Michael Simpson, the strangely quiet tutor

The winner of theBP portrait Award in the UK has painted a portrait of one of my old tutors at Bath Academy of Art its a very good painting and captures his personality very well.

Michael Simpson by Paul Emsley

Michael Simpson was an enigma to me, I knew nothing about his work and he was very quiet but steady tutor. He didn’t say anything unless he had something to contribute to the discussion.  I wonder what he really thought of all us students, especially people like me who had came to art school with a poor education and no knowledge of art, other than that found in the tabloids and Woolworths of the time.

Of course having seen this picture I found this web-pagewhich gives examples of his current work. At first I thought they were modern sculptures but on closer inspection I discovered they were in actual fact paintings of benches.  The titles give little clue as to what they are about apart from in brackets on 2 of them “bruno resurrected”. Immediately I thought of religion and persecution.  Anyway on the press review page there is a detailed review of the work.  I am not surprised by the theory behind the work, he was always an enigma and remains so, even at the age of 67.

Explore posts in the same categories: arts in general

Tags: Bath Academy of Art, BP Portrait Award, David Risley Gallery, Michaeal Simpson

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