John Walker
Portrait of John Walker
Gift of Kenneth Tyler 2002
Photographer: Marabeth Cohen-Tyler
John Walker was born in 1939 in Birmingham, England, and studied at the Birmingham School of Art before receiving a travelling scholarship that afforded him the opportunity to study at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris. Walker’s painting has been widely acclaimed throughout his career for its emotional intensity achieved through a comprehensive collage and layering process. One such work Study for Luke’s blue is in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection. Walker worked at Tyler Graphics three times.
In 1996 he created the Mt. Kisco studio works using hand coloured paper to which he applied colour through stencils, allowing him to achieve a spontaneity that echoed his painterly work. In 1998 he returned to create the portfolio of etchings, Passing bells. The portfolio, which was displayed in its entirety at the National Gallery in the exhibition Universal soldier: John Walker’s Passing bells, in 2000, is based on the wartime experiences of Walker’s father. In 1999 Walker further explored the harrowing themes of war with works including Flanders and A terre.
Emilie Owens
Works in the Kenneth E. Tyler Collection
Chronology
1939 Born Birmingham, West Midlands, England
1956-60 Studied at Birmingham School of Art, West Midlands
1960-61 Receives Edwin Abbey Travelling Scholarship
1961-63 Studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, France
1962-69 Teaches at Stourbridge Colllege of Art, West Midlands; Birmingham College of Art, West Midlands; St Martin’s School of Art, London
1967 First solo exhibition, Axiom Gallery, London
1969 Included in exhibition, Theodoran Foundation Exhibition, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York where he receives Theodoran Award
1969-71 Receives Harkness Fellowship to the United States, lives in New York, New York
1970 Included in exhibitions, British paintings and sculptures, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Contemporary British Art, Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
1972 Included in Venice Biennale, Italy
1972-78 Painting tutor, Royal College of Art, London
1973 Included in exhibition, Toward painting, The Tate Gallery, London
1974 Wins First Prize, Bradford International Print Biennale, Yorkshire
1974-75 Works as Professor of Painting and Drawing, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York
1975 Completes residency, at Columbia University, New York
1977-78 Completes residency, at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, England
1978 Solo exhibitions: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Museum of Modern Art, New York
1979 Travelling solo exhibition, John Walker, originating at University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Completes residency, Monash University, Melbourne
1980 Completes residency, Prahan College of Advanced Education, Melbourne
1981 Solo exhibition, National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand. Receives John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1982 Traveling solo exhibition, John Walker, originating at the Phillips Collections, Washington, DC; included in travelling exhibition, Aspects of British art today, originating at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan; Visions in disbelief, Sydney Biennale, Australia
1982-86 Works as Dean, at Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
1983 Solo exhibition, John Walker: recent paintings, M. Knoedler & Company, New York
1985 Travelling solo exhibition, John Walker: paintings from the Alba and Oceania Series 1979-84, organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain; exhibition, John Walker: prints 1976-84, The Tate Gallery, London
1989 Visiting Professor, Yale University, New Haven
1991 Solo exhibition, John Walker: prints, Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney
1994 Included in exhibition, Inaugural exhibition, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden
1996 Completes Mount Kisco Studio prints at Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York
1997 Travelling solo exhibition, A theater of recollection: paintings and prints by John Walker, originating at Boston University Art Gallery, Massachusetts; included in travelling exhibition, Founders and heirs of the New York School, organised by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The United States Embassy, Tokyo
1998-99 Completes editions of The Somme, Sheep Skull, Passing Bells Portfolio, Flanders, The witness, The studio, Repose, Á terre at Tyler Graphics Ltd, Mount Kisco, New York
2000 Solo exhibition, The universal soldier: John Walker’s passing bells, at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
2004 Solo exhibition, John Walker: a winter in Maine, at Centre for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport. John Walker currently lives and works in Bedford, Massachusetts.
Barbara Delano © Tyler Graphics Ltd., revised Kate Buckingham, 2007
This chronology provides an overview of selected biographical information, major solo and group exhibitions held within the artist's own lifetime.
Further Reading
EXHIBITION
NATIONAL GALLERY PUBLICATIONS
- Workshop: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman (ed.), 2015
TYLER GRAPHICS PUBLICATIONS
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