Michael Tyzack
1933-2007
He studied at Sheffield College of Art 1950-2, and at the Slade 1952-6, winning a French Government Scholarship in 1956-7. His first solo exhibition was staged at the Axiom Gallery, in 1966, where he subsequently showed in 1968 and 1970, and he exhibited internationally, including at the Frances Aronson Gallery, Atlanta, USA, in 1978. A prizewinner at the John Moores in 1965 and the recipient of a Welsh Arts Council Commission Award in 1969, he was Visiting Artist at the University of Iowa in 1971 and was appointed Professor of Fine Art, College of Charleston, Iowa, in 1976. His painting used hard-edged geometric shapes on shaped canvases, abstract rippling shapes and the combination of hard-edged geometric forms with freer areas of vibrant colour. He was one of the most distinguished British abstract painters to have settled in the United States in the last half-century. He went to teach and became a revered mentor for many young artists, telling them that "without risk, there is no serious painting". Robert Hughes and Norbert Lynton were among the prominent critics to praise his work and it was Lynton who supported him in his first one-man show at the Axiom Gallery, London, in 1966. Tyzack's work is represented in museums worldwide including the Tate Gallery, the V & A and the Arts Council of Great Britain. Tyzack's colour variations were so subtle that sometimes they did not seem to be there. "Pessimists see an absence of colour, optimists the potential presence of colour," he said.
Works Available
Landscape, 1955