John Walker

English, 1939 - Present

Artist's website


Born in England in 1939, Walker studied in Birmingham. Some of his early work was inspired by abstract expressionism and post-painterly abstraction, and often combined apparently three-dimensional shapes with "flatter" elements. These pieces are usually rendered in acrylic paint.


In 1969 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to the United States, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981. He has been artist-in-residence at Oxford University (1977–78), and at Monash University, Melbourne (1980).


Around the early 1970s, Walker made a series of large Blackboard Pieces using chalk and the Juggernaut works which also use dry pigment. From the late 1970s his work makes allusions to earlier painters, such as Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet and Henri Matisse, either through the quoting of a pictorial motif, or the use of a particular technique.

In the 1970s he began to use oil paint moreand his work became notable for what has come to be termed canvas collage — the application of glued-on, separately painted patches of canvas to the main canvas (see the external link below for an example and image).


After spending some time in Australia, Walker got a job at the Victoria College of the Arts in Melbourne. He produced the Oceania series around this time which incorporates elements of native Oceanic art. Walker is currently the head of the graduate painting program at Boston University.


Please find below the selections that are available for purchase through the John Raimondi Gallery.

Contact Us at any time for purchase inquiries or further information.

Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved.
Using Format