John Walker in his studio, 2022
Catherine Lampert has done an amazing job of producing a huge monograph of the artistic work by British artist, John Walker. As the director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery for 13 years, she knew the environment of a man raised in Birmingham in the United Kingdom as the son of a hardworking World War I vet and a caring mother who nursed them both. Lampert said she loved what he called the “quiet touch of the brush” which he learned in his early life as his parents taught him to sit still and watch things. Following years of study at the Birmingham School of Art, he traveled to Paris and then New York where both the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum purchased some of his work.
Oceania, 1981. Oil on canvas. MOMA collection.
My training as an art historian emphasized that once photography was discovered and developed in both Europe and the United States about 1840, the canvas was free for self-expression as centuries of portraits, landscapes and history paintings could be made with film and a few good clicks. The early painters who grabbed this idea moved on to what became known as “abstract expressionism” meaning artists could express their wishes, grief, anxiety, joy, or just personal messages in paints of various types. Walker, who now lives in Maine, said that in his worldly travels he was most at ease when looking at nature. Lampert noted that he often made biomorphic works, even occasionally mixing his paints with a bit of mud!
Image of Maine with oil and mud 2005
One of his most recent exhibitions was at the Knoedler Gallery in New York City in 2001 and he called it “Time and Tides,” as he used the landscapes of Maine as a source of inspiration. Art historians John Stomberg and John Elderfield have said that Walker is a titan in the world of modern “ab ex” artists as he continues to produce large works that are filled with various images which allow the viewer to just stop, look, and make his or her own remarks about the colors, shapes, and strength of the composition.
Knoedler Gallery 2001, NYC.
The catalog also mentions an interesting reference made by Walker as he loved the work of the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. One of Goya’s most famous works is in the Hispanic Society and Museum collection located at 155th St. and Broadway in NYC. Goya painted the Duchess of Alba several times, and historians think they were lovers. Walker took the contrapposto of her stance and modernized it in a few of his works.
Oceania, 1982. Oil on canvas
Francisco de Goya, Duchess of Alba, Hispanic Society, 1797
Art historian John Stomberg noted in this catalog that Walker made a number of images as tributes to his father whose left shoulder and arm were badly damaged in the Battle of Somme in northern France where over 70,000 men were killed in 1916.
Tribute to his father, 1957
The portrait resonates with color and an unusual pose.
In summary, this wonderful series of essays about the work of John Walker is a tribute to the breadth and depth of his dedication to self- expression in the world of modern art for so many years. As author Lampert said in closing, “He leaves room for the viewer to come to terms with the cacophony of the complex moves that the artist has made with open – ended and provocative ambiguity. “
John Walker in his Maine studio. 2023. Oils on canvas
John Walker by Catherine Lampert, Alex Bacon $45.22