Windsor Betts

Michael Wright

Born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1931, Michael Fitzhugh Wright studied at Yale Music and Art School, Albright Art School and the Brooklyn Museum School. After serving in Korea as a regimental artist, he began his career as a painter in New York City in 1954.

As a young painter, he was friend and colleague of Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and David Smith in the famous days of the Cedar Bar and Eight Street Art Club. He studied with Paul Brach through the New School and showed in several Tenth Street galleries.

After ten years in the City, he moved to East Hampton and assisted Willem de Kooning from 1965 through 1967.

While in East Hampton, Wright had several solo shows at the Guild and in 1966 won the prestigious Long Island Painter's Award.

In 1972, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Feeling the need to be closer to nature, he moved his studio to the isolation of the woods in Barnstead, New Hampshire where he painted for ten years.

Intrigued by the clarity of light and variety of forms, he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1986 where he still resides and paints today.

Michael Wright is an accomplished draftsman and his line remains an integral part of his work. He has always loved drawing the figure. His media are oil, acrylic and water color. He continues in printing making. His exceptional vision of nature through lyrical imagery is always there.

"Mike is a natural painter, he was born that way."

• Willem de Kooning