Michael Tyzack (1933 – 2007)

Biography: Born in Sheffield, Michael Tyzack studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1952-56). 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. He moved to America in 1971, and lived and worked there for the rest of his life. 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.