Michael James Andrews Original Slade School of Art London 1952 Modern Vintage UK Modernist Portrait Pencil Graphite and Acrylic on Board Painting

Michael Andrews, (1928-1995), Original Slade School of Art contemporary modernist autobiographical portrait of an instructor at the artist's school- Slade School of Art, prior to receiving his diploma. There is a related painting at the Tate Museum that is noted, that painting "was painted for his Diploma Examination shortly before leaving the Slade School of Art to face a period of uncertainty", and is titled "A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over", 1952. This portrait of his instructor appears to be a portrait of an instructor at the school, which is the same individual. The painting is a drawing in pencil/graphite under acrylic painting on a masonite board panel in excellent original condition, also circa 1952, with no previous restoration or overpaints. The painting is unframed and is signed with a large scrawling "M" on the lower left of the painting, as some of his paintings are from this precise era. The painting's measurements are 22" X 28".   

Born into a devout Methodist family, Michael Andrews grew up in Norwich, England. Norwich Union Insurance employed his father. He received his education at the City of Norwich School, where he also attended evening classes at the Norwich School of Art during his final year. Following his national service, a significant portion of which was spent in Egypt, he pursued further studies at the renowned Slade School of Fine Art in London. While there, he was greatly influenced by William Coldstream, the school's Principal, and occasionally received guidance from Francis Bacon, who taught at the school's sketching club. In 1953, Andrews won a prestigious two-year scholarship in painting to the British School in Rome. After returning from Rome, he divided his time between Norwich and London until 1961 he settled in London permanently. However, in 1977, he relocated to Norfolk.

Andrews held his first solo exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London in 1958, followed by another exhibition at the same venue in 1963, when he began living with June Keeley, his future wife. They had a daughter named Melanie, who was born in 1970. In 1992, they returned from Norfolk to London, where Andrews passed away three years later. His artistic achievements were recognized during his lifetime with a retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London from 1980 to 1981. Furthermore, another retrospective was held posthumously at Tate Britain in London in 2001.

While Andrews is often associated with painters from the School of London, such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Leon Kossoff, and Frank Auerbach, his artistic style differed in certain aspects. Despite sharing their focus on representing appearances, exploring the human form, and avoiding abstraction, Andrews painted relatively few portraits and only created three self-portraits throughout his career spanning approximately four decades. With a few exceptions, his paintings after 1970 typically did not feature people physically, although they often conveyed an implied human presence or evoked a sense of drama.

During the last 25 years of his life, Andrews devoted himself to four significant landscape series and a collection of luminous paintings depicting fish in water. These fish paintings continued his exploration of group behavior, which he initially explored in the 1960s through works like "The Deer Park," "All Night Long," and "Good and Bad at Games." Driven by a profound curiosity about the natural world, Andrews found inspiration in the primeval landscapes of England and Scotland, the Australian outback, and the River Thames. In 1986, he wrote, "It seems to me impossible not to paint religious landscapes of aboriginal Australia, just as it is almost impossible not to paint historical landscapes in Scotland."

Michael Andrews, born in 1928 in Norwich, England, passed away in 1995 in London, England. He attended the City of Norwich School and the Norwich School of Art in England and later pursued his studies at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1949 to 1953. Notable solo exhibitions of his work have been held at esteemed museums such as the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh (1991), Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid (2000), and Tate Britain in London (2001).

Informational References: 

The Gagosian Museum of Art  

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