Introduction I Visiting Information and Events I Room Guide I Further Reading

A Man who Suddenly Fell Over, 1952
Tate © Estate of Michael Andrews

Michael Andrews was born in Norwich in 1928. He decided early on that he wanted to be an artist and, following his National Service (1947-9), he spent three years studying at the Slade School of Art, London. Here he was taught by William Coldstream and Lawrence Gowing, among others. Gowing later wrote that as a student Andrews showed 'not only technical capacity, but uncommon imaginative equipment.' His contemporaries at the Slade included Craigie Aitchison, Paula Rego, Euan Uglow and Victor Willing.

Andrews quickly gained a reputation as one of the most promising painters of his generation. Two of his prize-winning student works are shown in this room: August for the People 1951 (no.1) and A Man who Suddenly Fell Over 1952 (no.4), both of which signal the artist's abiding fascination with human behaviour and states of self-consciousness. They show individuals who struggle to maintain their composure in trying situations: overdressed and out of place on the beach, or falling down in the street.

The works in this room also show Andrews developing his characteristic combination of meticulous observation (as taught at the Slade by Coldstream) and more imaginative elements. For example, the rocking horse depicted in the painting of that title was based on a real object, but the figures astride it, and the dark-clothed, bowler-hatted figure that dominates the composition, were products of the artist's imagination.

Andrews's first solo exhibition was held in 1958 at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London and was hailed by John Russell in the Sunday Times as 'one of the most remarkable English debuts of the last ten years'.

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