Gillian Ayres: Song of Hours Fled

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Gillian Ayres (1930 – 2018) was an influential English painter renowned for her large, vividly colored abstract works and prints, characterized by thick layers of pigment that draw from diverse styles and movements.

Ayres viewed abstract painting as a vital language reflecting the energy of the 20th century and its evolving relationship with nature and society. Rather than depicting figures or landscapes, she explored the materiality of painting, often placing the canvas on the ground to engage with the physicality of her work. This approach allowed her to experiment with shapes, colors, and textures that convey a spectrum of emotions.

Her early works featured thin vinyl paint in simple shapes, while her later oil paintings became more exuberant and colorful, created with thick layers of paint. Titles were often assigned post-creation, resonating more with the work’s mood than its content. Ayres also produced ambitious prints using various techniques, including etching and woodcut, culminating in a significant body of graphic work in her later years.

Central to her art was a desire to touch on something beyond control, seeking to express what she termed “the end of the line,” which mutates visually in expansive colors and shapes. While influenced by American Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field Painting, her work also reflected her admiration for artists like Henri Matisse.

Ayres maintained a deep connection with natural elements drawn from her experiences in England and travels abroad. She preferred to let her creativity flow organically, stating, “I like to let things happen and to be overwhelmed by the intensity of the experience.” Using her fingers and various tools, she emphasized the physicality of painting, contrasting with the heroic gestures of Action Painting.

Ayres entered Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts at sixteen and participated in the first Young Contemporaries exhibition in 1949. Her first solo show was at Gallery One in 1956, and she later enjoyed a long teaching career, becoming the first woman to head the art department at Winchester School of Art. After leaving education in 1981, she focused entirely on painting, leading to numerous exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery in 1983 and a recent show at the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing in 2017.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Gillian Ayres (1930 - 2018) was one of the leading abstract painters of her generation. Whilst attending St Paul's Girls' School, London, she taught art at weekends to the children of blitzed Stepney. In 1946, at the age of sixteen, she enrolled at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. Ayres exhibited with Young Contemporaries in 1949 and with the London Group in 1951. Her first solo show was at Gallery One, London, in 1956. The following year she was commissioned to create a large-scale mural for South Hampstead High School for Girls. In 1963 her paintings were included in the Whitechapel Art Gallery's ground-breaking exhibition British Painting in the 60s. As well as the vibrant, heavily worked canvases for which she is best known, she was also a dedicated printmaker.