Michael Andrews (artist)
Michael James Andrews ( born October 30, 1928 in Norwich, † 19 July 1995 in London) was a British painter.
Life
Michael Andrews was born the second child of Thomas Victor Andrews and Gertrude Emma Green in Norwich, England. At 18, he began a Saturday course in painting with oil paints at the Norwich Art School. 1949 to 1953 he studied art at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London. Andrews was, together with Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Leon Kosoff to the first generation of the Artists' Association of the School of London. While in the period after the Second World War, the most famous artists turned away from the painting and joined other more artistic possibilities, the association remained almost unaffected by those new movements of booming art genres. They all held on to their belief in the importance of figurative painting from the beginning. Though they all differ stylistically from each other, it is not only the passion for the genre of painting but also the tradition of the representation of the human form and its surroundings.
1949-1958
In the years between 1949 to 1953 Andrews studied at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London, under the direction of renowned artist William Coldstream. Among his most important early works by August for the People (1952 ) and A Man who Suddenly fell over ( 1952). When he exhibited in 1958 in Helen Lessores Beaux Arts Gallery in London, his work A man who Suddenly fell over was bought by the famous Tate Gallery, whereupon Andrews gained greater prominence.
Portraits
Also include some portraits of Michael Andrews ' oeuvre. In addition to portraits of friends such as Tim Behrens and John Deakin he made some self-portraits. He also deals with studies of heads of various pop stars of the 1960s, such as those of Arthur Brown 1968, entitled Study of a Head for, Lights ' no. 3 But this is a rather small number of portraits that he created in the course of his artistic existence.
1962-1969: " Parties "
In his early years as an artist Andrews dealt very strongly with social groups. This creative phase of the 1960s goes by the name of the parties. The most important example I 'll use a 1962 resulting work, The Colony Room Here, one sees groups of various figures in which it is Andrews friends, who are located in the trendy Soho Colony Room Club in Dean Street. From left to right, Jeffrey Bernard, John Deakin, Henrietta Moraes, Bruce Bernard, Lucian Freud, Muriel Belcher, Francis Bacon, Ian Board and Carmel have been mapped. The Colony Room I. serves as the official image of the School of London. Also, The Deer Park ( 1962) is a representation of a wide variety of characters, whose theme is the social behavior and its interactions. The characters in the book are based on the various real photographs of people from the show business, film and literature, from the past or the afterlife. Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Ian Fleming and the poet Arthur Rimbaud have been mapped in the work. Was also inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's film Andrews painting " La Notte " from 1961. Most important works of his party series include The Colony Room I. (1962), The Deer Park ( 1962), All Night Long ( 1963-64 ) and Good and Bad at Games ( 1964-68 ). In both latter Andrews was inspired by Francis Bacon, who had fallen at the time the theme of the triptych as a form of representation.
His confident adherence to the figurative as well as his preference for group compositions are characteristic of Andrews from the beginning. Different people - often friends or relatives - it is in an everyday context. Particularly striking is Andrews affinity for group representation in his party series in the 1960s, clearly, where the main goal is to represent individuals in their natural area and to connect them together. The representation of the informal acting attitudes of particular groups, such as in Andrews most famous work, The Colony Room I often deceive the viewer over the fact that that's a very important issue for Andrews. For this show the concerns of those formal relationship among or another. Social confrontation and thereby how to change their characters - as each plays its role - are the main themes of his earlier works.
1970 to 1975: "Lights "
In the five years 1970-1975 Andrews was working on a new series of images in which he used a balloon as the main character. Lights this series was named by just seven plants. In the title of Andrews was Arthur Rimbaud's poem " Les Illuminations" inspired. Here, Andrews is no longer figurative, human representation in itself important. For man is no longer painted directly, but we still as a silent observer of this scene or as a passenger on a floating over water or land balloons accessible. For Andrews the balloon serves as a metaphor for the self. Lights VII: a Shadow is the most reduced, but most successful work of his small series. In 1974 he exhibited Lights, in which he used acrylic paint with a spray gun for the most part, from Anthony d' Offay in the Gallery.
1977-1981: " School "
In the 1970s, Andrews began again his interests and his main theme on the behavior of different groups to restrict. In this case, however, it is less about the people during social occasions, it is now a question of how generally people, animals, etc. come together in different groups and behave. In School IV: Barracuda under Skipjack Tuna (1978 ) Andrews presented each fish represented in its unique and shimmering colors dar. Great effort he put into the different refractive shed coats the fish. However, although each individual creates his own unique shimmer and they are all different, so they are all the same. For Andrews the shed skin of the fish was like a kind of uniform and reminded him of the unity of clothing, which form a variety of communities and represent as a unit. For him it was a connection between the fish and the people, because Andrews recognized in the habits of people in groups are very similar to those of fish in shoals. His work Melanie and Me Swimming ( 1978-79 ), in which he himself is with his daughter (born 1970 ) mapped while swimming, belongs to this group of images, in which Andrews studied the behavior of fish in his own aquarium at home. In this series presented, illustrated and united Andrews variety of representations of water, swimming, and on the other hand the connection of individuals in a group.
1976-1986: " The Scottish Landscapes"
In the late seventies, 1975, Andrews made a trip in the Scottish countryside. The formal gardens and the surrounding hills and mountains of Drummond Castle, Perthshire inspired Andrews so much that he grappled with from then on Scottish literature and history. 25 almost photographic images were taken by the scenery of Scotland. The focus is strongly placed on the idyllic green landscape of Scotland and associated with a hunting scene. Generally, these are in the titles of this series as Alistair 's Day: 2nd Stalk (1980 ) or Peter 's Day to the person depicted in the foreground, with her gun each in sharp contrast to the idyllic nature and the ongoing animal pack in the back or middle ground stands.
1983-1989: "The Ayer Rocks "
One of his last series started with the famous Andrews, large-format portraits of Ayers Rock (Uluru). In October of 1983 he went on a trip to Ayers Rock in Australia. This landscape inspired and influenced his future work greatly. Andrews had discovered this a subject of reasonable for its scale, color and significance for the level of his employment. This can be seen in the oversized dimensions of The Cathedral, North - East Face / Uluru (Ayers Rock ) ( 1984-85 ), whose entire canvas, which measures 243.8 cm to 426.7 cm. Due to its surface shimmering shown he creates a very realistic representation of the hot, windy desert of Australia. The images are technically dazzling; full of radical stylistic variations. With accurate photographic observation he draws with most intimate details of the Australian landscape. However, this series falls very from Andrews grid. While the artist always remained as a member of the London School of faithful in any manner the tradition of figurative painting, this series forms an exception in his work. For the first time it is not about figures of people or animals, but only to the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people in their unique beauty.
Late Work
At the end of the 20th century, some more abstract paintings were created from the Thames. During this creative period he discovered a new freedom and skill to deal with oil paint. He began to work with a hair dryer to better push the turpentine over the canvas and to dilute more. In addition to the abstracted representation of the British river from Andrews goes here again back to his artistic roots. Although not to the same extent as we are used to, but he met here by the presentation of the six people in his work Thames Painting: the Estuary ( Mouth often he Thames ) ( 1994-95 ) located on the banks of the Thames, again the tradition of figurative art. This series of the Thames paintings were the last pictures with which Andrews employed.
On July 19, 1995 Michael Andrews died at the age of 66 in London of cancer.
Andrews painting process
Working from nature, as she exercised Andrews, was associated with existentialism, also called " agnosticism ", and was a big issue of the forties and fifties. Andrews took photographs not only to use, but also took advantage of templates for various forms. He mixed real elements such as people and places from a photograph or another painting with his memories. In Good and Bad at Games, he even used the first time the screen printing for the presentation of the background and combined this with templates. In order to better push the turpentine over the canvas and dilute even more, Andrews began at his River Thames images to work with a hair dryer.
Michael Andrews was a very slow painter and created in its entire 45 - year career as an artist only a small number of about 95 paintings. He rarely exhibited, shunned publicity and was at his work a lot of time. Only seven times he has had solo exhibitions. Often Andrews painted in a year just one or two images.