Exhibition
Gillian Ayres
24 Nov 2022 – 4 Feb 2023
Regular hours
- Thursday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Friday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Saturday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Monday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Tuesday
- 11:00 – 19:00
- Wednesday
- 11:00 – 19:00
Free admission
Artworks by Gillian Ayres, known for her vibrant and colorful canvases and for her two solo shows at the "Tate", lands at Marlborough Madrid
About
Galería Marlborough is pleased to present the first exhibition in Madrid of the artist Gillian Ayres (London 1939- Devon 2018), one of the UK's leading abstract painters. The exhibition in Madrid will be on view from November 24, 2022 to February 4, 2023. The exhibition is composed of a total of 14 large canvases. format and a selection of works on paper. All produced during her most creative period, ranging from the early 1970s to her later years.
Internationally recognized for her unmistakable and vibrant canvases and for a mural work brimming with color and vitality, her talent has been recognized with numerous exhibitions including solo shows at Tate Britain and in museums and galleries around the world. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 1989, made a Senior Royal Academician of the British Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 2005, and awarded as Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011, she was the only artist to participate in the famous Situation exhibition in London in 1960, alongside artists such as Bernard Cohen, Peter Poviello, Robin Denny and John Epstein.
In Ayres’ own words, “I see nature like paint” and that is why her paintings are reminiscent of the landscapes that marked her life.
From Wales to Devon, without forgetting the greenery of Egypt and the sun of India, her taste for organic elements translates into a rich iconography populated with lichens, corals, seaweed, shells, feathers and brightly colored flowers. Influenced by painters such as Gauguin, Miró, Van Gogh or Rubens, her paintings show a vigorous technique based on the potential of pigments and the prominence of color and matter. With a tendency to create huge improvised canvases on the floor and thick brushstrokes, her ever-changing style is reminiscent of Action Painting and experimental art.
In Ayres’ own words, “I see nature like paint” and that is why her paintings are reminiscent of the landscapes that marked her life.
From Wales to Devon, without forgetting the greenery
elements translates into a rich iconography populated with lichens, corals, seaweed, shells, feathers and brightly colored flowers. Influenced by painters such as Gauguin, Miró, Van Gogh or Rubens, her paintings show a vigorous technique based on the potential of pigments and the prominence of color and matter. With a tendency to create huge improvised canvases on the floor and thick brushstrokes, her ever-changing style is reminiscent of Action Painting and experimental art.
As she herself reported, “I ran away from school when I was 16 really, I insisted on going to art school”, and although at that time there was a certain reticence to the idea of a woman becoming an artist, Gillian was not intimidated and threw herself into the unknown. A courageous and feminist attitude that she retained throughout her life and that can be seen in both her painting and her biography.
Her most recent solo exhibitions include: Gillian Ayres, Marlborough Gallery (London, 2021), I See Nature Like Paint: Gillian Ayres: Paintings 1972-83, Mark Rothko Art Centre (Daugavpils, Latvia, 2019), PIFO Gallery (Beijing, 2018), Sailing off the Edge: Gillian Ayres’ Abstract Painting, Past to Present, CAFA Art Museum (Beijing, 2017), Gillian Ayres: Retrospective Exhibition, National Museum Wales in Cardiff and Alan Cristea Gallery (London, 2017), Gillian Ayres: New Paintings and Prints, Alan Cristea Gallery (London, 2015), Gillian Ayres: Works on Paper 1990- 2011, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (Exeter, United Kingdom, 2012), Solo Room, Tate Britain (London, United Kingdom, 2010 and 1995), Gillian Ayres, Academy of Arts in London, Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, and Iowa University Museum, United States (1997) and Solo British Representative, Seventh-Triennale-India (Juipur, India, 1991).
Of note among her group exhibitions are: Surface, Victoria Miro Gallery (London, United Kingdom, 2018); As exciting As We Can Make It: Ikon in the 1980's, Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, United Kingdom, 2014); As Dreamers Do, Works of the 1960's from Calouste, Gulbenkian Foundation's Art Collection, Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian (Paris, France, 2010); Passion for Paint, National Gallery (London, United Kingdom, 2006); Coming to Light: Recent Aquisitions, Birmingham Museum of Art Gallery (United Kingdom, 1998); ACE! Arts Council Collection New Purchases, Harlech Biennale (Wales, United Kingdom, 1996); The Sixties: Art and Popular Culture in Britain, The Barbican Centre (London, United Kingdom, 1993); Blasphemies, Ecstasies, Cries, Serpentine Gallery (London, United Kingdom, 1989); European Drawings, Guggenheim Museum (New York, United States, 1965); and Biennale de Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne (Paris, France, 1959).
Her work is also present in numerous public collections around the world, among which we can mention: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; Arts Council of England, London, United Kingdom; Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, United Kingdom; Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom; Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Bolton, United Kingdom; Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Brighton, United Kingdom; British Council Collection, London, United Kingdom; British Council, Nueva Delhi, India; British Museum, London, United Kingdom; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal; Camden Art Collection, London, United Kingdom; Chippenham Museum, Chippenham, United Kingdom; Government Art Collection, United Kingdom; Imperial Health Charity Art Collection, London, United Kingdom; Jerwood Collection, London, United Kingdom; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom; Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, United Kingdom; London Transport Museum, London, United Kingdom; Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom; Mead Gallery, Coventry, United Kingdom; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A..; Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A.; Museums Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom; National Gallery, Canberra, Australia; National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, United Kingdom; New Orleans Museum of Art, Nueva Orleans, U.S.A.; Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom; Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, United Kingdom; St Mary’s Hospital, Isle of White, United Kingdom; Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, Swindon, United Kingdom; Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, United Kingdom; The John Creasey Museum, Salisbury, United Kingdom; The Whitworth, Manchester, United Kingdom; Touchstones Rochdale, Rochdale, United Kingdom; Ulster Museum, Belfast, United Kingdom; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, United Kingdom; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom; Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, Worcester, United Kingdom; and Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.