Michael Bird (born 12 April 1958) is a British author and art historian. He was born in London and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School and

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

. After teaching at Sherborne School he worked in publishing, including a stint on the editorial team of the Macmillan Dictionary of Art (no
Oxford Art Online
. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Bird published poetry, essays and reviews. His books on modern British art include monographs on the artists

Sandra Blow Sandra Betty Blow (14 September 1925 – 22 August 2006) was an English abstract painter and one of the pioneers of the British abstract movement of the 1950s. Blow's works are characteristically large scale, colourful abstract collages made f ...

(2005),

Bryan Wynter Bryan Herbert Wynter (8 September 1915 – 2 February 1975)Lynn Chadwick Lynn Russell Chadwick, (24 November 1914 – 25 April 2003) was an English sculptor and artist. Much of his work is semi-abstract sculpture in bronze or steel. His work is in the collections of MoMA in New York, the Tate in London and th ...

(2014) and

George Fullard George Fullard (15 September 1923 – 25 December 1973) was an English sculptor. Born in Sheffield on 15 September 1923 Fullard served with the 17th/21st Lancers during World War II and was severely wounded at the Battle of Cassino. He studied ...

(2017),''The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time'' (2008, 2nd edn. 2016) and ''Studio Voices: Art and Life in 20th-century Britain'' (2018). He has also written a history of art for children, ''Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories'' (2016). Bird has written for ''The Times'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''Modern Painters'', ''Tate Etc'' and ''PN Review''. His work for radio includes contributions to the BBC arts programmes ''Kaleidoscope'', ''Night Waves'' and ''The Essay'', and features for BBC Radio 3 and 4, including ''The Wreck of the Alba'' (2009), based on a painting by

Alfred Wallis Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 – 29 August 1942) was a British fisherman and artist known for his port landscapes and shipping scenes painted in a naïve style. Having no artistic training, he began painting at the age of 70, using househol ...

, ''Lanyon's Last Flight'' (2011), ''The Flower Fields'' (2012) and ''Frost–Heron'' (2017). Bird was National Life Stories Goodison Fellow in 2016. In 2018 he was appointed Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Exeter. Bird lives in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

with his wife, the artist Felicity Mara.

Select bibliography

Books

* ''Sandra Blow'' (2005). Lund Humphries. * ''The St Ives Artists: A Biography of Place and Time'' (2008). Lund Humphries. * ''Bryan Wynter'' (2010). Lund Humphries. * ''100 Ideas that Changed Art'' (2012). Laurence King Publishing. * ''Lynn Chadwick'' (2014). Lund Humphries. * ''Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: A Children's History of Art'' (2016). Laurence King Publishing. * ''George Fullard: Sculpture and Survival'' (2017). Gallery Pangolin. * ''Studio Voices: Art and Life in 20th-century Britain'' (2018). Lund Humphries/British Library. * ''Lynn Chadwick: A Sculptor on the International Stage'' (with contributions by Daniel Chadwick, Eva Chadwick, Sarah Marchant and Marin R. Sullivan) (2018). Scheidegger & Spiess. * ''Artists' Letters: Leonardo da Vinci to David Hockney'' (2019). White Lion Publishing.

Selected essays and articles

* ‘The perception of symmetry’, Tate Etc. (Spring 2004) * 'In character: Alexander Mackenzie and Landscape', ''Alexander Mackenzie'' (exhib. cat., London: Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 2007) * ‘The transformed total: the constructions of

Margaret Mellis Margaret Nairne Mellis (22 January 1914 – 17 March 2009) was a Scotland, Scottish artist, one of the early members and last survivors of the group of modernist artists that gathered in St Ives, Cornwall, St Ives, in Cornwall, in the 1940s. She ...

’, ''Margaret Mellis'' (exhib. cat., London: Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 2008) * ‘I have heard of your paintings: an artist in rehearsal’, ''Lisa Wright: The Histories'' (exhib. cat., London: Beardsmore Gallery/Roundhouse, 2008) * ‘Myth and continuity:

Peter Lanyon George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the age ...

’s Porthmeor’, ''Porthmeor: A Lanyon Mural Rediscovered'' (exhib. cat., Bath: Victoria Art Gallery, 2008) * ‘Questions of balance:

’, ''Sandra Blow'' (exhib. cat., Beaux Arts London, 2009) * 'Janet Leach, William Marshall, Jason Wason' (exhib. cat. essay on Jason Wason) (London: Austin Desmond Fine Art, 2011) * 'Introduction: Dressed in Human Form', ''The Sculpture of Kenneth Armitage'', by James Scott and Claudia Milburn (Lund Humphries, 2016) * 'Figures in the Post-war Landscape', ''Facing Fear: Giacometti / Chadwick'' (exhib. cat., Zwolle: Museum de Fundatie, 2018)

References

External links

Michael Bird website

Interview with Michael Bird

Article for ''Tate Etc''

Interview with Michael Bird, Guest Curator of ''Artists' Voices''

Interview about ''Artists' Letters''

Lecture at Saïd Business School, Oxford University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, Michael British art historians 1958 births Living people Alumni of Merton College, Oxford