Michael Ayrton

Artist: Michael Ayrton 
Author: Peter Cannon-Brookes 
Publisher: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 
Date: 1978 
Condition: Very good; the silver and red printed boards are often scuffed with this book, but these are in very nice order, there a couple of minor knocks to the bottom edge of the back cover, internally very clean and tidy. A well-preserved copy

This 1978 publication remains a key text on Ayrton, an artist who was a big name in the 1950s and 1960s but has become somewhat overlooked. This is a shame as when he is on form, his work is extremely good. A talented painter, printmaker and sculptor, he was also a very erudite figure but who, perhaps like Wyndham Lewis a few decades earlier, had the gift of being able to alienate almost everyone whose approval would have been helpful.

His early style is very much part of the neoromantic revival of the 1940s, and his sculpture has many devotees, with the references to the classical world of myth and legend adding to its impact.

There is only a small body of literature on Ayrton and this is still one of the most useful publications one might want.