Andrews, Michael James

▪ 1996

      British painter (b. Oct. 30, 1928, Norwich, Norfolk, England—d. July 19, 1995, London, England), had a relatively small output of sizable, delicately wrought figurative paintings, each of which might consume months of careful planning and slow, painstaking brushwork. While Andrews was still a student at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1949-53), his works were selected for inclusion in the 1952 exhibition "Young Painters" at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. One of his earliest paintings, "A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over," was later acquired by the Tate Gallery. He had his first successful solo exhibitions in 1958 and 1963. Andrews often grouped a series of enormous paintings around a single theme or variations of a single image. This technique was especially notable in his paintings of the Scottish Highlands, London nightlife, Ayers Rock in Australia, fish in water, and a solitary balloon floating above vast expanses of the bucolic English countryside. His canvas "A View from Uamh Mhor," a panoramic study of the Perthshire hills that had taken more than two years to complete, was named Picture of the Year at the Royal Academy's 1992 Summer Exhibition. Andrews' final completed painting was the second in a planned series on the River Thames.

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