Shame

About Shame

John Scott’s anti-war themed paintings are created in a graphic street art style.

John Scott was viewed as a revolutionary artist whose eclectic oeuvre often explored themes of the fragility of humanity and the horrors of war. This piece displays his distinctive imagery—a human face with rabbit ears intended to suggest the angst of modern-day humanity.
Scott’s style is rough, simple shapes of expressive brush strokes in bold colours—deep blue, yellow, a touch of white and red, and charcoal black. Growing up during the Cold War era under the threat of a nuclear attack resulted in his politically charged anti-war themes.

“Art has to be more than just a psychological self-portraiture or the erection of meta systems. The constant building of an art that is only about itself. For me, I think art in general should be incorporated or still be a catalyst for social and political change.” 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.