M HKA Ensembles

1921 - 1975

Born in London (United Kingdom).

Michael Ayrton was a painter and sculptor of imaginative subjects; theatre designer and illustrator; writer and broadcaster. Education interrupted through illness; began studying drawings at the Albertina, Vienna, c. 1935; travelled in Italy, France and other countries. Attended Heatherley's and St John's Wood Schools of Art. Influenced by Tchelitchew, Sutherland and Moore. Practised commercial art; shared a studio with John Minton in Paris 1939 and held an exhibition with him of their designs for Macbeth at the Leicester Galleries 1942. Invalided out of the R.A.F. 1942; taught drawing and theatre design at Camberwell School of Art 1942–4. Art critic for The Spectator 1944–6. Illustrated a number of books. Author of British Drawings 1946; Hogarth's Drawings 1948; Tittivulus 1953; Golden Sections 1957, etc. Began to make sculpture in 1958. Retrospective exhibitions at Wakefield 1949 and the Whitechapel Art Gallery 1955.

(Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I)