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- His work seeks to challenge the concept of 'sculpture' and indeed of 'art' by creating work that questions establishment thinking, materials and methods of display.
www.wykehamgallery.co.uk/artists/665-bruce-mclean/
Apr 30, 2019 · Bruce McLean’s “consistently inconsistent” approach and his resistance to acceding to the boundaries of so-called high and low art have given him the freedom to express himself in a variety of different ways. In 1985, he won the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize for Oriental Garden Kyoto.
His work seeks to challenge the concept of 'sculpture' and indeed of 'art' by creating work that questions establishment thinking, materials and methods of display. After St. Martin's McLean went on to teach at numerous art schools including The Slade School of Fine Art, where he became Head of Graduate Painting (2002-2010).
Beginning his exploration of the body as sculpture, performs Interview Sculpture with Gilbert & George at St Martin’s School of Art. They ask questions about sculptors (including Caro, King and Tucker) which McLean answers by physically mimicking their work.
McLean responded by making sculpture out of rubbish, water and other impermanent materials, and by using his own body to make action sculptures and also impersonate sculptures by others. He also produced photographic works in which he often appeared.
At Saint Martin's, McLean studied with Anthony Caro and Phillip King.In reaction to what he regarded as the academicism of his teachers he began making sculpture from rubbish. McLean has produced paintings, sculptures, ceramics, prints, work with film, theatre and books.
At the forefront of Conceptual Art in Britain in the 1960s, McLean’s work embodies a playful and critical stance on the formalities and hierarchies that haunt the condition of sculpture.
Dec 19, 2016 · McLean politely disagrees – ‘I am a sculptor’ he tells me – stressing his own sense of artistic coherence. For McLean, the two-dimensional shade paintings are sculptural, explorations of light and shadow as physical, almost tangible entities in space.
