- Jock Macdonald
Jock Macdonald (May 1897 – December 1960) was a member of
Painters Eleven (Painters 11, or P11), [Art Gallery of Greater Victoria: "Tributes", http://www.maxwellbates.net/english/tributes_bios.asp, Maxwell Bates, 2004] whose goal was to promoteabstract art inCanada .Early life
He was born in May 1897 in
Scotland .The Waterloo County Board of Education: "Jock Macdonald", p.121, Canadians:A history of Artists & their Work, 1989, IMPACT©] Before coming to Canada, Macdonald attended theEdinburgh College of Art and worked as a designer for a Scottish textile company.Artist and teaching career
He moved to Canada in 1926 to become a professor at the
Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts .World Wide Arts Resources: "Biography", http://wwar.com/masters/m/macdonald-jock.html, December 21, 2007] Macdonald became well-known and respected as a teacher at art colleges inEdinburgh ,Vancouver andToronto .He was initially inspired by the Group of Seven's work but began painting abstracts in 1924. Macdonald's training as a designer and his interest in children's paintings encouraged his experimentation with abstract art.
He loved to play with colour. Abstraction allowed Macdonald the freedom to create pictures that had no apparent subject matter. He could blend and layer colours on his canvas without worrying whether some people would have difficulty understanding his subject. He continued to paint abstract for quite sometime, later adding
Surrealist elements into his work.He was an influential professor at several art colleges in Canada and helped spur the modern art movement in the country. He died in Toronto, in December 1960.
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
