Michael Simpson (painter)

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Michael Simpson
Born1940 (age 81–82)
Dorset
NationalityBritish
EducationArts University Bournemouth, Royal College of Art
Known forPainting
AwardsJohn Moores Painting Prize

Michael Simpson (born 1940) is a British painter. Simpson has had major solo shows at the Serpentine (1985),[1] the Arnolfini (1996),[2] Spike Island (2016),[3] and BlainSouthern (2017), and in 2016 won the John Moores Painting Prize for his painting Squint (19).[4]

Career[]

Born in Dorset of Anglo-Russian parents, he attended Bournemouth College of Art (1958–60) and the Royal College of Art (1960–63).[5] Simpson makes large scale paintings in ongoing series. These often repeat and rework a number of subjects and elements. Simpson's influences includes early Flemish painting, and his painting style incorporates minimalism and other types of formal restraints.[6] He describes his approach to painting as a "deceptive force of the constructed image."

In Vitamin P3, a guide to contemporary painting, critic Barry Schwabsky described Simpson’s ‘allegiance to a conception more readily associated with abstraction than with painting that employs images’. He goes on to describe the artist’s preoccupation with “the idea that painting is not a kind of imaginary opening in the wall through which we get an illusory view of another world, but rather a physical thing that is made, whose flat surface confronts the viewer with a presence that demands engagement.”

Simpson has served as lecturer in several British Art Schools and Universities, and has been featured in various documentaries including "Odyssey of a Painter" (Louisiana Channel Documentary). He currently lives and works in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire.

National collections[]

Awards[]

  • John Moores (2016)
  • Winner of the London Arts Foundation Fellowship (1999)
  • John Moores 17 (1991)
  • Tolly Cobbald Open (1977)

External links[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ^ "Michael Simpson Paintings". Serpentine Gallery. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  2. ^ "Michael Simpson - Bench Paintings". Serpentine Gallery. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  3. ^ "Michael Simpson - Flat Surface Painting". Spike Island Artspace. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  4. ^ "John Moores 2016". Walker Art Gallery. 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  5. ^ Wright, Karen (16 August 2013). "In the studio: Michael Simpson, painter". The Independent. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  6. ^ "ArtReview September 2017". Art Review. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
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