British Art 1975 to Present Day

Scottish performance artist, painter and print maker. McLean studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 to 1963, and from 1963 to 1966 at St Martin's School of Art, London, where he and others rebelled against the formalist approach taken by teachers such as Anthony Caro and Phillip King.

In 1965 he abandoned conventional studio production in favour of impermanent sculptures and performances of a generally satirical nature directed against the art world.

In Pose Work for Plinths I (1971; London, Tate), a photographic documentation of one such performance, he used his own body to parody the poses of Henry Moore's celebrated reclining figures.

In the 1970s, McLean began to paint on photographic paper as a means of recording his live performances – these then developed into artistic statements in their own right.

Since the 1980s McLean has been producing large-scale vigorous paintings and prints of which Two Women is a strong example.