Michael Tyzack

Position: Department Chair , Painting
Department: Studio Art

Courses: Spring 2003

• ARTS 331 Painting IV

Bio

Born in Sheffield, England in 1933, Michael Tyzack studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, gaining his D.F.A. (Lond.), 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, Tyzack 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, DC and cities throughout Southeastern USA.

His most recent solo show, "Appropriate to the Moment," consisted of a series of eighteen lozenge shaped paintings made between 1989 and 2001, held at the College of Charleston's Halsey Gallery in September 2001. The accompanying catalog also contains 22 color reproductions, and essays by NY curator and critic Judy Collischan, art historian Diane Chambers Johnson, and Halsey Gallery director, Mark Sloan.

Since 1955, his work has appeared in over fifty group shows in the UK as well as: France, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Brazil, Australia, Canada, etc. and 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. Most recently his work will appear in the forthcoming exhibition "British Abstract Painting and Sculpture from 1960 -1970" at Tate Liverpool from April 5 through October 5, 2003. His paintings are in the permanent public collections of over 30 museums, including Tate Britain, London, England; National Gallery of Wales, Cardiff, Wales; Gallery of Ontario, Canada and the Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland.

Tyzack's extensive critical bibliography will soon include a citation in the new edition of "Dictionary of Artists in Britain--Since 1945" Editor, David Buchman.

Michael Tyzack has taught and lectured extensively in both the UK and North America and has been a Professor of Fine Arts at the College of Charleston since 1976, where he is currently Chair of the Department of Studio Art.

He is also the trumpet playing leader of the Dixieland jazz band, "Authenticity."