PIFO Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition Becoming John McLean during GWBJ 2020, remarking the anniversary of the famous British artist John McLean's death. It shows the artist’s style and exploration in different stages since the 1970s, especially the mature and free form in the late period. John McLean is known as amaster colorist in the world, acknowledging and developing the specific qualities of the colors after Cezanne and Matisse, who deeply explore and construct the relationship between painting and color.

Barcarolle, 1994-1998

Acrylic on canvas

79.5 x 170.3 cm

In the steady structure of McLean’s paintings, particular motifs recurred: the crown, spiral, crescent and lozenge, along with triangles, curvy quadrilaterals and irregular ovals, tumbling through fields of force with infinite vitality. He was also expert at evoking the fall and shimmer of light and the play of colour, and in this pursuit layering and re-painting were vital, along with the importance of edges and surface finish (matt or gloss). But each move had to be tested and counter-tested, it had to earn its place. McLean was in pursuit of - as he put it - revelation, not accumulation; he insists on absolute order, yet also on absolute openness.

Flora, 2006

Acrylic on canvas

28 x 35 cm

Velodrome, 2003

Acrylic on canvas

157.2 x 169 cm

Language and music were both great pleasures to him, like his dancing forms, and both fed into his paintings. Through an ever-flowing medium, McLean manages to combine his everyday emotions, a mastery of technique and the hard-working process in a relaxed frame with a sense of love to the life. From the quietly elegiac to shouts of unrestrained joy, his works represent all perceptions of human in the world.

Spring Tide, 1979

Acrylic on canvas

162 x 166 cm

About the Artist

John McLean, British, (1939-2019) born in Liverpool to Scottish parents. 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. Lived in New York in the late 1980s. After returning to Britain, he lived and worked in London, and died in June 2019. 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.

Reception

May 22 (Thursday), 2020, 16:00 - 18:00

Exhibition Duration

May 22 - June 22, 2020, 10:00 - 18:00

(Closed on Mondays and public holidays)

Venue

B-11, No.2 Rd, 798 Art Zone

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About the Gallery

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. As a major gallery in China specialized in the study and promotion of abstract art, and also the main institution to continuously explore the various possibilities of figurative art at present, PIFO is convinced that the experience of art emerges from the new world created by one revolution after another; The artist's work is the third eye to explore the world. For collectors, PIFO provides expertise and encourages them to explore their own unique perspective because only the combination of the two can make a great collection. 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 contemporary art, and appreciate the artists discovered, reshaped and firmly believed in by the gallery.

Press enquiries/images

Junfang Shao shaojunfang@pifo.cn

T: +86 10 59789562

All other enquiries

Sophia Wang sophia.wang@pifo.cn

M: +86 18210011135

作者：偏锋新艺术空间