Michael Kidner

Michael James Kidner
Michael Kidner in 1962
Born	1917
Died	2009 England
Nationality	British
Education	Cambridge. Goldsmiths
Known for	Painting, Printing, Sculpture, drawing
Movement	Op Art, Systems Art, Constructivist
Spouse(s)	Marion Frederick

Michael James Kidner RA (11 September 1917 – 2009) was a pioneer of Op art in the mid-1960s from Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. Michael Kidner was one of its earliest and most consistent exponents and it was in these overlapping fields of optical effect and systemic structure that he was to find the creative substance that was to sustain his whole career. A Constructivist by inclination his interest in mathematics, chaos and wave theories informed an art that is both rational and intuitive. Without losing his rigorous, intellectual approach, Kidner manages to make his work resonate emotionally.Throughout his life he retained an interest in unpredictable world events that provoked unplanned elements within his work but he somehow managed to intimate an underlying order through his use of form and colour.

Kidner was born in Kettering, the son of an industrialist and was one of 6 children. He was educated at Bedales progressive school and in 1939 he went to Cambridge to read History and Anthropology, before studying Landscape Architecture at Ohio state university. He was staying with his older sister and her American husband in the USA when war broke out in Europe. Unable to return home he joined the Canadian army for 5 years. He was subsequently posted to England and after D Day saw active service in France in the Canadian Royal Corps of Signals. Post demobilisation in 1946, he enrolled at Goldsmiths University to study for a National Diploma in Art and Design. However he left after only 3 months as he was disenchanted with the course. From 1947 – 50, Kidner taught at Pitlochry Prep school in Perthshire and it was here that he started to paint as a hobby. In 1949 he met and married his wife Marion Frederick an American actress. From 1951 to 1952 he became a theatre designer in Bromley and Barnstaple whilst continuing to paint. During a painting holiday in the south of France he met André Lhote who introduced him to Cubism and encouraged him to move to Paris and become a full-time painter. He travelled to Paris in 1953 where he attended Lhote’s Atelier sporadically. After 2 years he returned to North Devon where his brother was practising as a GP. Here Kidner painted abstract landscapes rather in the spirit of the St Ives School. Subsequently he moved to St Ives for several months where he became acquainted with Trevor Bell, Roger Hilton, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon and others in the group.