Born: 31 December, 1937, Vienna, Austria
Elected: 16 March, 2010
Category of Membership: Painter
Tess Jaray RA, ‘Wolf. Green Pink’, 2010 Mixed media, 161 x 70 cm Tess Jaray studied at St Martin’s School of Art (1954 – 1957) and the Slade School of Art (1957 – 1960), where she later taught for many years.
Her work is characterised by the enigmatic interaction of forms and colours. The patterns she creates suggest spatial ambiguities and shifting structures which work on the viewer’s perceptions in subtle ways.
She has artworks in many public collections, including the Tate and the British Museum, and her paving designs can be seen in Centenary Square, Birmingham and the forecourt of Victoria Station. In 2010 she published a book of her collected writings, Painting: Mysteries and Confessions.
Recent Solo Exhibitions
2008 Lyon & Turnbull, London
2003 Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2001 Clifford Chance, London (prints)
2000 Purdy Hicks Gallery
1993 Todd Gallery, London (prints)
1988 Serpentine Gallery, London
1984 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (prints and drawings)
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1980 Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, Australia
1976 Angela Flowers Gallery, London
1973 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1972 City Art Gallery, Bristol
Graves Art Gallery Sheffield
Axiom Gallery, London
1967 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
1965 Hamilton Gallery, London
1963 Grabowski Gallery, London
Public Collections
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Arts Council of Great Britain
British Council
British Museum
Contemporary Art Society
Government Art Collection
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield
Leicestershire Education Authority
Tate Gallery
University College, London
University of East Anglia
Victoria & Albert Museum
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Warwick University
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Worcester Museum & Art Gallery
Museum of Fine Art, Budapest
Museum of Modern Art, Belgrade
Museum XX Jahrhundert, Vienna
Peter Stuyvesant Netherlands Foundation
Stadtisches Museum, Leverkusen
Sundsvalls Museum, Sweden
Western Australia Art Gallery
Recent Commissions
1999-2002 The Piazza, Broadway, Wimbledon, London
1995-1999 Forecourt of the New British Embassy, Moscow
1995-1998 Leeds General Infirmary, Jubilee Square
1991 Roof Terrace for Arts Council Headquarters
1989-1992 Wakefield Cathedral Precinct
1988-1992 Centenary Square, Birmingham
1987 Decorative brick paving floor, Midlands Arts Centre
1985 Terrazzo floor, Victoria Station
1967 Mural for British Pavilion, Expo 1967, Montreal
