John McLaughlin

John Dwyer McLaughlin (May 21, 1898 – March 22, 1976) was an American abstract painter. Based primarily in California, he was a pioneer in minimalism and hard-edge painting. Considered one of the most significant Californian postwar artists, McLaughlin painted a focused body of geometric works that are completely devoid of any connection to everyday experience and objects, inspired by the Japanese notion of the void. He aimed to create paintings devoid of any object hood including but not limited to a gestures, representations and figuration. This led him to the rectangle. Leveraging a technique of layering rectangular bars on adjacent planes, McLaughlin creates works that provoke introspection and, consequently, a greater understanding of one's relationship to nature.

Life John McLaughlin was born in Sharon, Massachusetts. His father was a Massachusetts Superior Court judge and he had six siblings. His parents instilled in him an interest in art, most specifically Asian art. Later in 2016, McLaughlin was subject to a long overdue third major museum retrospective at LACMA. A review of the show by art critic Christopher Knight affirms "McLaughlin occupies the top tier of 20th century American art".

Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York Perez Art Museum Miami, Florida (former Miami Art Museum) San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York