in the late 1980s. 

John McLEAN 

Spring Tide, 1979

Acrylic on canvas

162 x 166 cm

Color is at the root of all McLean's paintings. He works on a large scale, painting spontaneously onto the canvas using fluid paints to make rhythmic abstract compositions. McLean has often cited Matisse and Miró exhibitions as having had a profound effect upon his work, through them he discovered ‘a much more sophisticated way of using shape.’ McLean’s shapes however are more formal, introducing a minor degree of narrative, offering the potential for any shape to be open to interpretation as a sign or metaphor. McLean regards the abstract elements in his work as being informed by external experience and having an emotional dimension. 

John McLEAN

Estate, 2002

Acrylic on canvas

233 x 170.5 cm

John McLean is not only advocated greatly by the influential American art critic and essayist Clement Greenberg, but also praised as "The Great Color Artist"  by  the western art world, and was highly regarded by many major critics from 1970s, including the great Cubist scholar Christopher Green and important figures such as John Elderfield, the former chief curator of Painting at MoMA. John Elderfield compared McLean to Cezanne and Matisse on the use of colors.

John McLEAN

Batoche(Homage to GR and MM), 1989

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 255 cm

The great German-language poet Rilke spoke of Cezanne in this way: “Simple reality is capable of teaching people; if you are involved in these realities and be well prepared, you could feel their influence on you.” This sentence also applies to John McLean’s abstract paintings. 

- by John Elderfield, former Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

John McLEAN

Captain Black, 1982

Acrylic on canvas

96.8 x 217.2 cm

From 2016 to 2017, the exhibition Like Singing and Dancing: John McLean's Abstract Paintings has held at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum and Guangdong Art Museum, brought together paintings created by McLean from the 1960s to the present and discussed how the artist used Color-field painting to create the “simple reality” as John Elderfield referred.

Like Singing and Dancing: John McLean’s Abstract Paintings, 2016, CAFA Art Museum, Installation View

Like Singing and Dancing: John McLean’s Abstract Paintings, 2016, CAFA Art Museum, Installation View

Like Singing and Dancing: John McLean’s Abstract Paintings, 2016, CAFA Art Museum, Installation View

Like Singing and Dancing: John McLean’s Abstract Paintings, 2017, Guangdong Art Museum, Installation View

Like Singing and Dancing: John McLean’s Abstract Paintings, 2017, Guangdong Art Museum, Installation View

ENCOUNTERS: John McLean & Wang Jian, 2018, PIFO Gallery, Installation View

As John McLean‘s representive gallery in Asia, PIFO Gallery will present a retrospective exhibition for John McLean in June 2020, bringing the legacy of this great artist to Chinese collectors and art lovers.

John McLEAN

Fleeting, 1993

Acrylic on canvas

111 x 82 cm

John McLEAN

Neuenlage, 1985

Acrylic on canvas

107.5 x 138 cm

John McLEAN

Solstice, 2008

Acrylic on canvas

120.2 x 150 cm

About the Gallery

PIFO Gallery was founded in 2006 as a major gallery in China specialized in the study and promotion of abstract art. PIFO Gallery concentrates on the participation of the course of Chinese contemporary art and the exploration of post-war European master artists and seeking for all possibilities of art power in the dialogue and collision between the two aspects. We hope to see a growing number of collectors to take on the roles of a connoisseur, with a more in-depth understanding of Asian and Western abstract art, and appreciate the artists discovered, reshaped and firmly believed in by the gallery.

媒体/图片垂询 Press enquiries/images

邵俊芳 Junfang Shao shaojunfang@pifo.cn

T: +86 10 59789562-8005

其他垂询 All other enquiries

王彧涵 Sophia Wang sophia.wang@pifo.cn

M: +86 18210011135