Michael Lyons RSA FRSS (10 July 1943 – 19 April 2019) was a British sculptor who was instrumental in the creation of the

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barb ...

Education

Lyons was educated at

Cotton College Cotton College was a Roman Catholic boarding school in Cotton, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. It was also known as ''Saint Wilfrid's College''. The school buildings were centred on Cotton Hall, a country house used by religious communities fr ...

, Staffordshire, at Wolverhampton College of Art (1959–1963),

Hornsey College of Art Hornsey College of Art, also known as HCA, founded in 1880 as the Hornsey School of Arts, was an art school in Crouch End, part of Hornsey, Middlesex, England. From 1965 it was in the London Borough of Haringey. From 1955 to 1973, when it was me ...

(1963–1964) and Newcastle University (1964–1967).

Career

Lyons was Head of Sculpture at the

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Education ...

between 1989 and 1993 and also taught at college in the US, China, and Canada. He represented Britain in

Biennale In the art world, a biennale ( , ; ), is a large-scale international contemporary art exhibition. The term was popularised by the Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895, but the concept of such a large scale, and intentionally internationa ...

s in China, Argentina, Mexico and Australia. His drawings and sculptures are in various collections, including those of the Canary Wharf Group, Arts Council England, the Henry Moore Institute, and the Yale Centre for British Art. In 2011, three sculptures, 'Mayflower', 'Energy Of The Mountain: Echo And Revelation' and 'Energy Of The Mountain' were stolen from Lyons' studio and were never recovered. He was a Trustee of the Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture.

Exhibitions

Lyons has exhibited at various galleries, shows, and venues including: * New School House Gallery: 'Half-light' (19 June 2015–15 August 2015). *

Leeds Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance ...

. 'Michael Lyons: Freeze Frame' (9 March 2016– 26 July 2016). *

One Canada Square One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It is the third tallest building in the United Kingdom at above ground level,Aviation charts issued by the Civil Aviation Authority and contains 50 storeys. It achieved the title of ...

''Scale Appropriate'' on loan (31 March 2014– 23 May 2014). *Yorkshire Sculpture Park. *Macay Museo de Arte Contemporaneo. *

York Art Gallery York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...

York Museum Gardens The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along wit ...

''Michael Lyons: Ancient and Modern'' (25 May 2019–May 2020).

Awards

In 1966, he featured in the Young Contemporaries in London and won a Peter Stuyvesant Prize at the 1967 Northern Young Contemporaries in Manchester. In 2006 he won the ''Premio Fondo Nacional de las Artes'' at Chaco Biennale, Argentina. In 1994 he was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

and as a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors (RSS) is a British charity established in 1905, which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road in South Kensington, Lo ...

. He had also served as vice-president of the RSS from 1994–1997. Lyons was also an Honorary member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts.

Gallery

File:Michael Lyons Geograph-1414814-by-Sue-Adair.jpg, ''Doves of Peace'' at The

People's History Museum The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the United Kingdom's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of wor ...

File:Michael Lyons Geograph-1722583-by-David-Smith.jpg, ''Argonaut 1909 File:Sonidos de viento.jpg, At the Argentinia Bienalle, 2006 File:Michael Lyons "Michaelmas" 1983.jpg, ''Michaelmas'' (1983) in the

, 2019 File:Michael Lyons "Harvest Demeter's Dream" 2000.jpg, ''Harvest: Demeter's Dream'' (2000) in the York Museum Gardens, 2019 File:Mayflower, 1983 (3).jpg, ''Mayflower'' (1983) in the grounds of

, 2019 File:Michael Lyons - Michaelmas.jpg, ''Michaelmas'' (1982) in the York Museum Gardens, 2019

Personal life

Lyons grew up in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

, and the area's post-war industrial landscape had a life-long influence on his work, as did his strong

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

upbringing and, in later life, his interest in

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

. In 1970 he married Stephanie Kay, whom he had met while they were students in the Department of Fine Art at Newcastle University and together they had a son David born in 1975 and daughter Anna in 1978. In 1977 he moved to Cawood, near

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

where he established a studio.

Legacy

In Lyon's Obituary in the Yorkshire Post, Peter Murray wrote: “His drawings often portrayed a sensitive response to landscape which had a strong influence on his powerful sculptures, which looked at home in the landscape.” In an obituary in the Guardian he was described as: "...one of the group of artists who developed successful careers from a non-metropolitan base. Such strength of mind was the driving force that Michael and others, principally Peter Murray, engaged to create the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1977...so many young artists rushed off to London, and lost immediate connection with land and sky. It is this vision that Michael instinctively wound into his sculpture, while Yorkshire also gave him “the freedom to cut metal and smoke cigars”"

References

External links

Lyons describes a trip to see Brancusi's 'Endless Column' in Romania (Henry Moore Institute)Michael Lyons at York Art Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Michael 2019 deaths 1943 births British sculptors People from Bilston Alumni of Newcastle University