NEW

Updated buyer’s premium structure

Michael Upton Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, b. 1938 - d. 2002

See Artist Details

70 Lots

Sort By:

Categories

Auction Date

Seller

Seller Location

Price Range

to
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) STILL LIFE WITH INKWELL AND QUILL; MALE NUDE (I & II) each watercolour and gouache on paper 22 x 12cm; 8 1/2 x 4 3/4in (i) 12 x 30cm; 5 x 24in (ii) both unframed (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) FIGURES IN ABSTRACT SETTINGS (I-III) gouache on paper laid on card each circa 31 x 21.5cm; 12 1/4 x 8 1/4in all unframed (3)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) FEMALE FIGURE STUDIES (I & II) each watercolour and gouache on paper laid on card 20 x 13cm; 8 x 5 1/2in (i) 30 x 20cm; 24 x 8in (ii) both unframed (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) INTERIOR; KERBOLEN (I & II) each signed, titled and dated Interior, Kerbolen / oil 1997. / Michael Upton on the reverse each oil on card each 28.5 x 22cm; 11 1/4 x 8 3/4in both unframed (2) Exhibited London, Cassian de Vere Cole Fine Art, Michael Upton, 1997, nos. 8 & 9

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) BELGIAN COUNTRYSIDE (I-V), WITH ANNOTATED NOTE (VI) inscribed 1st battle Longemarke. 1914 lower centre (i); titled Ypres Salient - Canadian lower right (ii); titled Ypres upper right (iii); titled and dated 1st battle Longemarke. 1914 lower centre (iv) each watercolour on paper each circa 9 x 12.5cm; 3 1/2 x 5in all unframed (6) (vi) is inscribed Belgium, Great Order / Trees Equal Height In Ordered / Rows, Giving Symmetry And Some Boredom / Ochre Walls / And Bright / Red Roofs. / Above Yellow Green Fields / Golden Light.

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) COUNTRYSIDE VIEWS (I-VI) each watercolour on paper each 17.5 x 25cm; 7 x 10in all unframed (6)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) VISTAS (I-VI) each watercolour on paper each 14.5 x 21cm; 6 x 8 1/4in all unframed (6) (ii) is inscribed Vimy Ridge / 2 July 01. / Thank you / Not what is the answer. / What is the question? / Questions forever !! / I loved you twice. / Just an affirmative. / Can a brushstroke parallel / a carress? Can a horizon / look like making love? on the reverse

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) ENGLISH COASTAL STUDIES (I-VI) each watercolour on paper 19 x 37cm; 7 1/2 x 14 1/2in (i-v) 12 x 37cm; 5 x 14 1/2in (vi) all unframed (6)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) HELFORD HARBOUR (I-IV) each watercolour on paper each 17.5 x 25.5cm; 7 x 10in all unframed (4)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) CORNISH LANDSCAPES (I & II) each gouache on card each 13 x 19cm; 5 x 7 1/2in both unframed (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) TUSCAN VIEWS (I-IV) inscribed Station / Cecina- /Volterra Line left margin (ii) each watercolour on paper 21 x 30cm; 8 1/4 x 12in (i) 8 x 37cm; 7 x 14 1/2in (ii-iv) all unframed (4)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) LE POLDU; GEEVOR (I & II) each oil and collage on board each 25.5 x 44.5cm; 10 x 17 1/2in both unframed (2) Geevor refers to the Cornish tin mines of the same name and Le Poldu refers to a cove on the west coast of The Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall.

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) STUDY OF A MAN watercolour and pencil on paper 20 x 13.5cm; 8 x 5 1/4in 41 x 35cm; 16 3/4 x 13 3/4in (framed) (3) Together with two unframed screenprints of the same subject.

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £200

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) FIGURES IN INTERIOR SETTINGS (I-III) each watercolour over pencil on paper each circa 26 x 30cm; 10 x 12in all unframed (3)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) ROOM (I & II); INTERIOR (III) signed, titled and dated Room 4 (Yellow) 1979 / Michael Upton on the reverse (i) signed, titled and dated Room.1979 / Michael Upton on the reverse (ii) each oil on board 21 x 16cm; 8 1/4 x 6 1/4in (i-ii) 15 x 23cm; 6 x 9in (iii) all unframed (3)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 12, 2025

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) MICHAEL UPTON (lots 108-123) Introduction Tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard John Russell Taylor Introduction Upton grew up in Birmingham where he attended the College of Art before joining the Royal Academy Schools in 1958. In London he became close friends with David Hockney and Patrick Proctor, shared a flat with nascent pop artist Peter Phillips, and was awarded an RA Leverhulme Scholarship. His work was featured in the influential annual ‘Young Contemporaries’ exhibitions that Phillips masterminded over four years (1959-63). The reviewer of the 1962 show in The Times commented: 'The exhibition fairly bubbles with bright ideas and visual excitement... its weird mixture of impudence, whimsicality and beautifully tender painting is well exemplified by Derek Boshier [and] Michael Upton...' A year later, however, after completing six identical canvases, Upton abandoned painting entirely, turning instead to conceptual art. He spent 1967-68 in New York, the recipient of a grant from the Cassandra Foundation. Others who received grants from the Foundation included John Cage, Bruce Nauman, Christo, Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton. Increasingly Upton's interests lay in performance, and in the 1970s he founded London Calling with Peter Lloyd Jones which became an influential part of London's performance art scene. One of his works included burying a number of his paintings on a Dorset hillside. But at the end of the 1970s Upton returned again to painting, taking up a teaching role at the RA Schools. In this later period Upton's preference was for small scale works. He often used photocopy or newspaper print as the support and he regularly produced series of images, similar to stills from a reel of film. Upton considered them 'conceptual paintings', and gained a new fan for his work in John Russell Taylor the influential art critic of The Times. In a review of 1979 Russell Taylor enthusiastically described Upton's paintings as 'tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard', and in his review of the British Council touring exhibition Picturing People, British Figurative Art since 1945, he singled out Upton as one of a handful of 'highly sophisticated stylists'. Also won over to Upton was the critic Mel Gooding who commented on Upton's 'subtle allusiveness (hints of Piero, Vermeer, Sickert)...another way of deepening the game, of adumbrating the mystery. An art of intimations'. As his work evolved so Upton also gave it more loaded political messaging, inspired in part by both his earlier pop art years and current events. But following retirement and his retreat to Mousehole, Cornwall in 1996 his artistic focus shifted to the innate beauty of the local landscape and coastal views became his primary focus. MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) INTERIOR WITH CHAIRS (I); INTERIOR WITH LADDERS (II) each oil on card 16 x 24cm; 6 1/4 x 9 1/2in (i) 13 x 16.5cm; 5 x 6 1/2in (ii) both unframed (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £80 - £120

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) STUDY OF SEA AND SKY gouache and wash and pencil 21 x 30cm; 8 1/4 x 11 3/4in (unframed)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £60 - £100

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) BRITTANY LANDSCAPE oil on cardboard 20 x 7cm; 8 x 2 3/4in 43 x 30cm; 17 x 12in (framed) Painted in 1986 with the artist's estate number MU0616 on the reverse

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) SKY STUDIES - SIX each watercolour and wash on paper each 13 x 18cm; 5 x 7in all unframed (6) one with the artist's estate number MU1263 on the reverse

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £120 - £180

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) TWO VIEWS OF A CORNISH TOWN both gouache and wash on paper each 21 x 29.5cm; 8 1/4 x 11 1/2in both unframed with the artist's estate numbers MU1209 & MU1213 on the reverse

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) PORTRAIT OF A MAN watercolour and pencil on paper 20 x 13.5cm; 8 x 5 1/4in 41 x 35cm; 16 3/4 x 13 3/4in (framed) with the artist's estate number MU0572 on the reverse together with two unframed screenprints of the same subject (3)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) RAILWAY STATION (THE KISS) III oil on board 18 x 27.5cm; 7 x 10 3/4in 42.5 x 49.5cm; 16 3/4 x 19 1/2in (framed) Painted in 1985. with the artist's estate number MU0593 on the reverse Provenance with Anne Berthoud Gallery, London Exhibited Yale, Yale Center for British Art, Michael Upton: Paintings 1977-87, 1987, no. 43

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) HYDE PARK I oil on board 16 x 23.5cm;6 1/4 x 9 1/4in 40.5 x 45.5cm; 16 x 18in (framed) Executed circa 1984-85. with the artist's estate number MU0587 on the reverse Provenance with Anthony Ralph Gallery, New York (1987) with Roger Ramsay Gallery, Chicago (1987)

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) FOUR FEMALE FIGURE STUDIES one oil on board; one watercolour and gouache over pencil; two watercolours, wash and pencil the largest 34 x 21.5cm; 13 1/2 x 8 1/2in the smallest 17 x 20cm; 6 3/4 x 7 3/4in all unframed (4) with the artist's estate number MU1180, MU1561, MU1562 & MU1569 on the reverse

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) THE FOOTBALL MATCH - THREE VIEWS each signed and dated Michael Upton 93. on the reverse all gouache and wash and pencil on the artist's prepared paper 22 x 31cm; 8 3/4 x 12 1/4in all unframed (3) with the artist's estate numbers MU1158, MU1159 & MU1160 on the reverse

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) HACKNEY LIBRARYII signed and dated 1984 on the reverse oil on board 17 X 39.5cm; 6 3/4 x 12 1/2in 45 x 56cm; 17 3/4 x 22in (framed) with the artist's estate number MU0594A on the reverse Provenance with Cassian de Vere Cole Fine Art, London

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) RED TREES (TRIPTYCH) each oil on board 26 x 88cm; 10 1/4 x 34 1/2in 53.5 x 113cm; 21 x 44 1/2in (framed as one) with the artist's estate number MU0748 on the reverse Provenance with Galerie Vieille du Temple, Paris with Cassian de Vere Cole Fine Art, London

    Olympia Auctions
  • ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Oct. 02, 2024

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £250 - £350

    ⊕ MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) Michael Upton (lots 146-157) Tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard John Russell Taylor, Introduction Upton grew up in Birmingham where he attended the College of Art before joining the Royal Academy Schools in 1958. In London he became close friends with David Hockney and Patrick Proctor, shared a flat with nascent pop artist Peter Phillips, and was awarded an RA Leverhulme Scholarship. His work was featured in the influential annual ‘Young Contemporaries’ exhibitions that Phillips masterminded over four years (1959-63). The reviewer of the 1962 show in The Times commented: 'The exhibition fairly bubbles with bright ideas and visual excitement... its weird mixture of impudence, whimsicality and beautifully tender painting is well exemplified by Derek Boshier [and] Michael Upton...' A year later, however, after completing six identical canvases, Upton abandoned painting entirely, turning instead to conceptual art. He spent 1967-68 in New York, the recipient of a grant from the Cassandra Foundation. Others who received grants from the Foundation included John Cage, Bruce Nauman, Christo, Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton. Increasingly Upton's interests lay in performance, and in the 1970s he founded London Calling with Peter Lloyd Jones which became an influential part of London's performance art scene. One of his works included burying a number of his paintings on a Dorset hillside. But at the end of 1970s Upton returned again to painting, taking up a teaching role at the RA Schools. In this later period Upton's preference was for small scale works. He often used photocopy or newspaper print as the support and he regularly produced series of images, similar to stills from a reel of film. Upton considered them 'conceptual paintings', and gained a new fan for his work in John Russell Taylor the influential art critic of The Times. In a review of 1979 Russell Taylor enthusiastically described Upton's paintings as 'tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard', and in his review of the British Council touring exhibition Picturing People, British Figurative Art since 1945, he singled out Upton as one of a handful of 'highly sophisticated stylists'. Also won over to Upton was the critic Mel Gooding who commented on Upton's 'subtle allusiveness (hints of Piero, Vermeer, Sickert)...another way of deepening the game, of adumbrating the mystery. An art of intimations'. As his work evolved so Upton also gave it more loaded political messaging, inspired in part by both his earlier pop art years and current events. But following retirement and his retreat to Mousehole, Cornwall in 1996 his artistic focus shifted to the innate beauty of the local landscape and coastal views became his primary focus (lots 154-157). WINDOW 1,2,3 each oil on board each 14 x 14cm; 5 1/2 x 5 1/2in 31 x 65.5cm; 12 1/4 x 25 3/4in (framed as one) Painted in 1979. with the artist's estate number MU0608 on the reverse Provenance with Contemporary Art Society, London Exhibited New York, Anthony Ralph Gallery, Michael Upton, 1987

    Olympia Auctions
  • MICHAEL UPTON - BICYCLE II
    May. 16, 2024

    MICHAEL UPTON - BICYCLE II

    Est: $400 - $600

    Lot 56 Michael Upton British (1938-2002) Bicycle II (1984-85) oil on board sight: 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches frame dimensions: 17 x 14 x 1 1/8 inches, wood frame with glazing Provenance: From the Collection of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Anthony Ralph Gallery, New York, NY label affixed to verso ,Werner Kramarsky, New York, NY label affixed to verso

    Capsule Gallery Auction
  • ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002)
    Apr. 09, 2024

    ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002)

    Est: £600 - £800

    ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002) Reflection oil on card 23 x 43cm Condition Report: Framed: 52 x 69cm Appears to be in good condition. Not viewed out of glazed frame.

    Sworders
  • ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002)
    Apr. 09, 2024

    ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002) 'The Street II', 1984 oil on board 16 x 25.5cm Provenance: With Anthony Ralph Gallery, New York. Condition Report: Framed: 44.5 x 49.5cm Appears to be in good condition. Well presented and ready to hang. Not viewed out of glazed frame.

    Sworders
  • ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002)
    Apr. 09, 2024

    ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002)

    Est: £400 - £600

    ▲ Michael Upton (1938-2002) 'Society Restaurant III', 1986 oil on board 15.5 x 30cm Provenance: With Messum's Fine Art, London. Condition Report: Framed: 38 x 52.5cm The work presents well and ready to hang. Not viewed out of glazed frame.

    Sworders
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) TWO CORNISH COASTAL VIEWS pencil and watercolour on paper (i) 18 x 37cm; 7 x 14 1/2in (ii) 13 x 37cm; 5 x 14 1/2in (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) (i) A CORNISH VILLAGE AND (ii) VIEW OF CORNISH HILLS gouache and wash on paper each: 21 x 29.5cm; 8 1/4 x 11 1/2in (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) SKY STUDIES - SIX each: watercolour and wash on paper all: 13 x 18cm; 5 x 7in (unframed) (6)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £80 - £120

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) (i) POOL BALLS AND (ii) CORNISH LANDSCAPE pencil, thinned oil and wash on paper (i) 21 x 29.5cm; 8 1/4 x 11 1/2in (image) (ii) 29/5 x 21cm; 11 1/2 x 8 1/4in (sheet) (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) BUILDINGS thinned oil on board 18 x 30cm; 7 x 11 3/4in 38 x 50.5cm; 15 x 19 3/4in (framed)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £120 - £180

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) HEAD OF A WOMAN - A PAIR thinned oil on paper on board each: 21.5 x 16cm; 8 1/2 x 6 1/4in (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) CARD PLAYERS I thinned oil on board 15 x 23cm; 6 x 9in 39.5 x 45cm; 15 1/2 x 17 3/4in (framed) Painted in 1985. Exhibited Newlyn, Orion Gallery; Dorchester, Dorset County Museum; Newhaven, Yale Centre for British Art; New York, Anthony Ralph Gallery; Chicago, Roger Ramsay Gallery, Michael Upton 1977-1987, 1987 (travelling exhibition)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) FIGURE IN THE STUDIO thinned oil on board 20 x 28cm; 8 x 11in 44 x 52cm; 17 1/4 x 20 1/2in (framed)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) VIOLENT ACTION - A PAIR (i) thinned oil over photocopy on board (ii) photocopy on board each: 15 x 29cm; 6 x 11 1/2in (image) (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £120 - £180

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) BEFORE THE LABOUR EXCHANGE - A PAIR thinned oil over photocopy on board each: 24 x 29cm; 9 1/2 x 12 1/4in (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) SEATED NUDES - A PAIR thinned oil over photocopy on board both: 20 x 27.5cm; 8 x 10 3/4in (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) TWO INTERIORS: (i) BUTLER'S TRAY AND (ii) MIRROR thinned oil over photocopy on board (i) 22 x 15cm; 8 3/4 x 6in (unframed) (ii) 17.5 x 12.5cm; 7 x 5in 39 x 33cm; 15 1/2 x 13in (framed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) TABLE I AND II - A PAIR signed on the reverse thinned oil on board each: 9.5 x 17.5cm; 3 3/4 x 6 3/4in 26.5 x 54.5cm; 10 1/2 x 21 1/2in (two framed as one) Provenance with Hester Van Royan Gallery, London Exhibited London, Arts Council of Great Britain, The British Art Show, 1979, no. 252

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £200 - £300

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) KITCHEN I, II & III thinned oil on board all: 14.5 x 16.5cm; 5 3/4 x 6 1/2in 38 x 81.5cm; 15 x 32in (three framed as one) Provenance David Talbot Rice Exhibited London, Anne Berthoud Gallery (1980s)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £100 - £150

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) THE STUDIO: TELEVISION - A PAIR thinned oil on photocopy mounted on board 13 x 20cm; 5 1/4 x 8in (image) (both unframed) (2)

    Olympia Auctions
  • • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)
    Mar. 20, 2024

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002)

    Est: £150 - £250

    • MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) Michael Upton (lots 123-138) Tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard John Russell Taylor, Introduction Upton grew up in Birmingham where he attended the College of Art before joining the Royal Academy Schools in 1958. In London he became close friends with David Hockney and Patrick Proctor, shared a flat with nascent pop artist Peter Phillips, and was awarded an RA Leverhulme Scholarship. His work was featured in the influential annual ‘Young Contemporaries’ exhibitions that Phillips masterminded over four years (1959-63). The reviewer of the 1962 show in The Times commented: 'The exhibition fairly bubbles with bright ideas and visual excitement... its weird mixture of impudence, whimsicality and beautifully tender painting is well exemplified by Derek Boshier [and] Michael Upton...' A year later, however, after completing six identical canvases, Upton abandoned painting entirely, turning instead to conceptual art. He spent 1967-68 in New York, the recipient of a grant from the Cassandra Foundation. Others who received grants from the Foundation included John Cage, Bruce Nauman, Christo, Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton. Increasingly Upton's interests lay in performance, and in the 1970s he founded London Calling with Peter Lloyd Jones which became an influential part of London's performance art scene. One of his works included burying a number of his paintings on a Dorset hillside. But at the end of 1970s Upton returned again to painting, taking up a teaching role at the RA Schools. In this later period Upton's preference was for small scale works. He often used photocopy or newspaper print as the support and he regularly produced series of images, similar to stills from a reel of film (lots 123-126). Upton considered them 'conceptual paintings', and gained a new fan for his work in John Russell Taylor the influential art critic of The Times. In a review of 1979 Russell Taylor enthusiastically described Upton's paintings as 'tiny, intimist interiors and exteriors exquisitely coloured like some latter day Vuillard', and in his review of the British Council touring exhibition Picturing People, British Figurative Art since 1945, he singled out Upton as one of a handful of 'highly sophisticated stylists'. Also won over to Upton was the critic Mel Gooding who commented on Upton's 'subtle allusiveness (hints of Piero, Vermeer, Sickert)...another way of deepening the game, of adumbrating the mystery. An art of intimations'. As his work evolved so Upton also gave it more loaded political messaging, inspired in part by both his earlier pop art years and current events (lots 129 & 130). But following retirement and his retreat to Mousehole, Cornwall in 1996 his artistic focus shifted. He put aside subversive messaging, urban subject matter and his customarily muted palette. Instead the innate beauty of the local landscape and coastal views became his primary focus (lots 135-138). 123 MICHAEL UPTON (BRITISH 1938-2002) THE STUDIO: BED - A PAIR thinned oil on board each: 18 x 13cm; 7 x 5in 46 x 56cm; 18 x 22in (two framed as one) (2) Exhibited London, Anne Berthoud Gallery (1980s)

    Olympia Auctions
Lots Per Page:

Popular Artists

Artist Thumbnail
Andy Warhol
Artist Thumbnail
Keith Haring
Artist Thumbnail
Pablo Picasso
Artist Thumbnail
Roy Lichtenstein
Want to be notified when new upcoming works by Michael Upton are available?

Follow now to be notified when new works of theirs are available at auction.

Devices

Get Invaluable on Your Phone

Download the app via text link to get instantly notified if you’re outbid and receive auction reminders so you never miss out!

Bid On-the-Go!

Download the Invaluable app and never miss an auction from your iOS or Android device.

App Store badgeGoogle Play badge
Invaluable Logo

As the world's leading online auction marketplace, thousands of auction houses use Invaluable to deepen relationships with millions of clients around the world. Stay connected to the things you love with curated items and auctions sent to your inbox.

You can unsubscribe at any time. View ourPrivacy Policy.

© 1986-2025 Invaluable, LLC. and participating auction houses. All Rights Reserved.

TermsSubscription AgreementPrivacy PolicyCopyrightGDPR InfoPrivacy ChoiceYour Privacy ChoicesSite Map