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PIFO Artists | Gillian Ayres: Go Somewhere very Wild !

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吉莲·艾尔斯▲

Gillian Ayres(1930-2018)

Born in1930, London

Gillian Ayres is best known for abstract paintingand printmaking using vibrant colors,

which earned her a Turner Prize nomination,

as one of the world’s greatest female abstract artists.

She has exhibited widely from Britain to Europe,

from India to the USA.

Gillian Ayres has paintings in the collections of major museums including MOMA, New York

Gillian Ayres，1993

Swipe up

1957

Ayres accepted a commission for 80ft panels at South Hampstead School.

1960

Gillian Ayres was the only woman in the most important postwar exhibition of British art, ‘Situation’ (Royal Society of Arts) in 1960.

1967/69

She had exhibitioned the British Painting: the NewGeneration, at Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1978

She was the first female Head of Painting at a British art school in1978, theWinchester School of Art.

1983

She had a Retrospective at the Serpentine in 1983.

1986

Ayres awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, OBE.

1989

She earned her a Turner Prize nomination in 1989.

1991

Ayres won the Gold Meda at the Seventh Triennale, India.

and elected Royal Academician(RA).

1995

She had a solo room at Tate Gallery, London.

1997

Ayres won the Sargent Fellowship, the British School at Rome in 1997.

2005

She earned the Honorary Fellow, University of the Arts London in 2005.

2011

Ayres awarded Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, CBE, for services to the arts in 2011.

I did actually think, if you are going to get out of the city [London], go somewhere very wild, not like the Home Counties [the counties surrounding London]

“It’s not so simple” — this is Gilliian Ayres’frequent and robust response to interviewers who propose an explanation for what the artist has done; or who want to know why she has made the marks that she has.

Ayres is the child of liberal parents and was brought up in Barnes by the River Thames in southwest London. She was inspired to paint by books on Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Monet, and by trips to the National Gallery during the war, when only a single work was displayed. She went to Camberwell School of Arts after the war, but left to become achambermaid.

It was at Camberwell that she found theliberty to paint freely and abstractly with a form of creative abandon, inopposition to the tortured precision of her teachers, who belonged to the Euston Road School. She has always been a rebel with a cause.

Cwm, 1959

Oil and ripolin on board

160 x 305 cm

Gillian Ayres, photographed by Jorge Lewinski, 1963

—

Action Painting

The whole idea of the canvas as an arena in which to act, an area and what one does with it. Pollock working on the ground: I wanted to find out about that, obsessively. I did find it tremendously exciting.

As a pioneer of Tachisme (or Tachism, a style ofnon-geometric abstract popular in Europe after World War II), Gillian Ayres was greatly influenced by American Abstract Expressionism and subsequently createdart in a lyrical variant of action painting. Even in her 1980s paintings there are still signs of the excitement of painting–as–performance — in the way paintings such as Where the Cymbals of Rhea Played (1986/1987) include a frame within the painting (or is it a proscenium arch?) within which the action takes place.

Where the Cymbals of the Rhea Played, 1986-1987

Oil on canvas

244 x 210 cm

White Wind, 1997

Oil on canvas

244 x 427 cm

But the example that Pollock gave Gillian Ayres is just a small part of any account of her work — an explanation of her work is not that simple. Look at White Wind (1997), which at first glance looks like an airborne landscape, and it is possible to see what Ayres herself is happy to acknowledge: her indebtedness to the way Chinese artists use white, and the indiuerence of Asian artists to perspective. Ayres’s artistic practice was influenced by western art masters such as Tiziano Vecelli, J. M. W. Turner , Oscar-Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Vincent Willem van Gogh. At the same time, having an open-minded attitude of getting inspired from diverse cultures and traditions all around the world, the artist favored oriental art, especially traditional Chinese paintings and Japanese ukiyo-e. "I don't like perspective, I find it alien－andpart of the gloriousness of the Hokusai is its use of space. It is perfectly possible to argue that the modernist sense of space has come from Asia." as she said.

—

The Nature

In a mad sort of way I saw nature like paint; and probably so did Turner.

But nature and Gillian Ayres’ art have a far from simple relationship, as is evident in her above comment. The phrasing is interesting — not paint like nature, but nature like paint — as if paint precedes nature. Paint is as vital and alive and as various as nature itself.

The English critic Tim Hilton described the way“light finds its way in and out of the small valleys and crags of the impasto”in some of Gillian Ayres’ “thick” paintings of the late 1970s and early 1980s, arguing that when looking at the work, “It is necessary to invoke nature”. There is no doubt that particular places — especially wild ones — have been important to her, and her studio in the south west of England gives direct access to a garden that she has cultivated herself, although in conversation she is quick to point out that many of the plants are from Asia.

Lucas, 1985

Oil on canvas

D. 243 cm

—

Erotic Sublime

Titian’s cherubs seem to invade our space — these invariably non–gravitational paintings, where forms move up to heaven and out of the canvas... Glazes are used to create an iridescent lustre to combine with the erotic sublime.

“Sublime” is a word that Gillian Ayres has often reached for when she describes both her own work and that of other artists she reveres — a word that has often been used to define the art of Turner. The word has a long history in European thought but its meaning crystallises in the 18th century, when the sublime as an aesthetic quality in nature is distinguished from the beautiful — the sublime is attached to turbulent nature, to objects and experiences that cannot be understood, generating feelings of being overwhelmed.

Where the Bee Sucks, 1979-1982

Oil on canvas

227.3 x 242.5 cm

Summer Exhibition 2020，PIFO Gallery installation view

After her visit to Venice, Ayres created a number of works known as “erotic, sublime paintings”which depict the encounter of the female body with nature and result in paintingsfull of whimsy color.

Nature is not observed, nor, as in much Western art, is a woman’s body the equivalent of nature. Rather, these paintings enact the experience of a woman’s body as it encounters paint–as–nature. They are exhilaratingly carnal. Perhaps it is for this reason that the paintings are the size of her body at full stretch, and that in this period she put paint directly on the canvas with her hands, making them profoundly tactile experiences. Resembling a cycle ofincitement, bliss, amazement, and reversion, her lasting and thickly-textured brushstrokes in addition to the mottled and patterned colors, liberally showcased the intense and solemn internality, manifesting boundless energy andlimitless imagination and reflection.

It is easy to see how Gillian Ayres’ paintings, particularly those of the 1980s and early 1990s, seem to reach for the sublime, with their overwhelming scale and size and their long, thick brushstrokes — the choreography of the marks in these paintings has the intensity of nature or life itself. As she told me in one of our conversations: “I like the idea of art that knocks you off your feet... artists like Turner wanted the sublime and used landscape. They meant it to shock.” But it is not so simple.

Untitled Rome Series I , 1997

Oil on canvas

243.8 x 213.4 cm

Sailing off the Edge: Gillian Ayres' abstract painting 1979 to the present
2017, CAFAM, Installation view

However, the works from the 1990s are furnished with a sense of form through out the pictures. Even though going either dynamic or stationary, the expressive forms and the visuals composed of symbolism of color constantly remain natural and picturesque all through. Ayres also attempted to go beyond one single dimensionality and push boundaries in all likelihood, manifesting how an artist could explore all the possibilities of pigment and painting through continued practicing.

Gillian Ayres' studio in Devon. A slot in the wall allows very large paintings to enter and exit

When she uses her brush to paint freely on a canvas, we feel her vitality and passion; she makes her canvas alive, filling it with her weight and heat. Her brushwork and use of colour are bold and vigorous, creating unrestrained forms. The key to her work is its grandeur and heroism. The principle behind that grandeur and heroism can be found in a story. In Cornwall, where she lives and paints, her studio is small, so her large paintings cannot be moved out of the house through the door. Her reaction was to make a large slit in the wall so that the large paintings could be removed. When I saw the photograph of the house, a knowing smile spread across my face, and I understood Gillian Ayres’ character. If you do something, you have to give it everything. If you paint, paint as you will. The door can serve to enter and exit the house. But if you can't get out, you have to take down a wall. You have to have no misgivings. Isn’t this what art is all about?

——Wang Chuanchen

Turkish Blue and Emerald Green that in the Channel Stray, 1996

Oil on canvas

244 x 396 cm

Altair, 1989-1990

Oil on canvas, Diptych

224 x 427 cm

Gillian Ayres is among the most important and fascinating abstract artists of our times. There is a restless energy and boundless courage in her work, but also a calm, accepting wisdom. Spirited yellows, mesmerising blues, wilful reds... Just like in my grandma’s stories, in Ayres' paintings, colours have unforgettable personalities. They talk. They listen. They breathe.

East and West, it is rare to find an artist with such strong convictions who can let go of herself and become one with the universe. An artist who understands chaos and cosmos in equal degree. Discipline and spontaneity. An artist who at no stage in her life has lost her curiosity and sense of wonder. An artist who values freedom above everything else, and cannot possibly be conkned to boxes or categories of any kind. An artist who gently but krmly holds us by the hand, and helps us to connect with something other than our limited physical selves. “This is how you would see the world,” she seems to say, “if you could only see it through my eyes.” And the wonderful thing is, we can. When we get lost inside one of her paintings, we can see the world in a completely diuerent way. She introduces us to inknity: Gillian Ayres.

——Elif Shafak

In the Llaniestyn studio, mid-1980s

About the Artist

Swipe up

Gillian Ayres (1930-2018), British, was born in London, Studied in Camberwell School of Art from 1945 to 1950, and died in 2018.

Solo Exhibitions

2019

Spotlight: Gillian Ayres, Tate Britain, London

I SeeNature Like Paint: Gillian Ayres Paintings 1972-83, Mark Rothko Art Center, Daugavpils

GillianAyres: Song Beneath the Stars, AlanCristea Gallery, London

2018

Gillian Ayres, PIFO Gallery, Beijing

2017

GillianAyres, Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog, Wales

Sailing Off the Edge, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing

Gillian Ayres, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Penzance, Wales

Gillian Ayres, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales

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

2015

GillianAyres: New Paintings & Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London

2014

GillianAyres: New Works and Woodcuts, Burton Art Gallery, Bideford

2012 – 2013

GillianAyres: Works on Paper 1990 – 2011(Touring Exhibition), Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; Turnpike Gallery, Leigh; Royal Albert Memorial Museum& Art Gallery, Exeter

2012

GillianAyres: Paintings and Works on Paper 2010-2012, Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Gillian Ayres, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings

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

2010

New Painting and Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Gillian Ayres (Room 23), Tate Britain, London

2009

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

2007

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

2006

New and Recent Paintings, Hillsboro Gallery, Dublin

2005

At This Stage, Southampton City Art Gallery，Southampton

2004

Royal West of England Academy, Bristol

2001

New Works (Prints), Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Gimpel Fils, London

1999

New Paintings, Gimpel Fils, London

Alan Cristea Gallery, London

De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill-on-Sea

1998

Storey institute Gallery, Lancaster

1997

Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts, London

The Yale Centerfor British Art, New Haven, Connecticut/ Iowa University Museum, IowaWorks on Paper, Gimpel Fils, London

The Customs House, South Shields, Tyne and Wear

1996

Gimpel Fils, London

1995

Solo Room, Tate Gallery, London

1994

Bolton City Art Gallery, Bolton

1991-1994

Chosen by The British Council as the sole British Artist for The Seventh Trienalle, Delhi/Nicholson Gallery of Modern Art , Mumbai/ Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai/KarnatakaChitrakala Parishath, Bengalaru/Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata/LalitKala Akademi, Rabrindra Bhavan, New Delhi/The Spain Ayuntamiento De Calva, Salon De Las Artes, Leon/Palacio Almundi, Murcia/Torreon De Lozoya, Segovia

1993

Purdy Hicks Gallery, London

Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester

Atkinson Gallery, Somerset

Atlantis Gallery, London

1991

Kilkenny Arts Festival, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny

1990

Fischer Fine Art, London

1989

Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh

Cornerhouse, Manchester

Castlefield Galleries, Manchester

1988

Knoedler Gallery, London

1987

Knoedler Gallery, London

1985

M. Knoedler & Co., New York

1984

Knoedler Gallery, London

1983

Retrospective, Serpentine Gallery, London

Cooper Gallery, Barnsley/Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance/Nottingham University Art Gallery, Nottingham/Mostyn Art Gallery, Llandudno

1982

Knoedler Gallery, London

1981

Museum of Modern Art, Oxford/Rochdale ArtGallery, Rochdale/Ikon Gallery, Birmingham/Third Eye Centre, Glasgow

1979

Knoedler Gallery, London

1978

Kettle's Yard, Cambridge

1977

Gallery Alvarez, Porto

1976

Women’s Inter Art Center, New York

William Darby Gallery, London

1973

Hoya Gallery, London

Oxford Gallery, Oxford

1967 –1969

British Painting: The New Generation, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1967

Alecto Gallery, London

1966

Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham

Kasmin Gallery, London

1965

Kasmin Gallery, London

1964

Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol

1963

Hamilton Gallery, London

1960

Molton Gallery, London

1958

Redfern Gallery, London

1957

Kara Benson Gallery, Oslo

1956

Gallery One, London

Group Exhibitions

2019

GillianAyres/Rachel Jones/Nao Matsunaga, New Art Centre, Salisbury

The World as Yet Unseen: Women Artists in Conversation with Partou Zia, Falmaouth Art Gallery, Falmouth

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

2018

Perfect: Buddhism and Art, Putian Art Museum, Putian

Albert Irvin: Abstract Expressionism and how it influenced him and his contemporaries, Royal West of England Academy, London

LONDON, Quebec Surface Work, Victoria Miro Gallery, London

2017

Decade: Abstract Art 10, PIFO Gallery, Beijing

2015

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London

No Set Rules, Ben Uri Gallery, London

2014

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

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London

2012

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London

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

2011

Objectsof Delight: Personal Choices from the Arts Council Collection, QUAD, Derby

2010

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

Summer Exhibition, Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Objects of Delight, QUAD, Derby

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

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

2009

At the Edge: British Art 1950-2000 (Travelling Exhibition), Rochdale

2008

Blitzkreig Pop, Man & Eve Gallery, London

Colour Show, Hilton Young Gallery, Penzance

2006

Passionfor Paint (Travelling Exhibition), National Gallery, London

How to Improve the World, Hayward Gallery, London

2004

Surface Tensions, Norwich City Art Gallery, Norwich

2001

British Abstract Painting, Flowers East Gallery, London

1998

Group Show, Alan Cristea Gallery, London

1995 – 1997

Homeand Away: Internationalism and British Art 1900 - 1990, Tate Gallery, Liverpool

1995

Newlyn Art Gallery: 100 Years - Context and Continuity, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance

1993

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

1989

Blasphemies, Ecstasies, Cries, Serpentine Gallery, London

1987

British Art in the Twentieth Century, Royal Academy of Arts, London/Staats Galerie, Stuttgart Current Affairs, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Touring Eastern Europe

1985

Summer in the City, IkonGallery, Birmingham

1984

As of Now, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin

1983－1984

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

AliveTo It All, Rochdale Art Gallery, Rochdale/Serpentine Gallery, London/Ferens Art Gallery,Hull/City Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth/Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield

1980

Hayward Annual, London

1977

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

1974

British Painting ’74, Hayward Gallery, London

1971

Large Paintings - Three Painters (John Golding, Alan Gouk), Hayward Gallery, London

1967 – 1969

British Painting: The New Generation, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1967

RecentBritish Painting: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Collection, Tate Gallery, London

British Painting: The New Generation,Museum of Modern Art, New York

1966

Aspectsof New British Art, Australia/ New Zealand

1965

Corsham Painters and Sculptors, Arts Council, Bath

1963

British Painting in the Sixties, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

Seventh International Art Exhibition, Tokyo

Hamilton Painters and Sculptors, Hamilton Gallery, London

1962–1963

British Art (Travelling Exhibition), Denmark

British Painting (Travelling Exhibition), San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco/Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas/SantaBarbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara

Situation: An Arts Council Exhibition, Cambridge, Newcastle, Bradford, Kettering and Liverpool

1961

New London Situation, Marlborough Gallery, London

International Malerie, As chaffenberg Opening Exhibition, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham

John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

1960

Situation, R.B.A.Galleries, London

Art Alive, Northampton Museum of Art, Northampton

Artists at Work, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham

Contemporary Paintings, Bristol City Art Gallery, Bristol

Guggenheim Award Paintings, RWS Galleries, London

1959

TheGregory Collection, ICA, London

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

1958

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

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

British Abstract Painting, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland

1957

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

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

Peinture Anglaise Contemporaine, Museedes Beaux-Arts, Liège/Galerie du Perron, Geneva

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

Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London

British Abstract Painting, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland Public Collections

Asia-Pacific Art Gallery of South Australia, AdelaideBritish Council, New DelhiCAFA Art Museum, BeijingNational Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Europe

Stuyvesant Foundation, Netherland

Hennie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo

Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon

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

Gillian Ayres on the north Devon coast

photographed by Gautier Deblonde,1998

Exhibition Duration
15 July - 1 September 2020, 10:00－18:00
( Closed on Mondays)

Venue
B-11, 798 Art Zone

About the Gallery

PIFO Gallery concentrates on the participation of the course of Chinese contemporary art and the exploration of post-war European master artists and seeking for all possibilities of art power in the dialogue and collision between the two aspects. As a major gallery in China specialized in the study and promotion of abstract art, and also the main institution to continuously explore the various possibilities of figurative art at present, PIFO is convinced that the experience of art emerges from the new world created by one revolution after another; The artist's work is the third eye to explore the world. For collectors, PIFO provides expertise and encourages them to explore their own unique perspective because only the combination of the two can make a great collection. We hope to see a growing number of collectors to take on the roles of a connoisseur, with a more in-depth understanding of Asian and Western contemporary art, and appreciate the artists discovered, reshaped and firmly believed in by the gallery.

Press enquiries/images

Junfang Shao shaojunfang@pifo.cn

T: +86 10 59789562

All other enquiries

Sophia Wang sophia.wang@pifo.cn
M: +86 18210011135