Paintings and Drawings: Jon Schueler

September 18 – December 29, 2026

Jon Schueler (1916-1992) was a noted American Abstract Expressionist painter who spent many years
working in New York City. Early in his career, Schueler exhibited at NYC’s legendary Leo Castelli Gallery
and Stable Gallery. These galleries also presented the works of early Abstract Expressionists including Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg and many other modern art luminaries. Throughout his life, Schueler also spent stretches of time painting in Scotland, as its landscape was a primary source of
inspiration for the artist.

This exhibition, organized by the Zillman Art Museum, focuses on Schueler’s works created throughout
the 1960s and includes an array of oil paintings, drawings and watercolors. The 1960s proved to be a rich
period of intellectual growth and artistic experimentation for the artist that was fueled, in part, by teaching and visiting artist engagements at various art schools including The Maryland Institute, University of Pennsylvania, University of Illinois and Yale University School of Art.

Scotland had a hold on Schueler and was a perfect and fertile ground for creative production and
inspiration. The artist was specifically drawn to the environs around Mallaig, a small fishing village on the
west coast of the Scottish Highlands. It was the Scottish skies, with their shifting light and atmospheric
effects, that captivated the artist and became his grand subject. Schueler states, “I studied the Mallaig sky so intently, and I found in its convulsive movement and change and drama such a concentration of activity that it became all skies and even the idea of all nature to me.”

Featured prominently in the exhibition is a selection of large oil paintings rendered in a sophisticated palette that Schueler laid down with often spirited, bold brushstrokes. While rooted in abstraction, works such as Black Sky Opening to the Sea evoke the landscape. The artist’s sweeping horizontal marks and highly colored passages seem to reflect expanses of land and sky altered by fluctuating environmental conditions. In contrast to the dramatic works, the exhibition also features several serene, contemplative paintings where delicately modeled fields of color are applied with more subdued brushwork. In these works, subtle shifts in color seem to reflect moments of stillness in skies that are flooded with gently modulating light.

Drawing was a highly regarded aspect of Schueler’s creative practice, and his skill as a master mark-maker is evident in the large and small-scale drawings in the exhibition. The artist’s marks are both improvisational and deliberate, frenetic and restrained. The quality and diversity of line along with the combination of fluid media, such as ink, unite to create compositions that are both elegant and evocative.

Jon Schueler’s works are represented in prestigious museum collections throughout the United States and
the United Kingdom including The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; The Art Institute
of Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art, Edinburgh; among many others.