Qualifications

Diploma of Art Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. 1973
Master of Arts, Royal College of Art, London. 1977

Department Art

Position: Professor of Drawing
Research Group: Drawing

Michael Esson was born in Scotland in 1950 and studied at Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He is a practising artist living in Sydney, and the Director of the International Drawing Research Institute, the College of Fine Arts, the University of New South Wales. He is a Guest Professor at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Art, China, and Lu Xun Academy of Fine Art, Shenyang, China, and a Consultant Professor at Dong Hua University, Shanghai, China. He was appointed Professor of Drawing at The University of Lincoln, in 2007.

Although working in a broad range of disciplines within the visual arts, the core of his art practise has been the study, interpretation and expression of the human figure through the drawing process. This has been the focus of his 18 major solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions.
In 1993 - 94 he was the first artist in residence at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, where he focused upon a long-standing concern with the exploration of the body; its’ structure, anatomy and ideas of mortality and identity.

 Having access to view reconstructive surgery gave him a rare opportunity of observing at first hand the brutal yet sensitive intervention of medical science on the human body. Identifying with the vulnerability of the patient and the dispassionate technique of the surgeon he projects his own alter ego as an artist.
The practise of art is always a means of getting to know oneself and so there is frequently the recurrent theme of self-portraiture in his work where he is at the same time the observer and the observed, the artist and the model.

Since 2000 he has been a regular visitor to China, where he has taught drawing at the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing. His interest in cultural identity has led him to explore Chinese influences upon his work by finding visual resonance, which he weaves into his own personal graphic narratives. Esson is an artist who responds to a changing world, and like his teacher Eduardo Paolozzi, the famous British Pop artist, he is eclectic by nature, keen to discover and use references to enrich his work and provide his drawings with layers of meaning.

His most recent work continues to explore the human condition, where his imagination is rich with personal symbols and metaphors. The broken umbrellas now replace the body, suggesting the transitory nature of life whilst evoking something familiar, yet sinister. Although broken and discarded they retain the dignity of a fallen warrior. Another image, the cats cradle children’s string game is used as a metaphor for art, in that it conveys notions of intellect and manual dexterity. Often entangled in the string is a toy bird reflecting freedom and romance; the poetry of art.

Esson’s obsessive, and painstaking approach to his work is entirely consistent with the type of person he is. He creates a world rich in irony, associated meaning, melancholy and aesthetic delight.

 

Images of Work (click on images to expand)  

AI WU JI WU I (Love Me, Love My Dog) 2004 Drawing charcoal, conte and coloured pencil 115 x 135 cm	SENSE AND POSSIBILITY 2004 Drawing charcoal, conte and coloured pencil 220 x 135 cm
AI WU JI WU II (Love Me, Love My Dog) 2006 Drawing charcoal, conte and coloured pencil 220 x 135 cm