Jock Macdonald


James Williamson Galloway Macdonald, commonly known in his professional life as Jock Macdonald, was a member of Painters Eleven, whose goal was to promote abstract art 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, 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, Scotland. Before coming to Canada, Macdonald attended the Edinburgh College of Art and worked as a designer for a Scottish textile company.

Artist and teaching career

After being recruited by Charles Hepburn Scott, Macdonald moved to Canada in 1926 to become a professor at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. He became well-known and respected as a teacher at art colleges in Edinburgh, Vancouver and Toronto. Macdonald was initially inspired by the work of the Group of Seven but began painting abstracts in 1934. Macdonald's training as a designer and his interest in children's paintings encouraged his experimentation with abstract art.
Macdonald loved to play with colour. Abstraction allowed Macdonald the freedom to create pictures that had no apparent subject matter. He could blend and layer colours on his canvas without worrying whether some people would have difficulty understanding his subject. Although at first he had added Surrealist elements in his work, later he sought to do without them and painted abstractly to convey space and time.
Macdonald was an influential professor at several art colleges in Canada and helped spur the modern art movement in the country. He was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Jock Macdonald died in Toronto in December 1960.