JOHN MCLAUGHLIN (1898 - 1976)
John McLaughlin was born on May 21 1898 in Sharon, Massachusetts to John Dwyer McLaughlin and Harriott Attwood McLaughlin, John Dwyer McLaughlin was part of a family of seven children. While growing up, his parents showed an interest in art and fostered Johnís interest in Asian art, supplemented by numerous trips to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with its extensive collection of Asian art. His motherís uncle, Gilbert Attwood, had a large collection of Japanese objects that he received from the many Japanese students he hosted, and these objects were eventually given to McLaughlinís mother. McLaughlinís education and exposure to Japanese culture are some of the early influences that began to shape his personal interests and profoundly affected his professional choices later in life.
Following his childhood interest in the art of Asia, McLaughlin was able to travel abroad and provide service to his country, while fostering his language skills and his knowledge in the art, culture, and philosophies of Japan. McLaughlin served in the United States Navy from 1917-1921 during World War I. He married Florence Emerson from Wakefield Massachusetts in 1928 and sold real-estate in Boston and Chicago during the 1930s. Then the couple moved to Japan in 1935 and McLaughlin studied Japanese art and language, which was a rare opportunity for an American during this time.
Upon returning to Boston in 1938, McLaughlin and his wife opened an art gallery called The Tokaido, Inc. Here they sold Japanese prints and imported objects from China and Japan. McLaughlin studied Japanese at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu in 1941 and continued his service to the United States as a language officer translating Japanese for the US Marine Corps until 1942. McLaughlin became involved in intelligence in China, Burma, and India, winning the Bronze Star for meritorious service in 1945.
McLaughlin and his wife moved to Dana Point in Southern California where he became one of the few American abstract artists. He began painting later in his life, never receiving any formal training. His many experiences, working with Japanese and Japanese-Americans, traveling abroad, and viewing Chinese and Japanese works of art, all further developed the philosophy of life that would be the driving force behind his paintings.
The art of John McLaughlin has inspired two generations of artists critics and curators to probe the silent, obdurate depths of a body of work created to beguile and challenge the viewer. Entering the domain of John McLaughlin demands total participation in an experience transcending the limits of style personal expression and cultural conditioning. His is truly a unique achievement in abstract painting in recent times. On the well-mapped highway of late twentieth-century art history the work of John McLaughlin stands as a signpost pointing toward a terrain made manifest by his art but not yet fully explored by his artistic heirs. The implications of his art were clearly sensed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by a handful of artists and critics in the United States and England only to be swept aside by a tide of Minimalism obeying mainly physical laws and materialist principles.
A remarkable synthesis of subtle concepts and disparate cultural traditions informs the work of John McLaughlin. It was his special gift to be able to achieve a state of magnificent quietude out of the purposeful juxtaposition of opposing visual elements placed so that they engage and eventually steady the mind. It is not surprising that his art has been lavishly praised, denounced as obtuse and hermetic, dismissed as artistically nihilistic, written off as latter-day geometric abstraction and that it has gained legendary stature among artists devoted to abstract painting. Within his generation of reductive painters his vision still seems fresh, challenging, not time-bound but full of unsolved propositions and unusual visual experiences. It is difficult to link him to other painters of his era except superficially through historical coincidence. None of them shared McLaughlin's unique thought process and none dared depart as completely from the dynamic asymmetrical compositions proposed by earlier Modernist abstraction. From John McLaughlin: A Rare Sensibility, by Susan C. Larsen
Following his childhood interest in the art of Asia, McLaughlin was able to travel abroad and provide service to his country, while fostering his language skills and his knowledge in the art, culture, and philosophies of Japan. McLaughlin served in the United States Navy from 1917-1921 during World War I. He married Florence Emerson from Wakefield Massachusetts in 1928 and sold real-estate in Boston and Chicago during the 1930s. Then the couple moved to Japan in 1935 and McLaughlin studied Japanese art and language, which was a rare opportunity for an American during this time.
Upon returning to Boston in 1938, McLaughlin and his wife opened an art gallery called The Tokaido, Inc. Here they sold Japanese prints and imported objects from China and Japan. McLaughlin studied Japanese at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu in 1941 and continued his service to the United States as a language officer translating Japanese for the US Marine Corps until 1942. McLaughlin became involved in intelligence in China, Burma, and India, winning the Bronze Star for meritorious service in 1945.
McLaughlin and his wife moved to Dana Point in Southern California where he became one of the few American abstract artists. He began painting later in his life, never receiving any formal training. His many experiences, working with Japanese and Japanese-Americans, traveling abroad, and viewing Chinese and Japanese works of art, all further developed the philosophy of life that would be the driving force behind his paintings.
The art of John McLaughlin has inspired two generations of artists critics and curators to probe the silent, obdurate depths of a body of work created to beguile and challenge the viewer. Entering the domain of John McLaughlin demands total participation in an experience transcending the limits of style personal expression and cultural conditioning. His is truly a unique achievement in abstract painting in recent times. On the well-mapped highway of late twentieth-century art history the work of John McLaughlin stands as a signpost pointing toward a terrain made manifest by his art but not yet fully explored by his artistic heirs. The implications of his art were clearly sensed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by a handful of artists and critics in the United States and England only to be swept aside by a tide of Minimalism obeying mainly physical laws and materialist principles.
A remarkable synthesis of subtle concepts and disparate cultural traditions informs the work of John McLaughlin. It was his special gift to be able to achieve a state of magnificent quietude out of the purposeful juxtaposition of opposing visual elements placed so that they engage and eventually steady the mind. It is not surprising that his art has been lavishly praised, denounced as obtuse and hermetic, dismissed as artistically nihilistic, written off as latter-day geometric abstraction and that it has gained legendary stature among artists devoted to abstract painting. Within his generation of reductive painters his vision still seems fresh, challenging, not time-bound but full of unsolved propositions and unusual visual experiences. It is difficult to link him to other painters of his era except superficially through historical coincidence. None of them shared McLaughlin's unique thought process and none dared depart as completely from the dynamic asymmetrical compositions proposed by earlier Modernist abstraction. From John McLaughlin: A Rare Sensibility, by Susan C. Larsen
