MICHAEL AYRTON (1921-1975)
MODERN BRITISH (20th Century )

02105

Oil on canvas

Signed and dated 1960 upper left

127.00 cm wide   76.20 cm high

50.00 inches wide  30.00 inches high

Matthiesen Ltd, 1961; sold to:
Sir Robert Mayer; by descent to:
Lady Jacqueline Mayer; to 2007

London, Matthiesen Ltd, Michael Ayrton: the Icarus Theme, October 1961, catalogue number 7

Michael Ayrton and John Minton shared a studio in Paris between 1938-39 when they studied under Eugene Berman and strengthened their contacts with the French Neo-Romantics, and in their designs for the sets and costumes for John Gielgud’s production of Macbeth (1941-12) they reveal their indebtedness then to French models rather than the landscape based tradition of English Neo-Romanticism in which both were to immerse themselves in 1943-45.

Michael Ayrton was admired during his life more for his originality; his independence of both thought and quality. His work can not be slotted into any specific artistic “category” or movement and he never sought general critical acclaim, but those who had a sensitive eye for talent such as Wyndham Lewis praised Ayrton highly:

Michael Ayrton is one of the two or three young artists destined to shape the future of British Art.

Ayrton with his ceaselessly inquiring mind rejected any of the former ideals that an artist should distrust his intellect and with extraordinary powers of analysis and fluency of ideas he rethought the disciplinary interests of art. Because during the First World War the media’s audio and visual impressions replaced the written word, the growing illiteracy had encouraged an appreciation of the work for its formal and colouristic qualities. “Form without content” Roger Fry had described the popular French Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism. The intellectual and mythical content of Classical and Renaissance art had been lost. Michael Ayrton revived this language of Greek mythology, his creative energies rooted in Humanism.

In 1973, David Piper made the observation Michael Ayrton is in urgent need of close scholarly attention.

Indeed for a man who had mastered, art criticism and historicism; had been a novelist, broadcaster, theatrical designer and film director as well as a painter, sculptor and etcher, such a call for attention is certainly not misplaced.

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