remembering michael tyzack 1933-2007

Michael Tyzack was quite a character. He was a British abstract painter, and one time chair of the art department at the college of charleston in south carolina. I was fortunate enough to have worked with Tyzack, and to even have had the chance to feel a certain closeness to him. I will never forget how he seemed to have a perfectly clean linen suit for every occasion, and although he was a painter there never seemed to be a speck of paint anywhere on his outfit. He was very supportive of me and my friends when we were students of his in college. I have to imagine he had seen hundreds of artists before us, but I always felt like we had his undivided attention, and he seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing. I remember one of the first group shows I was involved in off campus, Tyzack stepped in at the last minute with a generous sum of money to pay for the opening his words went something like
“you should celebrate boys!”
Those who knew Tyzack, knew he was nothing if not generous. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Tyzack was the strict discplined way in which he dressed, painted and conducted class being diametrically opposed to his other passion in life, Jazz. Tyzack was an acomplished jazz trumpeter, but above all he encouraged all his students to push ahead with their work and to make something of themselves.
I have Lost, given away, destroyed or sold all of the work I made in college, save for one painting. The painting is a small 10x 14 inch simple abstract cityscape, nothing too spectacular, and it now resides on my bookshelf. After the news of Tyzack’s death reached me yesterday the painting took on a new meaning. In my second year of painting at the college of charleston I took an independent study with Tyzack, and for our final critique he had me line up all the paintings I made that semester. It was december 2001, a particularly frenzied semester of painting, I think I hung no less than 30 paintings for him to look at. Tyzack sat down stroked his beard and said in his very dry british accent
” well Jonathan I don’t know whether to tell you to slow down or speed up”
and then he chuckled his signature laugh and continued
“which one do you think is the best?”
I shrugged my shoulders and told him I really didn’t like any of them, but I vaguely gestured to the small one in the middle,
he said “yes I rather like that one too.”
The truth is I never thought much of this painting, until yesterday when I looked at it and all these memories came back to me. I will always owe Tyzack a debt of gratitude, the simple prodding and support he gave me has sustained me to this day. When I saw Tyzack this past summer I expressed to him my disappointment with Graduate school and how different it had been than the experiences I had before, In true Dr. Tyzack fashion he said “you thought it would be nirvana, but it was bananas”. Again he always knew just the right thing to say, and I count myself among the fortunate who had the chance to work with this generous man.