03/03/2026
We are so sorry to hear of the loss of the Artist Johnny Taylor after a long illness .
He was instrumental in the forming of the New Charing Cross Gallery then Compass Gallery and a regular exhibitor, contributing hugely to the wider Scottish art scene as a painter and printmaker at the start of the Glasgow Print Studio.
Our sincerest condolences go to his partner Jackie, son Luke and his family and friends .
Extract from The Compass Contribution 1990 …
John Taylor was born in Darvel, Ayrshire in 1936. He graduated from GSA in 1959 and many years later took a Higher Diploma in Art at Birmingham Polytechnic. As a Founder Director of New Charing Cross Gallery in 1963, he made an important contribution to the public awareness of contemporary Scottish Art at a time when there were few opportunities for adventurous young artists to have their work professionally shown in the West of Scotland. He has always restricted teaching and other work to a minimum to allow maximum time for his painting.
His principal one-man shows in the past 10 years have been at Aberdeen Art Gallery, 1980; Third Eye Centre, 1982; Darlington Art Centre, 1983; Compass Gallery, 1985 &87; Demarco Gallery and Glasgow Print Studio 1987 and Edinburgh Print Studio 1989.
Taylor has never been afraid to express his beliefs and ideas through the medium of painting, whether it be on the nuclear issue or the human cost of conventional war. His 1987 exhibition at Compass entitled ‘View from the Bunker’ was probably his most powerful to date. A snapshot of a relative’s war grave in the desert became a grim symbol for the waste of human life, yet he managed to strike a fine visual balance in the work between beauty and carnage.
Taylor has taken part in New Scottish Painting, City Gallery, New York; Six Scottish Artists, Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, 1983; 12th International Print Biennale, Krakow, 1988; 5th Biennale European Art Heildelburg, 1988; Works on Paper from Scotland, Netherlands and Belgium, 1988; Consument Art, Nuremberg, 1988
Throughout his long career he exhibited widely in Scotland and throughout the UK and Europe
