Bruce McLean
Biography

Studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 to 1963, and from 1963 to 1966 at St Martin's School of Art, London. In 1965 he abandoned conventional studio production in favour of impermanent sculptures using materials such as water, along with 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. When in 1972 he was offered an exhibition at the Tate Gallery, he opted, with obviously mocking intent, for a ‘retrospective' lasting only one day. Mainly a sculptor McLean turned increasingly to painting, in a witty and subversive parody of current expressionist styles, and to ceramics.