Michael Ayrton

Michael Ayrton (1921–1975) was a British painter, sculptor, writer and designer whose work developed from the Neo-Romanticism of the 1940s towards an increasingly personal engagement with classical mythology. Across painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking, he returned repeatedly to themes of the figure, the labyrinth, Daedalus, Icarus and the Minotaur.

Born in London, Ayrton spent formative periods in Vienna and Paris during the late 1930s. In Paris he studied with Eugène Berman and came into contact with Giorgio de Chirico, while sharing a studio with his friend John Minton. He and Minton exhibited together at the Leicester Galleries in 1942 and also collaborated on the scenery and costumes for John Gielgud’s production of Macbeth.

Ayrton’s association with The Redfern Gallery began in the early 1940s. He held his first solo exhibition at the gallery in 1943 and continued to exhibit there at regular, generally biennial intervals until 1959. His work formed an important part of the Redfern’s post-war programme; in 1953, for example, the gallery showed new paintings by Ayrton alongside Graham Sutherland, Bryan Wynter and Michael Rothenstein. Still Life, Aubergines and Corn Cob, shown at the Redfern that year, was purchased from the gallery by the Government Art Collection.

During the 1940s Ayrton also worked extensively as an art critic, broadcaster and designer. He became art critic of The Spectator in 1944 and worked with Constant Lambert on the Royal Opera House production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in 1946. His interests ranged widely across painting, theatre, literature and broadcasting, and he was among the youngest contributors to the BBC’s Brains Trust.

A series of visits to Italy from the late 1940s onwards had a lasting effect on his work. Classical sculpture and mythology became increasingly central, and in the early 1950s, encouraged by Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti, Ayrton began to work seriously in sculpture. The stories of Daedalus, Icarus and the Minotaur developed into recurring subjects through which he explored the human figure, confinement, flight and the idea of the labyrinth.

These themes also entered his writing. His novel The Maze Maker, published in 1967 and awarded the Heinemann Award for Literature, retold the story of Daedalus and extended ideas already present in his sculpture and drawing.

Ayrton exhibited widely in Britain and internationally. A retrospective was held at Wakefield City Art Gallery in 1949, followed by a major exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1955. His work is represented in major public collections in Britain and overseas, including Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Arts Council Collection and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.