Gillian Ayres

1930

Born in Barnes, London, United Kingdom

2018

Died in North Devon, United Kingdom

 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022

Gillian Ayres, Galería Marlborough, Madrid, Spain

2021

Gillian Ayres, Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2019

Spotlight: Gillian Ayres, Joyous Colour, Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

I See Nature Like Paint: Gillian Ayres: Paintings 1972-83, Mark Rothko Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia

Gillian Ayres: Song Beneath the Stars, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2018

Gillian Ayres, PIFO Gallery, Beijing, China

2017

Sailing off the Edge: Gillian Ayres’ Abstract Painting, Past to Present, China Art Museum, Beijing, China

Gillian Ayres, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog, Wales, United Kingdom

Gillian Ayres: Retrospective Exhibition, National Museum Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Gillian Ayres, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Penzance, Wales, United Kingdom

Gillian Ayres: New Paintings and Woodcuts, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2015

Gillian Ayres: New Paintings and Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2014

Gillian Ayres: New Works and Woodcuts, Burton Art Gallery, Bideford, Devon, United Kingdom

2013

Gillian Ayres: Works on Paper 1990-2011, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, United Kingdom; travelled to

Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, United Kingdom; Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter, United Kingdom

2012

Gillian Ayres: Paintings and Works on Paper, 2010-2012, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United

Kingdom

Gillian Ayres: Paintings from the 50’s, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, United Kingdom

2010

Gillian Ayres (Room 23), Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

New Painting and Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

Retrospective, John Moores Painting Prize Show, Seongnam Arts Centre, Seongnam, Korea 

2009

At the Edge: British Art 1950 - 2000, Gallery Two, Three & Four, Rochdale, United Kingdom

2007

New Paintings, Prints and Monoprints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2006

New and Recent Paintings, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland

2005

At This Stage, Southampton City Art Gallery, United Kingdom

2004

Surface Tensions, Norwich City Art Gallery, United Kingdom

2001

Gillian Ayres: New Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1999

Gillian Ayres: New Paintings, Gimpel Fils, London, United Kingdom

Gillian Ayres: New Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London, United Kingdom

De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-sea, United Kingdom

1997

Gillian Ayres, Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, London; travelled to The Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, United States; Iowa University Museum, United States

Works on Paper, Gimpel Fils, London, United Kingdom

The Customs House, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom

1996

Gimpel Fils, London, United Kingdom

1995

Solo Room, Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1994

Bolton City Art Gallery, United Kingdom

1991-94

Chosen by the British Council as the Solo British Representative for the Seventh Triennale, India; travelled to Nicholson Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India; Lalit Kala Akademi, Madras, India; Karnataka Chirakala Parishath, Bangalore, India; Birla Academy of Arts and Culture, Calcutta, India; Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabrindra Bhavan, New Delhi, India; Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland; Ayuntamiento De Calvia, Salon De Las Artes. Leon, France; Palacio Almundi, Murcia, Spain; Torreon De Lozoya, Segovia, Spain

1993

Indian Summer, Manchester City Art Gallery, United Kingdom

Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom

Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, United Kingdom

Atlantis Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1991

Kilkenny Arts Festival, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland

1989

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom

1988

Knoedler Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1987

Knoedler Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1985

M. Knoedler & Co., New York, United States

Knoedler Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1984

Knoedler Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1983

Gillian Ayres Solo Retrospective, The Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom; travelled to Cooper Gallery, Barnsley; Newyln Gallery, Penzance; Nottingham University Art Gallery; Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno, United Kingdom

1982

Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, United Kingdom

Knoedler Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1979

Knoedler Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1978

Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, United Kingdom

1977

Galerie Alvarez, Porto, Portugal

1976

William Darby Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Gillian Ayres: Acrylic Paintings, Women’s Interart Centre, New York, United States

1973

Hoya Gallery, London, United Kingdom; travelled to Oxford Gallery, Oxford, United Kingdom

1967

Gillian Ayres: Prints, Ceramics and Drawings, Alecto Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1966

Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham, United Kingdom

1965

Hamilton Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Kasmin Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1964

Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom

1963

Hamilton Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1962

Molton Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1960

Molton Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1958

Redfern Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1957

Kara Benson Gallery, Oslo, Norway

1956

Victor Musgrave’s Gallery One, London, United Kingdom

 

Selected Group Shows

2024

The 14th China Songzhuang Culture and Art Festival, Songzhuang Art Center, Beijing, China

A Constellation of Cities: Contemporary Art and Experiment in Southern China and Beyond, Guangdong Museum of Art (BAIETAN), Guangzhou, China

2023

The Power of Painting: between Ideas and Beliefs, Ennova Art Museum, Langfang, China

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70, Whitechapel Art Gallery,London, United Kingdom / Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles,Arles, France

New Gestures: Experiments in British Painting in the 1950s and 60s, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London,United Kingdom

Sensing Abstraction, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Explorations in Paint Exhibition, Petworth House, Petworth, West Sussex, United Kingdom

UK vs. USA: Post-war to Present, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London, United Kingdom

Abstract Colour, Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2022

Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965, Barbican, London, United Kingdom

The Experience of Painting, Alex Vardaxoglou Gallery, London, United Kingdom 

Ruminations, Gazelli Art House, London, United Kingdom

2021

Hockney to Himid: 60 Years of British Printmaking, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, United

Kingdom

Listing, PIFO Gallery, Beijing, China

David Diao - Traces of Modernism | Gillian Ayres, Ian Davenport, John Hoyland, Albert Irvin and Bridget Riley, Gazelli Art House, London, United Kingdom

Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2020

Summer Exhibition 2020, PIFO Gallery, Beijing, China

2019

Bad Actors, KARST, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Gillian Ayres/Rachel Jones/Nao Matsunaga, New Art Centre, Salisbury, United Kingdom

The World as Yet Unseen: Women Artists in Conversation with Partou Zia, Falmaouth ArtGallery, Falmouth, United Kingdom

She’s Eclectic: Women Artists of the VG&M Collection, Rodeo, London, United Kingdom

2018

Perfect: Buddhism and Art, Putian Art Museum, Putian, China

Albert Irvin: Abstract Expressionism and how it influenced him and his contemporaries, Royal Westof England Academy, London, United Kingdom

LONDON, Quebec, Canada

Surface Work, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom

2017

Decade: Abstract Art 10, PIFO Gallery, Beijing, China

2015

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

No Set Rules, Ben Uri Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2014

As Exciting as We Can Make It: IKON in the 1980s, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

2012

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

My Generation: Art of the 60s and Early 70s, Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland

2011

Objects of Delight: Personal Choices from the Arts Council Collection, QUAD, Derby, United Kingdom

2010

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

As Dreamers Do, Works of the 1960s from the Calouste, Gulbenkian Foundation’s Art Collection, Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkain, Paris, France

Retrospective: John Moores Painting Prize Show, Seongnam Arts Centre, Seongnam, Korea

2009

At the Edge, British Art 1950-200, Touchstones, Rochdale, United Kingdom; travelled to Harris

Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, United Kingdom; Gallery Oldham, United Kingdom; Bolton

Museum, Art Gallery and Aquarium, Bolton, United Kingdom

2008

Blitzkreig Pop, Man and Eve Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Colour Show, Hilton Young Gallery, Penzance, United Kingdom

2006

Passion for Paint, National Gallery, London, United Kingdom

How to Improve the World, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2004

Surface Tensions, Norwich City Art Gallery, United Kingdom

2002

Éigse Carlow Arts Festival, Carlow, Ireland

1998

Coming to Light: Recent Acquisitions, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, United Kingdom

In/Sight, University of Exeter Faculty of Arts, Exeter, United Kingdom

25 Years of Arts Week, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland

1996

ACE! Arts Council Collection New Purchases, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom; travelled

to The Harlech Biennale, Wales, United Kingdom; Oriel Senig, Gwynedd, United Kingdom

1995

Home and Away, Internationalism and British Art 1900-1990, Tate Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Newlyn Art Gallery: 100 Years–Context and Continuity, Newlyn Gallery, Penzance, United Kingdom

1993

The Sixties: Art and Popular Culture in Britain, Barbican Art Centre, London, United Kingdom

1992

Ready, Steady, Go: Painting of the Sixties from the Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre,

London, United Kingdom

The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, United Kingdom

Heaven and Hell, Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1990

Great British Art Show, City Art Gallery, Glasgow, United Kingdom

1989

Blasphemies, Ecstasies, Cries, Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1988

Athena Towards, Barbican Art Centre, London, United Kingdom

100 Years of Art in Britain, Leeds City Art Gallery, United Kingdom

Presence of Painting: Aspects of British Abstraction 1955-88, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, United Kingdom

1985

Summer in the City, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom

1983

Alive To It All, Arts Council Exhibition; travelled to Rochdale Art Gallery, United Kingdom;

Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, United Kingdom; City

Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth, United Kingdom; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, United

Kingdom

Art of Now: Peter Moores Liverpool Project 7, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Tolly Cobbold, Eastern Arts 4th National Exhibition, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, United Kingdom

1980

Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1977

British Painting 1952-1977, Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

1974

British Painting ’74, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1971

Large Paintings – Three Painters(John Golding, Alan Gouk), Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1970

British Artists Prints 1961-66, British Council Exhibition; travelled to National Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland; Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens, Greece; International Cultureel Centrum, Antwerp, Belgium; National Museum of Malta, Valletta, Malta; British Council Largos, Nigeria; Queensland

Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

1968

Junge Generation Grossbritannien, Akademie der Kunst, Berlin, Germany

1967-69

British Painting: The New Generation, Museum of Modern Art, New York; touring United States

1967

Recent British Painting, Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, Tate Gallery, London

1966

Aspects of New British Art, touring exhibition, Australia and New Zealand

1965

Op and Pop, Stockholm, Sweden

European Drawings, Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States

1963

British Painting in the Sixties, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Seventh International Art Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan

1962

British Art, touring exhibition, Denmark

British Painting, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco; touring to Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, and Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, United States

Situation: An Arts Council Exhibition, Cambridge; touring to Newcastle, Bradford, Kettering and

Liverpool, United Kingsm

1961

New London Situation, Marlborough Gallery, London, United Kingdom

International Malerie, Aschaffenberg, Germany

Opening Exhibition, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham, United Kingdom

John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom

1960

Guggenheim Award Paintings, RWS Galleries, London, United Kingdom

Situation, R.B.A. Galleries, London, United Kingdom

Art Alive, Northampton Museum of Art, Northampton, United Kingdom

Artists at Work, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Contemporary Paintings, Bristol City Art Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom

1959

The Gregory Collection, ICA, London, United Kingdom

Premiere Biennale de Paris, Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

1958

Dimensions: British Abstract Art, O’Hana Gallery, London, United Kingdom

New Trends in British Art, Rome-New York Art Foundations, Rome, Italy

Three British Abstractions: Gillian Ayres, Harold Cohen, Ralph Rumney, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom

British Abstract Painting, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

1957

Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract Painting in England Today, Redfern Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Dimensions: British Abstract Art, O’Hana Gallery,London, United Kingdom

Peinture Anglaise Contemporaine, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Liège, Belgium/Galerie du Perron, Geneva, Switzerland

La Peinture Britannique Contemporaine, Salle Balzac, Galleria Creuze, Paris, France

Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London, United Kingdom

8 British Abstract Painting, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand

 

Education

1941-6

St Paul’s Girls’ School, London, United Kingdom

1946-50

Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London, United Kingdom

 

Selected Awards/Residencies

2011

Awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

2005

Elected Senior Royal Academician, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom

1989

Shortlisted for the Turner Prize, London, United Kingdom

1988

Awarded the Blackstone Prize at the Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition, London, United Kingdom

1986

Awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

1979

Received the Arts Council Purchase Award, Second Prize

1967

Received the Arts Council Purchase Award, London, United Kingdom

1963

Japan International Art Promotion Association Award

 

Teaching Appointments

1959 – 66

Lecturer at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, United Kingdom

1978 – 81

Head Teacher of Painting at Winchester School of Art, United Kingdom

1966 – 78

Senior Lecturer at St. Martin’s School of Art, London, United Kingdom

 

Monographs

2017

Martin Gayford, David Cleaton-Roberts and Andrew Marr, Gillian Ayres (London: Art/Books, 2017)

2004

Mel Gooding, Gillian Ayres: Paintings and Works on Paper 1980-2004 (London: Alan Cristea Gallery, 2004)

2001

Mel Gooding, Gillian Ayres (London: Lund Humphries, 2001)

 

Public Collections

Asia-Pacific

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

British Council, New Delhi

CAFA Art Museum, Beijing

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Europe

Stuyvesant Foundation, The Netherlands

Hennie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo

Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon

UK Art Council of Great Britain

Birmingham City Art Gallery, Birmingham

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton

British Council, Manchester

British Museum, London

Bolton Museum, Bolton

Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford

Contemporary Art Society, London

Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, Glasgow

Government (UK) Art Collection, London

Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield

John Creasey Collection of Contemporary Art, Salisbury

Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds

Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester

National Museum of Wales, Wales

Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton

Swindon Art Gallery, Swindon

Tate Collection, London

Touchstones, Rochdale

Ulster Museum, Belfast

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

USA

Museum of Fine Art, Boston

Museum of Modern Art, New York

New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

Brazil Olinda Museum, Sao Paulo

Museum of Modern Art, Brasilia