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John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin

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  • Works
  • Exhibitions
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  • Biography
    View works. John McLaughlin, No 14 , 1973
    No 14 , 1973
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    John McLaughlin was an American abstract painter born in Sharon, MA in 1898. In 1935, McLaughlin and his wife Florence Emerson (descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson) moved to Japan where they lived for three years. Upon their return in 1938, McLaughlin established a business dealing Japanese prints. It was around this time that he decided to start painting, which was brought to a halt just a few years later with the start of the war. Fluent in Japanese, McLaughlin was recruited as a translator by the Army during WWII. After the war, McLaughlin settled in Dana Point, California, where he started painting full time in 1946. Entirely self-taught, the artist continued to paint, with considerable success in his later career, until his death in 1976. Solo museum exhibitions include John McLaughlin: Western Modernism, Eastern Thought, Laguna Art Museum and The Prints of John McLaughlin: Site of Contemplation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He was recently the subject of a major retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, John McLaughlin Paintings: Total Abstraction, November 13, 2016-April 16, 2017. Selected public collections include Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York among others.
    Download Artist's CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
  • Works
    • a geometric abstract painting
      #17, 1973
    • geometric abstract painting
      No 14 , 1973
    • a geometric abstract painting
      # 8, 1967
    • a geometric abstract painting
      #8, 1960
    • geometric abstract painting
      Untitled #34, 1960
    • a geometric abstract painting
      Untitled, 1954
    • a geometric abstract painting
      Untitled, 1951
    • a geometric abstract painting
      Untitled, 1949
  • Exhibitions
    • installation view

      A Little Touch of Grace

      September 18 - November 8, 2024
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present “A Little Touch of Grace,” a group exhibition of works by Farid Haddad, John McLaughlin, Richard Pousette-Dart, Harvey Quaytman, Hedda Sterne, Anne Truitt,...
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    • installation view of two geometric abstract paintings

      John McLaughlin | Harvey Quaytman

      3rd Floor March 31 - May 6, 2023
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    • John McLaughlin

      John McLaughlin

      Linocuts: 3rd Floor March 23 - May 1, 2021
      Van Doren Waxter is very pleased to announce John McLaughlin: Linocuts , a special presentation of rare, intimately scaled geometric prints by the late modernist to go on view at...
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    • John McLaughlin

      John McLaughlin

      Constructions March 28 - May 11, 2018
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to announce John McLaughlin: Constructions, on view at the gallery’s 23 East 73rd location from March 28 through May 11, 2018. The exhibition focuses on...
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    • John McLaughlin

      John McLaughlin

      Marvelous Void November 2, 2016 - January 7, 2017
      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....
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    • Shifting Planes

      Shifting Planes

      Held, Kelly, McLaughlin October 2 - December 20, 2013
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Shifting Planes: Held, Kelly, McLaughlin , a three-person exhibition featuring paintings by Al Held and John McLaughlin and a painting and a wall...
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    • John McLaughlin

      John McLaughlin

      Paintings 1947 - 1974 February 20 - April 19, 2013
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present its inaugural exhibition John McLaughlin: Paintings 1947 - 1974 , a solo exhibition featuring paintings and works on paper spanning the career of...
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    • John McLaughlin

      John McLaughlin

      Hard Edge Classicist January 7 - February 13, 2010
      Catalogue available Greenberg Van Doren is pleased to present an exhibition of fourteen paintings by the late California artist, John McLaughlin (1898-1976). Though not seen in depth in New York...
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  • News
  • Publications
    • John McLaughlin

      John McLaughlin

      Constructions 2018
      Book, Softcover 16 pages
      ISBN: 978-0-9908058-9-2
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    • cover of a book

      John McLaughlin

      Marvelous Void 2016
      Book, Softcover, 36 pages
      ISBN: 978-0-9908058-4-7
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    • cover of a book

      John McLaughlin

      Hard Edge Classicist 2010
      Book, Softcover, 34 pages
      ISBN: 0980125952
      Read more
  • Art fairs
    • image of an art fair booth with various items hung on the walls

      Frieze Masters

      October 12 - 16, 2022
      Works Available By: Max Bill Richard Diebenkorn Tom Fairs Hans Hofmann Willem de Kooning John McLaughlin Vera Molnár Camille Pissarro Ken Price Harvey Quaytman Pierre-Auguste Renoir Milton Resnick Gerhard Richter...
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  • Press
    • Editors’ Picks: 14 Things to See in New York This Week

      Artnet News, March 26, 2018
    • John McLaughlin

      by Stephen Westfall, Art in America, June 1, 2017
    • John McLaughlin

      By Jason Farago, The New Yorker , January 7, 2017
    • Tracing a Path from Cubism to Digital Art

      by Jillian Steinhauer, Hyperallergic, April 2, 2013
    • John McLaughlin: Paintings 1947 - 1974

      By Robert C. Morgan, The Brooklyn Rail, April 1, 2013
    • John McLaughlin

      The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2013
    • Pacific Standard Time: Open your eyes to John McLaughlin

      Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2011
    • McLaughlin Rediscovered

      N.F. KARLINS, Artnet, February 2, 2010
    • John McLaughlin

      by HOLLAND COTTER, The New York Times, January 28, 2010

Van Doren Waxter, 23 East 73rd Street New York, NY 10021

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