Search instructions
View alphabetical lists of all artists currently featured on the site.
Select the initial of the artist's name that you are looking for. Scroll down the list until you find the name, and select it for more information about the artist and his or her work.
Search Tip
Artists are organised by their most commonly-used names. This is usually but not always their surname e.g. Leonardo da Vinci is under L, Van Gogh is under V and Raphael is under R.
John McNairn (Scottish, 1910 - 2009)
Born in Hawick, McNairn was encouraged by his father, an amateur painter, to enroll at Edinburgh College of Art. He began in 1927, a time of extreme creativity following the end of the First World War. On graduation McNairn travelled to Paris where he attended the Académie Scandinave, drawn by the presence of the fauve artist, Othon Friesz. In 1933 he saw the surrealist exhibition in the city, which had a striking effect on him; he has stated the disturbing effect that Dalí and Miró had on him especially. This influence is identifiable in much of McNairn’s work through an unsettling emptiness and a slightly unnatural perspective. Following war service, McNairn returned to Scotland and became an art teacher.
