Gillian Ayres at 80: New Paintings and Works on Paper

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Gillian Ayres RA OBE, one of Britain's most respected painters, will unveil new paintings in an exhibition that marks her 80th birthday at Alan Cristea Gallery from 3 February 2010. Broadcaster Andrew Marr described Gillian Ayres as ‘probably the finest abstract painter alive in Britain'. He continued: ‘Ayres has always been obsessively concerned with painting - the unfolding of a self-contained logic, whirling chaos held just in check. In her acid/sweet collisions, the complexity and crampedness, and then the unscrambling, of the canvas, it's about energy, laid down in colour and transmitted in shockwaves to the viewer. ‘ Ayres is best known for her vibrant palette and the sheer physicality with which she applies paint to canvas. The works in this exhibition contain many familiar motifs but also represent a marked progression. Each work brims with her usual energy, however these new compositions are more distilled and exude the confidence of a painter at the height of her powers. Ayres was initially influenced by American Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, but sees her work as part of a European tradition. Gillian Ayres said: 'Titian, Rubens and Matisse are the greatest painters, unashamedly, of sheer beauty but they also used the medium to the fullest in every sense before or since..'