Arthur Fortescue McKay

Arthur Fortescue McKay

Arthur Fortescue McKay, painter (b at Nipawin, Sask 11 Sept 1926, d at Vancouver 3 Aug 2000). He studied at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary, 1946-48; Académie de la grande chaumière, Paris, 1949-50; Columbia U, and Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pa, 1956-57. He first began to teach at U Sask, Regina, in 1950. Appointed associate professor in art 1956-74, he served as director of its School of Art 1964-67. From 1978 to 1987 McKay was an associate professor at U of Regina.

One of the Regina Five, Art McKay was influenced in the 1960s by Barnett Newman at the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops and was included in Clement Greenberg's 1964 "Post-Painterly Abstraction" exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum. McKay is most noted for his scraped enamel "mandalas" which utilize circular and rectangular formats to create highly contemplative images reflecting his interest in Zen Buddhism. In 1969 the MacKenzie Gallery organized a survey of his mature works. McKay continued painting and in the 1970s had reintroduced the landscape in his work, however his output declined in later years.