Gillian Ayres RA

Born: 3 February 1930, London, UK
Elected ARA: 5 May 1982
Elected RA: 29 May 1991
Category of Membership: Painter

Gillian Ayres RA, Finnegan's Lake Gillian Ayres studied at Camberwell School of Art, London from 1946 to 1950. She worked part time at the AIA Gallery from 1951 to 1959, and went on to teach at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, until 1965. She then taught at St Martin’s School of Art, London from 1965 to 1978 and in 1978 became Head of Painting at Winchester School of Art where she remained until 1981.

Ayres first exhibited with 'Young Contemporaries' in 1949 and with the London Group in 1951. Her first solo exhibition was at Gallery One, London in 1956. Subsequent solo shows were held regularly 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). Ayres went on to have several exhibitions with the Knoedler Gallery in London and New York from 1979, and a retrospective of her work was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1983. The retrospective toured to Barnsley, Penzance, Nottingham and Llandudno. More recently she has had solo shows at the Tate Gallery, London (1995) and at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1997). She continues to exhibit regularly at Gimpel Fils, London and at the Alan Cristea Gallery, London.

Gillian Ayres RA, Maritsa

Among Ayres’s many awards are the Japan International Art Promotion Association Award (1963); Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary (1975); Arts Council of Great Britain purchase award (1979); Second Prize, John Moores Biennale, Liverpool (1982); the Blackstone Prize, Royal Academy of Arts (1988; 1990); Charles Wollaston Award, Royal Academy of Arts (1989); and Prize Winner, Gold Medal, Seventh Triennale – India, British Council (1991).

Ayres was awarded an OBE in 1986 and was elected Royal Academician in 1991 (ARA 1982). She was made an Honorary Doctor of English Literature by London University (1994), a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London (1996) and received a Sargent Fellowship from The British School At Rome in 1997. London's University of the Arts made her an Honorary Fellow in 2005. Gillian Ayres lives and works in Cornwall and London.

Read an interview with Gillian Ayres in RA Magazine Winter 2009

Recent solo exhibitions
2013 Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
Turnpike Gallery, Leigh
2012 Alan Cristea Gallery, London
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
Jerwood Gallery, Hastings
2010 Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris, France
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2009 Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2007 Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2006 Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
2002 Eigse International Art Festival, Ireland
2001 Gimpel Fils, London
1999 Gimpel Fils, London
Alan Cristea Gallery, London
De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
1998 Storey Institute Gallery, Lancaster
1997 Royal Academy of Arts, London (Sackler Galleries) and tour to Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut; Iowa University Museum, Iowa
1996 Gimpel Fils, London
Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland
1995 Tate Gallery, London (Solo Room)
1994 Bolton City Art Gallery, Lancashire
1993 Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
Manchester City Art Gallery
Atkinson Gallery, Millfield
Atlantis Gallery, London
1991-92 Solo tour of work shown in the British Council’s Seventh Triennale-India in Calcutta, Bangalore, Madras, Bombay; Spain: Leon, Murcia, Segovia, Majorca
1990 Fischer Fine Art, London
1989-90 Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, and tour to Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Castlefield Galleries, Manchester

Public collections
Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Art Gallery of South Australia
Birmingham City Art Gallery
Bolton Art Gallery
British Council
British Council, New Delhi, India
British Museum
Contemporary Art Society, London
Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Leeds City Art Gallery
London Borough of Camden
Manchester City Art Gallery
Museum of Modern Art, Brasilia
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Olinda Museum, Sao Paulo
Rochdale City Art Gallery
Southampton City Art Gallery
Swindon City Art Gallery
Tate Gallery, London
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut

Film
Looking into Painting, TV film for Open University Channel 4,
with Norbert Lynton, 1985
Gillian Ayres ’88, Grove Films, 1988

Contact details for further information
Email membershipoffice@royalacademy.org.uk

• Royal Academy of Arts