Untitled (War Machines)

About Untitled (War Machines)

This graphic painting by John Scott of war machines is reminiscent of street art.

This dark image of two cruise missiles is one of a series of paintings John Scott did that deal with the machines of war. Scott is credited with being one of the few Canadian artists whose anti-war imagery reflected his experience growing up under the threat of a nuclear attack in the 1950s. Lauded for his often rough graphic drawings, this piece displays his characteristic expressive brushstrokes in charcoal, black, red, and a touch of white against a bright yellow background.

‘I perceive military technology as an extension of the senses, sort of phenomenological. That vision, hearing, even a kind of touch, are extended via technology over vast distances through planes and satellites and drones and all kinds of things. The self is enlarged to a point of being almost ubiquitous.”
John Scott

“The self-aware and wry-humoured Scott has remained consistent and eerily prescient in raw-edged drawings and found-object installations that plot a vector from Space Age optimism—mankind’s 'giant leap’ in the 20th century to the nihilism of unceasing war and terror in the 21st.” A. MacDonald, Director/Curator, Doris McCarthy Gallery, U. of T.

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.