John Walker (painter)

John Walker ( born November 23, 1939 in Birmingham ) is an English painter and printmaker.

John Walker was studying in Birmingham. Some of his early works were inspired by abstract expressionism and often combined three-dimensional shapes with " flatter " elements. These works were mostly executed in acrylics.

In the early 1970s John Walker made ​​a series of large format paintings, the Blackboard Pieces in blackboard chalk and the Juggernaut ( truck drivers ) works in which he used pigment colors. From the late 1970s his work alludes to earlier painters like Francisco de Goya, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, either by quoting the master image or by using a specific technique. During this time he began frequently also use oil paints.

After he had spent some time in Australia, John Walker was appointed Dean of the School of Art at the Victoria College of the Arts in Melbourne. It was here that his Oceania series in which he brought elements of Oceanic art.

Currently, John Walker is a professor of painting at the Department of Visual Arts School of Art at Boston University in Boston, MA.

John Walker in 1985 was nominated for the Turner Prize.