Andrews was born in Norfolk and studied at the Slade School of Art, where he was later to teach. Often grouped with the painters Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud and R. B. Kitaj under the catchphrase ‘the School of London’, Andrews showed an interest from the start in precarious states of being. One of his well-known early paintings shows a man falling over in the street, caught between surprise and consternation (www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=514&searchid=23423Tate Collection). For some years Andrews spent summer holidays on an estate in the Scottish Highlands, where he became fascinated by the expertise involved in deerstalking. The painting in this exhibition belongs to a group painted which detail these summer visits. Here the artist has fallen over a cliff and is hanging on for dear life while the ghillie reaches out save him.

Thresholds, British Council 2010