In more than one sense Jon Schueler found himself and his vocation on his first working visit to Mallaig - the small fishing village on the west coast of Scotland which later became a central part of his existence. Here he encountered Nature in all its diversity and strengths. He experienced the changing state of the sea and sky - the lost horizon of so much of his painting. He went out with the local fishermen and encountered the rawness and savagery of hostile waves whipped to a frenzy by the Atlantic gales howling through the Minch and across the islands of the Inner Hebrides. He walked in the snow clouds and driving rain sweeping across the rocky headlands, retained these images deep inside and then returned to his studio to confront the ultimate reality of the artist - the blank canvas stretched and primed ready to receive significant, vibrant and urgent brushmarks. Drawing on his visual memory of 'sea dogs', the revelation of a summer's night above the Sound of Sleat and his provocative female muses, Jon Schueler succeeded over many years in creating paintings without edges. These are powerful and complex structures which reach into the depths of your soul, unearth the archetypes and scratch at the unconscious mind. These paintings are Jungian in the truest sense and illustrate Jon Schueler's personal journey through many turbulent relationships with women and other artists. This was an artist who did not spare himself any of life's vicissitudes - they were his burden, his trial, his cross and his release.
In the final analysis the book itself is a remarkable achievement and deserves to be read widely by those who examine the achievements of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists. This group should not be sub-divided into early or late contributors as they were all drawing on the same well for their inspiration - a hopeful world being reborn in the tragic aftermath of the World Wars of this century. It is often said that these artists took painting to the limit - even to the extremity - of free form and the deconstruction of figurative line. While all of this is probably true, they have left behind a truly astonishing series of images which constantly remind us of our own responsibility towards Nature and of our own mortality. These pictures convey us forward into the future with a message to our grandchildren and their grandchildren that this solitary planet earth deserves our vigilant care and respect.
The artist, often suprisingly, can remain in touch with the capacity of science, engineering and technology to restore our faith in the future. At the same time he or she acknowledges the struggle for survival in difficult and troubled times across a frequently war-torn world. The artist will never have a comfortable life in this regard as Jon Schueler's marks on paper serve to remind us. But Art like Science is a belief system that goes to the centre of our being. It is a spiritual path. Jon Schueler was my friend and I shall continue to respect him for his courage and determination - and his willingness to underpin his artistic expression with thoughts, words and deeds which reflect his generosity of spirit. This was an artist worthy of his generation!
The book is about the dignity and freedom of artistic expression and deserves to be read by all those who claim a knowledge of the history of painting in the 20th century.
