John McLean: The Boston Pictures, 1982

The Boston Pictures, 1982 was an exhibition of works by John McLean, regarded internationally as one of Britain’s most significant abstract painters.

In 1982, a teaching job at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School took John McLean to America. Upon arrival, he discovered that his workload was lighter than the had been led to believe, so he filled his time painting from a studio in the leafy suburb of Brookline. Though it was a productive period, McLean’s minimal income left him nearly broke and, on leaving the US, the canvases were rolled up and consigned to a cupboard. The shipping costs were more than the McLeans could afford, until the summer of 2017, when the studio was cleared out by the owner.