The Arkville Minotaur

Details

Michael Ayrton (1921-1975)
The Arkville Minotaur
signed and numbered 'Michael Ayrton A/C' (on the lower left of the base)
bronze with a dark brown patina
86 in. (218.5 cm.) high including base
Conceived in 1968-69.

Provenance

with Alwin Gallery, London, where purchased by the present owner, June 1988.

Literature

P. Cannon-Brookes, Michael Ayrton An Illustrated Commentary, Birmingham, 1978, p. 94, no. 166, another cast illustrated.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The idea of the maze and the mythological figures of Daedalus and Icarus and the Minotaur was one that pre-occupied Ayrton for much of his life. The final visual expression of the myth as conceived by the artist over 13 years was the Maze at Arkville, N.Y., built for the New York banker Armand G. Erpf and completed in 1968-69. Consisting of 1680 feet of stone pathways and brick walls eight feet high, it was the largest labyrinth built since Classical antiquity. At the centre were two chambers, one for the Arkville Minotaur and the other for the Daedalus/Icarus Matrix II. Identifying himself with both characters, Ayrton gives the Minotaur human hands and feet, emphasising the tragic figure trapped both within its physical limitations and the maze itself.

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