Celebrating Michael Ayrton: A Centenary Exhibition

 On a recent visit to the Lightbox in Woking, I was struck once again by what a fabulous place it is, and how smoothly it appears to operate. I love their philosophy: 'At The Lightbox gallery and museum, we strive to put art and well being at the heart of everything we do'.They have three collections, the most significant being The Ingram Collection; two catalogues showing works in the Ingram collection are available from the shop, and are great to look at.

I'd specifically gone to see their Michael Ayrton exhibition: 'Celebrating Michael Ayrton: A Centenary Exhibition. Apart from the subject matter, what really attracted me to the exhibition was the fact that 'Roman Window' by Michael Ayrton was their featured painting in all their advertising.

There's the poster, with 'Roman Window' on loan from Swindon Museum and Art Gallery featured as THE image.

The gallery is light and airy, and had a long plinth down the middle for the sculptures, Roman Window can be seen at the end of the gallery with someone looking at it.

I picked out a few paintings to include, the one above is 'Cycladic Shore at Dusk' 1961

This was stunning 'The Red Chair (Portrait of Elizabeth)' 1954. Elizabeth was Ayrton's wife.

We're familiar with this painting on loan from Swindon

This painting 'Catalan Caged Birds' has been loaned to Swindon and often appeared in exhibitions in the gallery at Apsley House.

'Pond at Bradfields' 1953 is a charming painting of a child, who I think may have been a step child inherited when he married Elizabeth. 

Elsewhere there was an exhibition entitled: Night Shaking with the Ingram Collection', these 2 pieces were fabulous. The first by Dora Carrington, 'Iris Tree on a Horse' c 1920, 'one of the few depictions of a woman on a horse portrayed in such dynamic action'

This is 'Ghost Boat' 2003 by John Behan, the shadows it cast were tremendous.

So that was my recent visit to the Lightbox, as you will have seen from the poster above, the exhibition only runs until 8 August, this Sunday, but it's well worth a last dash there.

A link to the talk by Justine Hopkins about Roman Window appears below:

 https://friendsofsmag.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-traveller-in-space-and-time-michael.html

The information with the exhibition was good, I've included it here:

 

 

A Traveller in Space and Time: Michael Ayrton

We were very pleased to welcome Justine Hopkins, after our AGM and a sandwich break, to give a very personal, highly knowledgeable and fascinating insight into Michael Ayrton.
This was a return after a 25 year break to Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. Amazingly Erik Burnett-Godfree was present at both talks! Coincidentally he has written an article in our SwindonMAG on Michael Ayrton's Roman Window, our famous Michael Ayrton painting in the most recent edition.

Roman window is painted from a hotel bed across the road from this room, and wonderfully described by Ayrton in an the essay from the collection 'Golden Sections' (published Methuen 1957). (Added to the end of this post). As Justine said the painting involves mysterious communication and unspoken drama and is technically fascinating.
Starting at the beginning, Michael Ayrton, left school at 14 in 1935 and began painting to the disappointment of his parents. Earliest paintings show a story behind the picture, often intriguing and  hard to read. He met John Minton at St.John's Wood art college in 1937 and was later to share a studio with him.He was also to work with Minton on stage designs for Gielgud's Macbeth. They both joined the RAF when war was declared, although Ayrton was invalided out, enabling him to continue painting.
After the war, Ayrton went abroad as did many other artists, he was keen to search out all paintings by Piero della Francesca in Italy. He also became fascinated by myths including the myth of Daedalus and Icarus tells the story of a father and a son who used wings to escape from the island of Crete. Icarus has become better-known as the flyer who fell from the sky when the wax that joined his wings was melted by the heat of the sun.
Ayrton also produced many sculptures based on myths, modelling rather than carving , inspired by the Cumaen labyrinth. Ayrton spent much of his career wandering Daedalus's mythological labyrinth. By the mid 1960s he had written, painted, sculpted, and sketched the labyrinth numerous times, culminating in the commission to build the Arkville Maze, the largest masonry labyrinth in the world. 
It was fascinating to hear Justine Hopkins, step granddaughter of Ayrton, reminisced about spending time in Ayrton's rural idyll where he had 15 acres of land and a tithe barn where he retired to pastoral solitude with Henry Moore living nearby and dropping in to compare sculptures..

This hugely talented painter, sculptor, writer, broadcaster and art critic left behind a huge body of work, but sadly died of a heart attack aged 54. What a fascinating insight into a great artist.
Essay from Gold Sections kindly reproduced by Justine Hopkins, please contact me if you'd like a readable jpg