M I C H A E L  A Y R T O N

British, 1921-1975

The Barley Matrix

Oil, collage and barley on canvas

76 x 127 cm

Signed and dated “Michael Ayrton, August '65”

EXHIBITONS:

'Michael Ayrton, Landscapes: Seen, Imagined and Metaphorical' Rowntree Clark Gallery, 16th SEPTEMBER - 6th OCTOBER 2004

LITERATURE:

Justine Hopkins, Michael Ayrton, Bury St. Edmunds, 1994, p.291, illustrated;

Edward Clark, Michael Ayrton Landscapes: seen, imagined and metaphorical, ex. cat., London 2004

Painted in East Anglia in 1965 as part of a series of works where Ayrton was influenced by the effects of famers burning the corn in the fields.

Michael Ayrton the English sculptor, painter, printmaker and sculptor was born in London where he briefly studied art in the mid 1930s. Between 1937 and 1939 he lived in Paris where he shared a studio with fellow English artist John Minton.

During World War II Ayrton taught drawing and theatre design at Camberwell School of Art and later, 1944-46, was an art critic for the Spectator magazine. In 1942 he had held his first important exhibition, with John Minton, at the Leicester Galleries.

In the mid 1940s Ayrton's landscapes developed a neo-romantic vein showing the influence of contemporary English artists such as Sutherland and Nash. However Ayrton was increasingly interested in sculpture, receiving help from Henry Moore, and taking inspiration from Greek mythology. Important and recurring themes in his work were the minotaur, the maze and legendary figures such as Daedelus and Icarus.

Ayrton's work is to be found in important public collections, notably the Tate Gallery, London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Retrospective exhibitions have been held at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1955 and at Agnews in 1984.

SOLD