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Gillian Ayres Biography
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1930 |
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Born Barnes, London, England; Educated at St. Paul's Girls' School, London
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1949 |
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First Young Contemporaries
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1946 - 1950 |
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Camberwell School of Art
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1951 |
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First Exhibited with London Group
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1957 |
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Commission for 80 ft panels at South Hampstead School
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1951 - 1959 |
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Worked part-time at AIA Gallery
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1963 |
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Japan Int'l Art Promotion Association Award
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1959 - 1965 |
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Teaching at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, England
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1975 |
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Arts Council of Great Britain bursary
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1965 - 1978 |
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Teaching at St. Martin's School of Art, London, England
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1979 |
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Arts Council of Great Britain Purchase Award
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1978 - 1981 |
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Head of Painting, Winchester School of Art
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1981 |
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Moved to North Wales
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1982 |
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Second Prize, John Moores Biennale Walker Art Gallery, London, England
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1985 |
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TV film for Open University on abstract with Norbert Lynton
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1988 |
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The Blackstone Prize, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
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1989 |
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The Charles Wollaston Award, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
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1990 |
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The Blackstone Prize, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
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1990 |
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Korn/Ferry Prize, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
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1991 |
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Gold Medal, Seventh Triennale - India
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1995 |
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Joined Gimpel Fils, London
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1995 |
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Lives in London and Cornwall
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Ayres decided to become a painter at the age of fourteen, and studied at Camberwell School of Art from 1946-50, before running the AIA Gallery with painter Henry Mundy whom she married. During the entire period of her maturity as an artist she has produced abstract paintings of strong individual flavor owing both to European post-war abstraction and to American Expressionism. The former influence came indirectly through her meeting with Roger Hilton when he was experimenting with free abstraction. Of equal importance were photographs she saw of Jackson Pollock working on his paintings on the floor, which encouraged her to work without brushes and with physical movements unlike those of conventional easel painters. In later years she continued to develop her almost instinctive approach to color, especially when in 1978 she turned from using acrylic to oil. In recent work she has sometimes continued to apply the paint until the surface gives way under the strain, but the colors retain their brilliance and individual quality. Gillian Ayres' first solo show was at Gallery One in 1956, although she featured in many key group shows thereafter, for example Whitechapel Art Gallery's seminal British Painting in the 60s in 1965. Her solo shows however, are an impressive list: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1981; Serpentine Gallery, 1983; the Tate Gallery, London (1995) and the Royal Academy in 1997. She has taught at St. Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art and was made an RA in 1991. Ayres's work has been exhibited in many group exhibitions in countries throughout the world since 1957, including France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, USA and Japan. She continues to exhibit regularly at Gimpel Fils, London and at the Alan Cristea Gallery, London. Gillian Ayres lives and works in Cornwall and London.
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| Selected Exhibitions |
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2002
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FIAC, Paris, France (solo)
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2002
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'Featured Artist' at the Carlow Visual Arts Festival, Southern Ireland
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2001
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Alan Cristea Gallery, London, England (solo)
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2001
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Gilmpel Fils, London, England (solo)
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1999
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Gimpel Fils, London, England (solo)
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1999
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Alan Cristea Gallery, London, England (solo)
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1999
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De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill-on-Sea (solo)
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1998
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Storey Institute Gallery, Lancaster, England (solo)
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1998
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Group Show, Alan Cristea Gallery, London
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1997
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Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, London- Toured to Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut; Iowa University Museum, Iowa (solo)
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1997
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Major retrospective planned, The RA London, England
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1996
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Gimpel Fils, London, England (solo)
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1995
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Solo Room, Tate Gallery, London, England
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1995
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Purdy Hicks Gallery, Purdy Hicks Gallery London, England
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1991 - 1994
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Solo tour of work, Seventh Triennale India
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1993
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Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, England (solo)
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1993
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City Art Galleries, City Art Galleries Manchester, England
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1992
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The Poetic Trace, Aspects of British Abstraction Since 1945, Adelson Galleries New York, NY
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1991
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Glasgow's Great British Art Show, Glasgow, Scotland
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1991
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Sole British Representative for the Seventh Triennale, India
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1991
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The Experience of Painting, South Bank Centre; Laing Art Gallery London; Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England
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1991
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Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts London, England
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1990
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Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
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1990
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Fischer Fine Art, London, England (solo)
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1989 - 1990
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Cornerhouse, Cornerhouse Manchester, England
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1989 - 1990
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Castlefield Gallery, Castlefield Gallery Manchester, England
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1989
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'Blasphemies, Ecstacies, Cries', Serpentine Gallery, London, England
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1989
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The President's Choice, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
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1989
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Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, England- Toured to Fruitmakret Gallery, Edinburgh; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (solo)
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1989
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Fruitmarket Gallery, Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh, Scotland
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1988
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Drawings from Seillans, Knoedler Gallery London, England
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1988
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100 Years of Art in Britain, Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds, England
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1988
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Athena Awards, Barbican Arts Centre London, England
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1988
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The Presence of Painting: Aspects of British Abstraction, Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield, England and tour
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1987
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British Art in the Twentieth Century, Royal Academy of Arts; Staatsgalerie, London, England; Stuttgart, Germany
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1987
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Current Affairs, Museum of Modern Art Oxford, England and tour to Eastern Europe
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1987
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Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts London, England
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1987
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Knoedler Gallery, Knoedler Gallery London, England
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1985
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M. Knoedler & Co., New York, NY (solo)
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1985
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Summer in the City, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
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1984
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As of Now, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
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1984
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Knoedler Gallery, Knoedler Gallery, London, England
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1983 - 1984
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Tolly Cobbold Eastern Arts 4th National Exhibition, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, England
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1983
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Retrospective, Serpentine Gallery, London, England- Toured to Barnsley, Penzance, Nottingham and Llandudno (solo)
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1983
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Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
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1983
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Peter Moores Liverpool Project 7, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England
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1982
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Knoedler Gallery, London, England (solo)
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1981
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Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England- Toured to Rochdale, Birmingham and Glasgow (solo)
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1980
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'Hayward Annual', selected by John Hoyland, London, England
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1979
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Knoedler Gallery, London, England (solo)
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1978
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Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, England (solo)
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1977
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Galeria Alvarez, Porto, Portugal (solo)
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1977
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'British Painting 1952-1977', Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
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1976
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Women's Interart Centre, New York, NY (solo)
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1976
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William Darby Gallery, London, England (solo)
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1974
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British Painting '74, Hayward Gallery, London, England
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1973
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Hoya Gallery, London, England (solo)
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1973
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Oxford Gallery, Oxford, England (solo)
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1971
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'Large Paintings- Three Painters', Hayward Gallery, London, England
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1969
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Kasmin Gallery, Kasmin Gallery London, England
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1967 - 1969
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'British Painting: the New Generation', Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
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1967 - 1969
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John Moores Biennale, Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, England
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1967
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'Recent British Painting', Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, Tate Gallery, London, England
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1966
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Aspects of New British Art, British Council Touring Exhibition New Zealand and Australia
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1966
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Midland Group, Nottingham, England (solo)
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