Michael Ayrton

An exhibition, Word and Image (National Book League, 1971), explored Lewis's and Ayrton's literary and artistic connections. He also collaborated with Constant Lambert and William Golding.

Michael Ayrton studied at Heatherley School of Fine Art and St John's Wood Art School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is visual arts, graphics and painting. Places of work recorded in the authority are France and London. Work by Michael Ayrton is recorded in the collections of National Gallery of Victoria, Auckland Art Gallery, Tate, National Gallery of Canada and Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

• Name — Michael Ayrton • Birth Name — Michael Ayrton Gould • Born — 20 February 1921 • Birthplace — London, England • Died — 16 November 1975 • Place of death — London, England • Resting Place — St Botolph's Church, Hadstock, Essex • Occupation — artist, writer, painter, printmaker, sculptor, critic, broadcaster and novelist • Spouse — * Joan, • Elizabeth Ayrton

• Illustration — Minotaur at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park Ayrton was born Michael Ayrton Gould, son of the writer Gerald Gould and the Labour politician Barbara Ayrton, and took his mother's maiden name professionally. His maternal grandmother was the electrical engineer and inventor, Hertha Marks Ayrton. In his teens during the 1930s, he studied art at Heatherley School of Fine Art and St John's Wood Art School, then in Paris under Eugène Berman, where he shared a studio with John Minton. He travelled to Spain and attempted to enlist on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, but was rejected for being under-age. In the 1940s, Ayrton participated in the BBC's radio programme The Brains Trust. He married the novelist and cookery writer Elisabeth Balchin in 1942 following her divorce from Nigel Balchin a year earlier. Beginning in 1961, Michael Ayrton wrote and created many works associated with the myths of the Minotaur and Daedalus, the legendary inventor and maze builder, including bronze sculptures and the pseudo-autobiographical novel The Maze Maker (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967). In 1969, he designed the Arkville Maze. He also wrote and illustrated a satirical novel, Tittivulus or The Verbiage Collector (Max Reinhardt, 1953; designed by Will Carter), an account of the career of a minor devil whose original remit was to collect slovenly performances of the Divine Office in monasteries, but who develops, as the centuries pass, into a collector of all kinds of verbiage, and finally, in the modern age, mounts a fascistic revolution in Hell. Ayrton was also the author of several non-fiction works on fine art, including Aspects of British Art (Collins, 1947). Ayrton died in 1975, survived by his wife. In 1977, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery organised a retrospective exhibition of his work. His work is included in several collections including the Tate Gallery, London, National Portrait Gallery, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fry Art Gallery, Essex. Ayrton's work was also featured at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, in an exhibition running from September to October 1955. In 2021, the artist's centenary year, there were exhibitions of his work (Celebrating Michael Ayrton at The Lightbox Gallery, Woking, UK; A Singular Obsession: A Centenary Celebration of the work of Michael Ayrton, Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, UK; Michael Ayrton's Minotaur Suite, Kruizenga Art Museum, Michigan, USA), and an illustrated monograph, Michael Ayrton: Ideas Images Reflections. • Illustration — Talos, Guildhall Street, Cambridge • Illustration — Icarus III, Royal Air Force Museum London • Illustration — Demeter Pregnant, Reading Museum

The authorities additionally record the headings Michael Gould, G. Michael Ayrton, Michael Ayrton I and Michael I Ayrton. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Gerald Gould and Barbara Ayrton-Gould. He married Elisabeth Ayrton.