Born in Sheffield, England, in 1933, Michael Tyzack studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, gaining his D.F.A. (London), in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking in 1955 from London University. His most influential teachers were William Townsend, Victor Pasmore, Lucien Freud and Sir William Coldstream.

In the past five decades, Michael has been the recipient of many distinguished awards, including a French Government Scholarship in Fine Art, First Prize in the 1965 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, (Jury chairman: Clement Greenberg), a Welsh Arts Council Commission and several College of Charleston Foundation Awards. His one-person exhibits span some 35 years and include those at Axiom Gallery, London, England; Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; Galerie Allen, Vancouver, Canada; the Corcorcan Gallery, Washington, D.C., and in cities throughout Southeastern United States.

His most recent solo show, “Appropriate to the Moment,” consisted of a series of eighteen lozenge shaped paintings made between 1989 and 2001. It was held at the College of Charleston’s Halsey Gallery in September 2001. The exhibition was part of Views from the Edge of the Country, a project of the South Carolina Arts Commission. The accompanying catalog also contained 22 color reproductions, and essays by New York curator and critic Judy Collischan, School of the Arts’ art historian Diane Chambers Johnson, and Halsey Gallery director, Mark Sloan.

Since 1955, Michael’s work has appeared in over fifty group shows in the United Kingdom as well as: France, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Brazil, Australia, and Canada and in such international surveys as “New Shapes of Color” originating at the Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam, “Documenta IV” in Kassell, Germany, and “Systeemi/System” in Helsinki, Finland. Currently his work appears in the exhibition “British Abstract Painting and Sculpture from 1960 -1970” at Tate, Liverpool through October 5, 2003. His paintings are in the permanent collections of over 30 museums, including the Tate Britain, London, England; the National Gallery of Wales, Cardiff, Wales; the Gallery of Ontario, Canada; and the Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland.

Michael’s extensive critical bibliography will soon include a citation in the new edition of Dictionary of Artists in Britain—Since 1945 edited by David Buchman.

He is also the trumpet playing leader of the Dixieland jazz band “Authenticity.”

Visit the School of the Arts’ homepage (http://www.cofc.edu/sota/feature_spring2003.html) for more information and examples of Michael Tyzack’s works.