Don Quixote

About Don Quixote

This street art style graphic acrylic painting is by John Scott.

The crudely painted imagery of this Canadian artist often included his signature use of rabbit-like figures. Scott created these accessible images to suggest anxiety-ridden humans, victims of modern-day society. His artwork is informed by his working-class background, his love of street art and heavy rock music. Growing up during the Cold War era and the threat of a nuclear attack resulted in themes that revealed his anti-war politics and his genuine anguish at the negative effects of capitalism on humanity. This painting is named after a famous Spanish novel about a doomed character who, alongside his faithful companion, embarks on a quest to restore chivalry in the world.

(The Bunny ears/imagery) “ evolved out of working at the Ramsey Wright Zoology building at U of T. There was an animal colony in the basement. There were hundreds of rabbits, and I had to take care of them. They were the ultimate victims. They were kept in cages, they were experimented on, they lived very singular lives, stuck next to each other, but no contact. They seem to me to be a perfect metaphor for the average person who is at the mercy of the powers that be.” John Scott

John Scott (1950-2022) was born to a working-class family in 1950 Windsor, Ontario. His father worked in a local factory and died of emphysema when John was only 11 years old. As a teenager, John left school after Grade Ten and, to help support his family, worked at assembly line jobs.
In 1972, he followed his older brother to Toronto and for the next four years attended the Ontario College of Art, the University of Toronto and Centennial College. Scott became a Professor in the Drawing and Painting program of the Faculty of Art at OCAD University in Toronto and taught there for 38 years.
In 2000, he was the first recipient of the Governor General's Award in Visual Arts and Media.
John Scott exhibited extensively, and his work can be found in private and public collections in both Canada and the United States, notably the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.