Raymond MacMahon

Raymond John MacMahon made a mid-career style change from depicting Cubist cityscapes to painting non-representationally. His sole teaching position was at Birmingham Southern College in Alabama, where he established the fine arts department, served as its chair, and is credited with designing the art building in the 1960s.

MacMahon was born in Savannah, Georgia, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Georgia in Athens where he studied with Lamar Dodd. During World War II he was a tank commander under General George Patton. MacMahon's stern teaching demeanor is attributed to this experience. Following the war he returned to his alma mater and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1947. He also used the GI Bill to pursue studies in New York.

From 1947 until 1981, MacMahon conducted drawing and painting courses at Birmingham Southern College. He started the Village Painters as well as another painting group at the local Indian Springs School, a private day and boarding school. Don Stewart, who was a pre-med student at the college, class of 1981, recounted how MacMahon questioned his motivations for taking an art course; he answered "I plan to be a surgeon, I need eye-hand coordination skills. Besides, I think I like to draw," a response that did not particularly satisfy his instructor. Stewart got his medical degree, but later abandoned medicine to become an artist. He recalled that MacMahon declared on the first day of class: "Art is like golf. It's fun to do, it doesn't hurt anybody, and it's a great way to waste a lot of time. But it will never pay your grocery bill, and it's a damned expensive habit to get into."

During the 1960s, MacMahon painted hard-edge geometric abstractions which reveal the influence of Josef Albers–whom MacMahon considered an artistic mentor. Later he turned to a different style in which daubs of color were scattered across the painting surface and were stabilized visually by strong verticals. MacMahon spent the last years of his life in Sarasota, Florida.