Michael Ayrton (20 February 1921 – 16 November 1975)T. G. Rosenthal, "Ayrton , Michael (1921–1975)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008
accessed 24 Jan 2015
/ref> was a British artist and writer, renowned as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and designer, and also as a critic, broadcaster and novelist. His varied output of sculptures, illustrations, poems and stories reveals an obsession with flight, myths, mirrors and mazes. He was also a stage and costume designer, working with John Minton on the 1942

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Brit ...

production of

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those ...

at the age of nineteen, and a book designer and illustrator for

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...

's '' The Human Age'' trilogy. An exhibition, 'Word and Image' (National Book League 1971), explored Lewis's and Ayrton's literary and artistic connections. He also collaborated with

Constant Lambert Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in ...

and

William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...

Life and career

Michael Ayrton Geograph-398317-by-Malcolm-Morris

Ayrton was born Michael Ayrton Gould, son of the writer Gerald Gould and the Labour politician Barbara Ayrton, and took his mother's maiden name professionally. His maternal grandmother was the electrical engineer and inventor, Hertha Marks Ayrton. In his teens during the 1930s he studied art at

Heatherley School of Fine Art The Heatherley School of Fine Art is an independent art school in London. The school was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as the school's principal from James Mathews Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school ...

and

St John's Wood Art School The St John's Wood Art School ( The Wood or Calderon's Art School) was an art school in St John's Wood, north London, England. The Art School was established in 1878 and was located on Elm Tree Road. It was founded by two art teachers, Elíseo Ab ...

, then in Paris under

Eugène Berman Eugène Berman (russian: Евгений Густавович Берман, links=no; 4 November 1899, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 14 December 1972, Rome) and his brother Leonid Berman (1896 – 1976) were Russian Neo-romantic painters and th ...

, where he shared a studio with John Minton. He travelled to Spain and attempted to enlist on the Republican side in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, but was rejected for being under-age.Martin Baker, ''The Art of Radio Times'', Ashmolean Museum, Oxford/Chris Beetles Limited, 2002, p. 28 In the 1940s, Ayrton participated in the BBC's popular radio programme ''

The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was ...

''. He married the novelist and cookery writer Elisabeth Balchin in 1942 following her divorce from Nigel Balchin a year earlier. Beginning in 1961, Michael Ayrton wrote and created many works associated with the myths of the

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being ...

and

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, an ...

, the legendary inventor and maze builder, including bronze sculpture and the pseudo-autobiographical novel ''The Maze Maker'' (

Holt, Rinehart and Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of the ...

, 1967). He also wrote and illustrated a satirical novel, ''Tittivulus or The Verbiage Collector'' (Max Reinhardt, 1953; designed by Will Carter), an account of the career of a minor devil whose original remit was to collect slovenly performances of the Divine Office in monasteries, but who develops, as the centuries pass, into a collector of all kinds of verbiage, and finally, in the modern age, mounts a fascistic revolution in Hell. Ayrton was also the author of several non-fiction works on

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

, including ''Aspects of British Art'' (Collins, 1947). He died in 1975, survived by his wife. In 1977,

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BM&AG) is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England. It has a collection of international importance covering fine art, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, natural history, archaeology, ethnography, loc ...

organised a major retrospective exhibition of his work which subsequently went on tour. His work is in several important collections including the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London, National Portrait Gallery, London,

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

, New York, Fry Art Gallery, Essex. Ayrton's work was also featured at the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

in London, in an exhibition running from September to October 1955. In 2021, the artist's centenary year, there have been exhibitions of his work (''Celebrating Michael Ayrton'' at The Lightbox Gallery, Woking, UK; ''A Singular Obsession: A Centenary Celebration of the work of Michael Ayrton'', Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, UK; ''Michael Ayrton's Minotaur Suite'', Kruizenga Art Museum, Michigan, USA), and a new illustrated monograph, ''Michael Ayrton: Ideas Images Reflections''.

Selected writings

* 1945: ''Poems of Death''. Verses chosen by Phoebe Pool, Lithographs by Michael Ayrton. London: Frederick Muller Ltd. * 1946: ''British Drawing''. London: Collins ASIN B00149X1DM * 1947: ''Aspects of British Art''. London: Collins * 1953: ''Tittivulus or The Verbiage Collector''. London: Max Reinhardt * 1957: ''Golden Sections''. London: Methuen * 1962: ''The Testament of Daedalus''. London: Methuen. with a foreword by

Rex Warner Rex Warner (9 March 1905 – 24 June 1986) was an English classicist, writer, and translator. He is now probably best remembered for ''The Aerodrome'' (1941).Chris Hopkins, ''English Fiction in the 1930s: Language, Genre, History'' Continuum Inte ...

; reprinted, London: Robin Clark, 1991. * 1967: ''The Maze Maker: a novel''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston * 1969: ''Berlioz: A singular obsession''. London: BBC Publications * 1969: ''Giovanni Pisano: Sculptor''. London: Thames & Hudson * 1971: ''The Rudiments of Paradise: Various essays on various arts''. London: Secker & Warburg * 1972: ''Fabrications''. London: Secker & Warburg. / New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1973

References

External links

www.michaelayrton.com
- website of The Estate of Michael Ayrton *
Works in Tate collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ayrton, Michael 1921 births 1975 deaths 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century British sculptors 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English painters English male painters Alumni of St John's Wood Art School Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art Michael British people of Polish-Jewish descent English broadcasters English printmakers English male novelists English male sculptors Modern artists People from St Pancras, London Sculptors from London 20th-century English male artists

Life and career

Selected writings

See also

References

Further reading

External links