John Link

Mandell’s Gallery is pleased to host an exhibition of John Links paintings 2-30 April 2022

A catalogue is available for purchase

John Link 1941 – 2021

John had a successful career entwined in the theatre he trained for three years as an actor at Rose Bruford College. Although he then realised he did not want to be an actor he did discover directing and for 30 years, John worked as a theatre director and TV producer, starting with repertory theatre productions in the north of England before moving to London and Thames TV. In 1996 John taught at LAMDA. He was director and senior tutor, and he remained there for 15 years. John directed many productions, but while teaching was a big part of his work, he was also preparing students for life – he had found something that he was brilliant at, and he just flew!

In his mid 60s a doctor friend told him that he was taking on all the students’ problems and that he needed to learn to relax – why didn’t he take up golf? Golf wasn’t for John, but on the way home he bought a canvas, having decided to try painting. In the early 2000’s John took up painting first as an outlet and to relax but it became a passion. He was almost entirely self-taught and in 2004 he began working full time as an artist. He first exhibited in London and Brighton and then Norwich after relocating there in 2018. He devoted most of his time to his studio in Norwich.  

His paintings are spontaneous and free, they have an energy that conveys his own passion and love of Shakespeare and the Theatre. He used the subject he knew and loved to explore and develop his drawing and painting. Colour has always played an important part in his work however, in recent years there was a significant shift in his palette in this last series of paintings: with powerful orange, reds and yellows, lush greens and blues, John really began to experiment with colour. These final paintings John called his legacy paintings.

John’s figures are often inspired by Shakespeare characters such as Rosalind (As You Like It), Miranda (The Tempest), Isabella (Measure for Measure). John has never portrayed these characters in a precise and descriptive way but left their identity somewhat mysterious. Their faces are composed of simple lines creating wistful expressions which invite the viewer to create their own narratives. As John’s painting and palette progressed, the evocative figures and their connections to Shakespearian characters became more elusive.

His landscapes can be dreamlike and almost surreal at times, the latest, created with the strong vivid palette have a feeling of positivity and confidence. Most significantly this is represented in John’s last painting ‘Spring Cannot Be Cancelled’.

This exhibition shows the journey from his first works directly inspired by theatrical plays, through to his last paintings full of powerful, vivid colours and captivating characters.

‘The act of painting or indeed, creating, should be like
a piece of jazz improv – structured – starting from
an idea, this allows freedom to roam and find its
own outcome.’ – John Link

‘Link’s paintings are colourful, quirky, fun, but in the expressive faces, our first impression is of a pervading melancholia, “that sense of being a bit lost, damaged”. The weight of human self awareness, and our isolation as individuals, are its crux. Colour vitalises, design contains and these cushion the melancholy. There is an imagined conversation: “Who am I? Where am I going?” Pondering existence, perhaps on the verge of some liberating insight? These paintings,like Shakespeare’s plays, hold a lightness alongside an intensity and weave a curious unexpected line between them.’

Taken from a longer article by Mary Goody MA (Courtauld Institute of Art)

“I have been a fan of John Links’s work from the moment I first saw it. The portraits are bright and colourful, which I love. You know immediately which character is being portrayed, and you know there is a story there somewhere. I would fill my house with these painting if I had the room!”

Judi Dench