Jock Macdonald

James Williamson Galloway Macdonald RCA (31 May 1897 – 3 December 1960), commonly known in his professional life as Jock Macdonald , was a member of Painters Eleven (Painters 11, or P11),[1] whose goal was to promote abstract art in Canada. Macdonald was a trailblazer in Canadian art from the 1930s to 1960. He was the first painter to exhibit abstract art in Vancouver, and throughout his life he championed Canadian avant-garde artists at home and abroad. His career path reflected the times: despite his commitment to his artistic practice, he earned his living as a teacher, becoming a mentor to several generations of artists.[2]

Jock Macdonald
Born
James Williamson Galloway Macdonald

(1897-05-31)May 31, 1897
Thurso, Scotland
DiedDecember 3, 1960(1960-12-03) (aged 63)
Toronto, Ontario
NationalityCanadian
EducationEdinburgh College of Art
Known forPainting
MovementPainters Eleven
Spouse(s)Barbara Niece

Early life

Macdonald was born in May 1897 in Thurso, Scotland.[3][4] Before coming to Canada, Macdonald graduated with a Specialists Teacher's Certificate from the Scottish Education Authority and a diploma in design from the Edinburgh College of Art in 1922.[5] His first major employment was as a designer for a Scottish textile company, then he worked for the Lincoln School of Art as Head of Design in 1925.[5][3]

Artist and teaching career

After being recruited by Charles Hepburn Scott, Macdonald moved to Canada in 1926 to become a professor at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts.[6] He became well-known and respected as a teacher at art colleges in Canada at Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto.[3] Macdonald was initially inspired by the work of the Group of Seven and mentored by F.H. Varley, used bold colour and form to paint the British Columbia landscape but began painting abstracts in 1934.[5][6] In 1941, he became president of the British Columbia Society of Artists and in that capacity attended the Kingston Conference which developed over time into the Canada Council for the Arts.[2][5] Macdonald's training as a designer and his interest in children's paintings encouraged his experimentation with abstract art as did his interest in automatic painting.[2][3]

In the summers of 1948 and 1949, Macdonald studied with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts.[5] In 1954, he worked and studied in Scotland, London and France.[5] He settled in Nice where he showed his watercolours to Jean Dubuffet who advised him to "speak in oil as you do in watercolour".[5] His breakthrough came when Harold Town introduced him to a new paint material, Lucite 44.[5] The new freedom he found using this medium mixed with oil transformed his work.[5] Through his paintings, encouraged by Clement Greenberg, he sought to convey abstract matters such as space and time.[2][6] One writer speaks of their whisper of mysterious space and other-worldly concerns.[7]

Macdonald was an influential professor at several art colleges in Canada and helped spur the modern art movement in the country.[6] He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[8] He was a member of Painters Eleven as well as President of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour in 1952, and an executive member of the Ontario Society of Artists that year.[5] He had an important retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the first offered a living artist who was not a member of the Group of Seven.[5]

Jock Macdonald died of a heart attack in Toronto in December 1960.

References
  1. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria: "Tributes", http://www.maxwellbates.net/english/tributes_bios.asp Archived 30 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Maxwell Bates, 2004
  2. Zemans, Joyce (2016). Jock Macdonald: Life & Work. Toronto: Art Canada Instititute. ISBN 978-1-4871-0108-4.
  3. The Waterloo County Board of Education: "Jock Macdonald", p.121, Canadians:A history of Artists & their Work, 1989, IMPACT©
  4. Vancouver Art Gallery: 75 Years of Collecting
  5. Thom 2014, p. 9-13.
  6. World Wide Arts Resources: "Biography", http://wwar.com/masters/m/macdonald-jock.html Archived 16 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, 21 December 2007
  7. Nasgaard, Roald (2008). Abstract Painting in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre. p. 115. ISBN 9781553653943. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  8. "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2013.

Bibliography


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