Artist on Film: A PROFILE OF MICHAEL ANDREWS

About

A notoriously slow and painstaking painter, during his lifetime Andrews had few solo exhibitions and, indeed, his oeuvre is relatively small. Nevertheless, he is rightly regarded as one of Britain's leading post-war painters. Andrews is often linked with other artists of the so-called School of London, notably Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud and Leon Kossoff. In common with these artists, Andrews's art demonstrates a preoccupation with the depiction of the human figure and also, like some of them, a deep involvement with the subject of landscape. From the beginning of his career in the early 1950s, Andrews's work was characterised by intensity of observation and exacting technical virtuosity. He described painting as 'the most marvellous, elaborate way of making up my mind'. Major exhibitions of Andrews' works were held by the Arts Council in 1981 and Tate Britain in 2001.