John McLaughlin Paintings 1949-1975, André Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1979.
John McLaughlin Recent Paintings-1970/1971, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 1971.
Four Abstract Classicists, Modernism, San Francisco, CA, 1993.
Eight New Paintings, John McLaughlin, Dana Point, CA, 1966.
John McLaughlin Paintings from the Early Fifties, Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1970.
John McLaughlin The Complete Prints, Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York, 2006.
John McLaughlin Paintings 1950-1975, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK, 1981.
A Retrospecitive Exhibition John McLaughlin, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA.
John McLaughlin Retrospective Exhibition, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA, 1973.
John McLaughlin Recent Paintings, André Emmerich Gallery, New York, 1974.
John McLaughlin
LAMA is proud to present a special selection of design curated by Esoteric Survey, featuring more than 100 works that represent platform founder Steve Aldana's guiding fascination with mid-century design and design history in California. Drawing from Aldana's personal collection as well as from his design-minded community, this collection includes iconic works as well as deeper cuts that represent lesser-known, but nonetheless integral, achievements of postwar artists and designers.
An urban planner by vocation, Aldana has nurtured his fascination with modern design, particularly the strains that emerged in mid-century Southern California, through Esoteric Survey for nearly 15 years. With a desire to share fascinating obscure design figures and document visits to architecture and design sites, he created the blog he named Esoteric Survey in 2009. What first served primarily as a private log for personal reference eventually blossomed into a valuable resource for like-minded design aficionados, and has since taken the form of an immensely popular Instagram account.
Explore Steve Aldana's Blog Esoteric Survey
John McLaughlin 1898–1976
The self-taught, hard-edge painting pioneer John McLaughlin is considered one of the most significant and compelling postwar artists of his time. Born in Sharon, Massachusetts in 1898, McLaughlin served in the Navy during World War I and married Florence Emerson (the grandniece of Ralph Waldo Emerson) in 1928. The couple moved to Japan in 1935 where McLaughlin studied Japanese language and art and upon their return to Boston, opened The Tokaido, Inc., an art gallery specializing in Asian objects and Japanese prints. The outbreak of World War II brought McLaughlin back to Japan once again where he worked as a translator until his service ended in 1946 and the artist settled in Dana Point, California to begin painting fulltime. Inspired by the work of Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, he drew upon his time overseas to create precise, geometric compositions devoid of representation. Citing 16th-century Japanese painters and Zen Buddhism, McLaughlin sought to provoke introspection in his work and create a meditative state for contemplation. In 1952, the artist stopped using curves altogether, and precise, rectilinear forms dominated his paintings. The same year, the artist had his first solo exhibition at the Felix Landau Gallery in Los Angeles and later showed with André Emmerich in New York and Zurich. In 1959, his work was included in the seminal exhibition Four Abstract Classicists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where the term “hard-edge” painting was coined. McLaughlin died in 1976, and in 2016, he was the subject of a long-overdue retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art solidifying him as one of the most important American painters of the 20th century. Today, his work is held in many prominent collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo.
Auction Results John McLaughlin
