John Havens Thornton
1933–2021 · USA
About John Havens Thornton
John Havens Thornton (1933–2021) made abstract paintings structured by lines, grids, geometric forms, and measured changes in color. Born in Mexico City and raised in New Jersey, he graduated from Princeton University in 1955 with a degree in mechanical engineering, having studied painting and art history with William Seitz. After working in industrial design in New York, Thornton began exhibiting in 1961. He moved to Boston the following year and taught at Massachusetts College of Art from 1963 to 1984.
Thornton’s early gestural paintings gradually gave way to a more reductive vocabulary of linear figures, grids, and serial variation. His Goldberg Variations of 1979 comprised thirty-two paintings in a shared format; later bodies of work included Vinnie’s Ball and the Constellation Series. In 1984 he settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he continued to paint until his death in 2021.
Information
John Havens Thornton (1933–2021) made abstract paintings structured by lines, grids, geometric forms, and measured changes in color. Born in Mexico City and raised in New Jersey, he graduated from Princeton University in 1955 with a degree in mechanical engineering, having studied painting and art history with William Seitz. After working in industrial design in New York, Thornton began exhibiting in 1961. He moved to Boston the following year and taught at Massachusetts College of Art from 1963 to 1984.
Thornton’s early gestural paintings gradually gave way to a more reductive vocabulary of linear figures, grids, and serial variation. His Goldberg Variations of 1979 comprised thirty-two paintings in a shared format; later bodies of work included Vinnie’s Ball and the Constellation Series. In 1984 he settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he continued to paint until his death in 2021.