John McLean: Smoorit

About the artist

John McLean (1939-2019)

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 had always also been at the root of McLean’s art. Working on a large scale and applying fluid paint spontaneously to the canvas, his mark-making followed the movement of his body: his pictures often felt as much choreographed as painted.  Both of these elements were given exceptional form in 2014 in his designs for a triptych of stained glass windows dedicated to the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for Norwich Cathedral.   

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. 

John first worked with Kip on the The Jesus College Quincentennial Portfolio in 1996 which included John’s print Cuthbert Cockalorum. Over the 23 years that they went on to work together,  they explored most of the print media and also made many monoprints (unique works).