Bruce McLean
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Biography
Bruce McLean is a Scottish sculptor, filmmaker, and painter. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1961 to 1963 and at Saint Martin's School of Art from 1963 to 1966, where he and others rebelled against what appeared to be the formalist academicism of his teachers, including Anthony Caro and Phillip King. In 1965, he abandoned conventional studio production in favour of impermanent sculptures using materials such as water, along with performances of a generally satirical nature directed against the art world. When he was offered an exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1972, McLean opted for a 'Retrospective,' which he titled King for a Day and lasted only for one day. From the mid-1970s, while continuing to mount occasional performances, McLean turned increasingly toward painting, sculpture, and film work. In 1985, McLean won the John Moores Painting Prize. Since retiring from his professorship of painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, he has taken on a large studio in the west of London, where he has been making increasingly large paintings and sculptural film works.
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Timeline
1944 Born in Glasgow, Scotland
1950 Begins Saturday morning classes at Glasgow School of Art
1961-3 Studies at Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
1963-6 Studies sculpture at St Martin’s School of Art, London. His tutors include Anthony Caro, Phillip King, William Tucker
1966 Wins Sainsbury Award for Sculpture
1970 Makes his first film work
1980 Represents Britain in Art in the Seventies at the 39th Venice Biennale
1985 Wins the John Moores Painting Prize
2017 First major exhibition in China at the Shanghai Himalayas Museum
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Selected Exhibitions
1971 Early Works 1967-1975, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and Robert Self Gallery, Newcastle, UK
1980 Art in the Seventies, Biennale, Venice, Italy
1981 A New Spirit in Painting, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
1982 Documenta VII, Museum Fredericianum, Kassel, Germany
1983 Thought and Action, Laforet Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1983 New Art,Tate Gallery, London, UK
1984 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
1984 An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1985 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
1985/6 11 European Painters, National Gallery, Athens, Greece
1997 Out of Action; Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2009 Bruce McLean: New Work, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2010 Waiter Waiter, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2012 The Shapes of Sculpture, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2014 Action Sculpture Potato Painting, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2016 Bruce McLean: A Hot Sunset and Shade Paintings, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2017 I Want My Crown, Shanghai Himalayas Museum, Shanghai, China
2019 Bruce McLean: 5 Decades of Sculpture, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2025 Summer Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
2025 Bruce McLean: I Want My Crown, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
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Works
Exhibitions
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Bruce McLean, William Tillyer, Marc Vaux: New Works
London Gallery Weekend 4 June - 2 July 2021Bernard Jacobson Gallery is pleased to announce a new exhibition of recent works by Bruce McLean, William Tillyer, and Marc Vaux. -
Bruce McLean: Future Garden Works
Online Exhibition 9 - 30 July 2020 -
Prints I published
12 February - 9 March 2019In 1969 Bernard Jacobson began his career as an art dealer, selling and publishing prints by important contemporary artists from a small fourth-floor gallery in London’s Mayfair. For a gallery... -
Bruce McLean: 5 Decades of Sculpture
26 April - 29 June 2019Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to announce a special season of exhibitions, publications, film, and performance celebrating half a century of the creative output of Bruce McLean, one of the... -
Some of the artists I have worked for
10 September - 5 October 2019To end the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the gallery, we are delighted to introduce a selection of works by the artists that helped shaping its success. -
Bruce McLean: A Hot Sunset and Shade Paintings
2 December 2016 - 28 January 2017Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of new work by acclaimed British action sculptor, painter, and ceramicist, Bruce McLean. The exhibition will feature works produced over the... -
Bruce McLean: Action Sculpture Potato Painting
31 May - 29 June 2014Bernard Jacobson Gallery is thrilled to announce the opening of Bruce McLean's new exhibition, Action Sculpture Potato Painting, a collection of new works by the Scottish sculptor, performance artist, filmmaker,... -
Bruce McLean: The Shapes of Sculpture
10 October - 10 November 2012Bernard Jacobson Gallery is delighted to present a show of new work by Scottish artist Bruce McLean. McLean has been investigating the condition of sculpture since the late 1960s and... -
Bruce McLean: New Work
9 October - 7 November 2009Bruce McLean is back with his first exhibition of new paintings in more than 20 years. Collectively entitled The Black Garden Paintings, these works are abstracted paintings of his gardens...
Art Fairs
Publications
