While the Pathfoot Building is closed, the Art Collection will each week focus on an object of interest. You can also search our entire collection online here.
Yardbird
Michael Tyzack (1933-2007)
(Emulsion on board, 1962)
Born in Sheffield, Michael Tyzack studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. In 1956 he won a French Government Scholarship that allowed him to travel to Paris and Menton, where his work began to show a tendency towards abstraction and the influence of Cezanne. In 1965 he won first prize in the prestigious John Moores’ Liverpool Exhibition and continued to exhibit at prominent galleries and museums in the UK and America during the 1960s and 1970s, while also working as a professional jazz trumpeter.
Two works by this artist were purchased for the brand new University Art Collection in 1967 from the Richard Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh. The works collected in that period for the new University were by contemporary artists, in keeping with its modernist architecture. They were displayed around the Pathfoot Building, making art and culture part of the everyday experience at the University.
(Acrylic on cotton, 1964)
In 1971 Tyzack took up a short teaching post in Iowa – originally planning to stay only one year. However, he and his family decided to remain in America after he was offered the post of Professor of Fine Arts at the College of Charleston, where he lived until his death in 2007.
He was one of the most distinguished British abstract painters to have settled in the United States in the last half-century. As a teacher he became a revered mentor for many young artists.
