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Lot Essay
A self-taught former Marine who started exhibiting his work at the age of 50, John McLaughlin’s paintings have variously been described as ‘Minimalist’ or ‘Hard-Edged’ abstraction, yet his practice is as unique as his journey to becoming an artist. #12-1955 is an exemplar of McLaughlin’s work and is, initially at least, similar to examples of Frank Stella’s works, or early paintings of his fellow West Coast contemporary Robert Irwin. But McLaughlin’s road to abstraction was derived from his admiration and understanding of fifteenth and sixteenth century Japanese art, which he had studied and worked with as an art dealer. In #12-1955 one can see McLaughlin’s thoroughly twentieth century invocation of the Japanese art principle of activating the empty space. The emptiness of the right-hand section is not merely a backdrop to the colored forms that go to the edges on the left of the canvas, neither are the shorter colored stripes clearly figures in a background. His questioning of the traditional relationship between figure and ground is as integral to the composition as the pairing of earth and sky. McLaughlin’s abstract forms are influenced by his deep understanding of Kazimir Malevich’s quest for perfection of spatial demarcation, as well as his admiration for Piet Mondrian’s desire to create a schema of essentials. However, as curator James Harithas declared, McLaughlin’s art was concerned with finding “an entirely new purpose for painting–that of painting the void in concrete form which potentially reflects all relationships found in nature” (J. Harithas, “Introduction,” John McLaughlin Retrospective Exhibition: 1946-1967, exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1968, p. 10).
McLaughlin’s restrained use of primary colors and simplified forms together with his composition that breaks conventional Western notions of balanced planes were his strategies for forming neutral structures, so that “the spectator may respond to interior sensibilities emanating from his reservoir of experience beyond the oppressive demands imposed by objectification,” (J. McLaughlin, “Foreword,” John McLaughlin Retrospective Exhibition: 1946-1967, exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1968, p. 5). As writer Prudence Carlson considers, McLaughlin’s work is an art of solicitation for the viewer to see it in one’s own terms, implicating the viewer as “an active factor in its dynamics” (P. Carlson, “Introduction,” John McLaughlin: Paintings of the Fifties, exh. cat., New York, 1987, p. 17). The viewer may look for the subject of the painting, but ultimately in considering such find the path unfolding towards consideration of one’s own self.
McLaughlin’s restrained use of primary colors and simplified forms together with his composition that breaks conventional Western notions of balanced planes were his strategies for forming neutral structures, so that “the spectator may respond to interior sensibilities emanating from his reservoir of experience beyond the oppressive demands imposed by objectification,” (J. McLaughlin, “Foreword,” John McLaughlin Retrospective Exhibition: 1946-1967, exh. cat., Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1968, p. 5). As writer Prudence Carlson considers, McLaughlin’s work is an art of solicitation for the viewer to see it in one’s own terms, implicating the viewer as “an active factor in its dynamics” (P. Carlson, “Introduction,” John McLaughlin: Paintings of the Fifties, exh. cat., New York, 1987, p. 17). The viewer may look for the subject of the painting, but ultimately in considering such find the path unfolding towards consideration of one’s own self.