Geometric abstract art american artists
John Dwyer Mclaughlin (1898-1976)
John McLaughlin’s work fuses Zen painting, Constructivism, and hard-edged Minimalism in geometric compositions of lines, squares, and rectangles rendered in a palette of primary colors. Exploring harmonies of color, shape, and composition, McLaughlin sought to “communicate only to the extent that the painting will serve to induce or intensify the viewer’s natural desire for contemplation without the benefit of a guiding principle,” he said. His paintings can be understood as descending from the work of seminal abstractionists Kasimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, pioneers in the exploration of the sublime potential of pure color and form. McLaughlin first studied painting in Japan while serving as an intelligence officer during World War II, and he later settled in California. His body of work served as inspiration for the artists of the California Light and Space Movement.
John McLaughlin was a self-taught American painter known for his austere geometric abstractions based in the Zen Buddhist notion of the void. Employing precisely painted rectangular and gridded forms of beige, warm black, marigold yellow, and deep indigo, McLaughlin’s works intended to provoke a meditative state. “My purpose is to achieve the totally abstract,” he once reflected. “I want to communicate only to the extent that the painting will serve to induce or intensify the viewer’s natural desire for contemplation without the benefit of a guiding principle.” Born on May 21, 1898 in Sharon, MA, McLaughlin’s parents fostered his interest in Asian art throughout his childhood. Serving in World War I as a young man, he later lived with his wife in Japan during the mid-1930s. Returning to the United States three years later, McLaughlin and his wife opened a gallery in Boston that specialized in Japanese prints. Recruited as a Japanese translator in World War II, he began producing art full time after his service ended in 1946. Influenced by the paintings of Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, as well as those of 16th-century Japanese painters, McLaughlin’s earliest mature works were abstractions. In 1952, the artist had his first solo exhibition at the Felix Landau Gallery in Los Angeles, later gaining recognition as one of the preeminent artists in California, alongside Robert Irwin and Billy Al Bengston. McLaughlin died on March 22, 1976 in Dana Point, CA. In 2016, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened a long overdue retrospective of his work titled “John McLaughlin: Total Abstraction.” Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, among others.
Abstract geometric
Timeline
1898 Born in Sharon, Massachusetts, USA
1961 Bachelor of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA
1962 Master of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA
1963 Tamarind Fellowship
1964 Visual Arts Award for individual artists by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities
1976 Died in Dana Point, California, USA
Geometric abstraction & minimalism artist
2013 John Mclaughlin: Paintings 1947-1974, Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY (solo)
2012 ED RUSCHA JOHN McLAUGHLIN LEWIS BALTZ, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2012 Pacific Standard Time. Kunst in Los Angeles 1950-1980, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
2011 Constructive Spirit: Abstract Art in South and North America, 1920s – 50s, Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
2010 Kissed by Angels: A Selection of Work from Southern California, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
2010 Colorscope: Abstract Painting, 1960-1979, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2010 Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2010 John McLaughlin: Hard Edge Classicist , Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
2009 The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia: 1860-1989, Solomon R.
2009 Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
2009 Stripes/Solids, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY
2009 Exploring Black and White: The 1930’s through the 1960’s, D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc., New York, NY
2008 Modernism and the Wichner Collection, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
2008 Síntesis – muestra colectiva, Galería Cayón, Madrid, Spain
2007 Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; traveled to Addison Gallery of America Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Blanton Museum of Art, The Unviersity of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2007 John McLaughlin: The Tamarind Prints, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA (solo)
2006 John McLaughlin: The Complete Prints, Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
2006 Color and line; Selections from The Menil Collection, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
2006 Geometric Abstraction and Color Function: Two Generations, D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc., New York, NY
2006 California Modern, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
2006 La Dolce Vita – Selections from the Ruth and Murray Gribin Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA
2006 Los Angeles, 1955-1985: naissance d’une capitale artistique/sous la direction de Catherine Grenier, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2005 Wilder: A tribute to the Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles 1965-1979, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY
2005 Into The Unknown – Abstraction From The Collection, MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
2005 John McLaughlin, Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, New York, NY (solo)
2004 Specific Objects – The Minimalist Influence, MOCA, San Diego, CA
2004 Art, Artists, and the Addison, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
2004 Group Show, Western Project, Culver City, CA
2003 On the Edge: Contemporary Art from the DaimlerChrysler Collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
2003 Guest Art. Das Kunsthaus mit Leihgaben zu Gast , Haus Konstruktiv, Stiftung für konstruktive und konkrete Kunst, Zurich, Switzerland
2003 The DaimlerChrysler Collection, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany
2003 Minimalism and After II, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2002 Samadhi, The Contemplation of Space, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, NY
2002 Flatline, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002 Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, New York, NY (solo)
2001 Substitute Cities, The Power Plant, Toronto, ON
2001 A Room of Their Own From Arbus to Gober, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA
1998 John McLaughlin: Paintings, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1996 John McLaughlin: Western Modernism, Eastern Thought, Laguna Art Musuem, Laguna Beach, CA; traveled to Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD and Joslyn Museum, Omaha,NE (solo)
1993 The Institute for Contemporary Art/Clocktower Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1992 Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK (solo)
1991 André Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1991 John McLaughlin: Collages, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (solo)
1990 Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1990 Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA (solo)
1983 John McLaughlin: Paintings 1951-1966, Gatodo Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1982 John McLaughlin, Ulmer Museum, Stadt Ulm, West Germany
1981 John McLaughlin: Black and White, Galerie Andre Emmerich, Zurich, Switzerland
1981 John McLaughlin: Paintings, 1950-1975, Annely Judya Fine Art, London
1981 Quadrat Bottrop – Modern Gallerie, Bottrop, West Germany
1978 Quadrat Bottrop – Modern Gallerie, Bottrop, West Germany
1974 John McLaughlin, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1973 John McLaughlin – A Retrospective Exhibition, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, CA
1971 John McLaughlin – Recent Paintings 1970-1971, University of California, Irvine
1968 Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
1963 Retrospective Exhibition – John McLaughlin, Pasadena Art Museum, CA
1960 Long Beach Museum of Art, CA
1958 University of California, Riverside, CA
1956 Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
Cubism geometric abstraction
2012 ED RUSCHA JOHN McLAUGHLIN LEWIS BALTZ, Galerie Thomas Zander, Köln, 2012
1996 Larsen, Susan. John McLaughlin, Western Modernism, Eastern Though: Essays, Distributed Art Publishers, 1996
1993 Four Abstract Classicists, San Francisco Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum
1992 Paintings and Prints – 1950-1975, London, 1992
1987 Joslyn Art Museum. Paintings and Sculpture from the European and American Collections. University of Nebraska Press, Omaha, Nebraska
1981 John McLaughlin, Quadrat Bottrop – Morderne Galerie, Bottrop, 1981
1977 California – 5 Footnotes to American Art History, Los Angeles, 1977
1973 John McLaughlin Retrospective Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, 1973
1970–1971 John McLaughlin Recent Paintings – 1970/1971 University of California, Irvine
1963 John McLaughlin A Retrospective Exhibition, Pasadena Art Museum, 1963
Public Collections
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, CA
University Art Museum, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY
National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland CA
Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, Pasadena, CA
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, Pasadena, CA
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, Pasadena, CA
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Mead Art Gallery, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Museum and Art Gallery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Modern Art, NY
Addison Gallery, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Daimler Chrysler, Berlin, Germany
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, Scotland
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
