Biography for Gillian Ayres OBE RA (1930 - 2018)

Background

Gillian Ayres studied at Camberwell School of Art. She first exhibited in Young Contemporaries in 1959. She continued exhibit throughout Europe including the Kara Benson Gallery, Oslo (1957), the Molton Gallery, London (1960, 1962), Kasmin Gallery, London (1965, 1966, 1969) and Galeria Alvarez, Porto, Portugal (1977).

Back home, Ayres exhibited regularly with the Knoedler Gallery in London and New York from 1979, and in 1983 a retrospective of her work was held at the Serpentine Gallery in 1985.

In 1995 she enjoyed a solo show at the Tate Gallery and at The Royal Academy in 1995, along with exhibitions at London’s Gimpel Fils and Alan Cristea galleries.

Awards

Ayres won numerous awards including the Japan International Art Promotion Association Award in1963, Charles Wollaston Award, Royal Academy of Arts 1989; and Prize Winner, Gold Medal, Seventh Triennale – India, British Council in 1991

Exhibitions

Gillian Ayres enjoyed numerous solo shows had a number of solo exhibitions including:-

Museum of Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, 1981

Serpentine Gallery, London, 1983

] Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1997

Southampton City Art Gallery, 2005

Jerwood Gallery 2010

National Museum Wales, Cardiff, 2017

and CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, 2017

Selected Collections

Tate Gallery, London

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Swindon Museum and Art Gallery

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

The Museum of Modern Art, New York