John Pearson Collection

John Pearson was born in Yorkshire and studied at the Harrogate School of Art, Yorkshire (National Diploma of Design, 1960), the Royal Academy Schools, London (Certificate, RAS 1963), the Akademie der Bildende Kunst, Munich (1963–64, research fellow), and Northern Illinois University (MFA. 1966).  Before arriving to teach at Oberlin College in 1972, he taught at the University of New Mexico, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1978.  He was the Young-Hunter Professor of Studio Art at Oberlin College until his retirement in 2014.

John Pearson developed his style over five decades, ranging from an intense system-based program to one more attuned to the spiritual influences of the natural environment. With over 100 one-man shows (his first in London in 1963) and numerous accolades and prizes, he continues to perfect his carefully painted and constructed pieces to suggest the beauty of form. Major museums in Europe and the United States own his work, as do many private and corporate collectors. He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Canadian Council, and has had over 100 solo exhibitions internationally, including at the Akron Art Museum, the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Evans Carter Museum, the LA County Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rijeka, Croatia. His commissions include both sculpture and painting.

Pearson taught drawing and silkscreen printing at Oberlin, and served as Art Department Chair from 1982 to 1987, and Co-Chair from 2002 to 2004. In 2000 he published Silkscreen: The Poster Project, based on an exhibition at the Allen Memorial Art Museum chronicling 28 years of student silkscreen posters in his personal collection. Upon his retirement in 2014, the Allen Memorial Art Museum received an endowed fund in his name for the acquisition of abstract works of art, perpetuating Pearson’s legacy of teaching in this area. He lives in Oberlin with his wife, the artist Audra Skuodas. The couple had two children, Cadence and Jason.

Sources Consulted

Allen Memorial Art Museum Newsletter, Fall 2014, Accessed April 12, 2017.

Christina Morgan, “The Master of Silkscreen,” The Oberlin Review, April 13, 2001.

John Pearson Faculty File, Faculty Records (RG 28), Oberlin College Archives.

The Portfolio of John Pearson, Oberlin College faculty website at http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/jpearson/bio.htm, accessed April 12, 2017.

John Pearson entry on Artspace website at http://www.artspace.com/john_pearson, accessed April 12, 2017.

John Pearson entry on Cleveland Arts Prize website at http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/john_pearson.html, accessed April 12, 2017.

Note written by Anne Cuyler Salsich.