Jock Macdonald
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James Williamson Galloway Macdonald (31 May 1897 – 3 December 1960), commonly known in his professional life as Jock Macdonald, was a member of
Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been heavily i ...
(Painters 11, or P11), whose goal was to promote
abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...
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 Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, 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.


Early life

Macdonald was born in May 1897 in
Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; , ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great Britain. From a latitudinal s ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
.The Waterloo County Board of Education: "Jock Macdonald", p.121, Canadians:A history of Artists & their Work, 1989, IMPACT© 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 Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...
in 1922. 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.


Career

After being recruited by
Charles Hepburn Scott Charles Hepburn Scott (29 November 1886 – 1964) was a Scottish-born Canadian artist. Early life Scott was born in Loudoun, Ayrshire, to Robert Hepburn and Jean (née Carmichael) Scott. Career Scott was a student at Glasgow School o ...
, Macdonald 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 , 21 December 2007 He became well-known and respected as a teacher at art colleges in Canada at
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
, and
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. Macdonald was initially inspired by the work of the
Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an Intergovernmentalism, intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non- ...
and mentored by F.H. Varley, used bold colour and form to paint the British Columbia landscape but began painting abstracts in 1934. 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 The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...
. 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. Automatic painting showed him an unexpected way to express all of the feelings which vanished if the approach was objective. He said:
"I felt that the curve of a wave, the breaker on the beach and the foam on the sand wasn`t all of the sea. The sea has solidity and transparency, cruelty and tenderness, joy and terror, cunning and friendship, all included in visual observation."
In the mid-1940s, Macdonald taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts. There, in 1946, he met Calgary artist
Marion Nicoll Marion Florence Nicoll (née MacKay; 11 April 1909 – 6 March 1985) was a Canadian painter. She is known as one of the first abstract painters in Alberta. In 1933 she became the first woman instructor at the Provincial Institute of Technology ...
, who was hired to teach the summer program, and exerted a profound influence on her work by introducing her to automatic drawing and watercolour. In the summers of 1948 and 1949, Macdonald studied with
Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 1954, he worked and studied in Scotland, London and France. He settled in Nice where he showed his watercolours to Jean Dubuffet who advised him to "speak in oil as you do in watercolour". His breakthrough came when Harold Town introduced him to a new paint material, Lucite 44. The new freedom he found using this medium mixed with oil transformed his work. Through his paintings, encouraged by
Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...
, he sought to convey abstract matters such as space and time. One writer speaks of their whisper of mysterious space and other-worldly concerns. Macdonald said:
"Artists must discover idioms which interptret man`s new concepts about nature, especially about the interrelationship of all things, the energies of motion, new spatial concepts."
Macdonald was an influential professor at several art colleges in Canada and helped spur the modern art movement in the country. He was made an associate member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...
. He was a member of
Painters Eleven Painters Eleven (also known as Painters 11) was a group of abstract artists active in Canada between 1953 and 1960. They are associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. History Since the 1920s, artists in English Canada had been heavily i ...
as well as a charter member of the Canadian Group of Painters, a life member of the British Columbia Society of Artists, President of the
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (), founded in 1925, is considered to be Canada's official national watercolour Society. Since the 1980s the Society has enjoyed Vice-regal Patronage from the incumbent Governor General of Canada. Re ...
in 1952, and an executive member of the
Ontario Society of Artists The Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) was founded in 1872. It is Canada's oldest continuously operating professional art society. When it was founded at the home of John Arthur Fraser, seven artists were present. Besides Fraser himself, Marmaduke ...
that year. He had an important
retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...
at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the first offered a living artist who was not a member of the
Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an Intergovernmentalism, intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non- ...
. Jock Macdonald died of a heart attack in Toronto in December 1960.


Record sale prices

At the Cowley Abbott Auction, Important Canadian Art (Sale 2), December 1, 2022, lot 110, ''Drying Herring Roe'' (1938), oil on canvas, 28.25 x 32 ins (71.8 x 81.3 cms ), Auction Estimate: $50,000.00 - $70,000.00, realized a price of $408,000.00.


References


Bibliography

*Zemans, Joyce.
Jock Macdonald: Life & Work
'. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2016. * * *


External links



at the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...
, Ottawa, Ontario {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Jock 1897 births 1960 deaths Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Scottish emigrants to Canada 20th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Canadian art educators Canadian abstract artists 20th-century Canadian male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists