Michael Andrews, R.A. (1928-1995)

In 1968-69 Andrews worked on a series of small oil studies that he executed in preparation for a larger painting called Lights. This was to be a painting of a party filled with the people that Andrews considered to be 'enlightened', although in the end he never painted the work because 'somehow I'd covered all that ground already in a way' (see exhibition catalogue, Michael Andrews, loc. cit.).

The title 'Lights' relates to Andrews' fascination with Rimbaud's suite of prose poems Les Illuminations, and he has taken the theme of enlightenment and applies it to contemporary Sixties London. Some of the images for this series were based on anonymous photographs and others on images of popular musicians as seen in Melody Maker, such as Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan (see Study of a Head for 'Lights' sold in these Rooms from the Collection of the Late Miss Valerie Beston, on 8 February 2006, lot 1, for £176,000). Study of a head for 'Lights' No. 2, 1968 is in the Arts Council Collection.