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This is a past display. Go to current displays

Aubrey Williams, Olmec Maya - Now and Coming Time 1985. Tate. © The estate of Aubrey Williams.

Aubrey Williams Cosmological Abstractions 1973–85

This display explores Williams’s involvement with ecology, cosmology, music and pre-colonial civilisations

Born in Guyana in 1926, Aubrey Williams arrived in London in 1952 to study painting. Throughout his career he worked between the UK, US and Jamaica. The works in this display were painted in the 1970s and 1980s, an exceptionally creative period for Williams.

Williams was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, and his interest in cosmology is evident in these works. He used cosmic and natural forms connected to the landscape, particularly imagery from Indigenous cultures of Central America and the Caribbean. The pre-colonial histories of the Olmec, Maya, Arawak and Carib peoples and their legacies were enduring concerns. In Williams’s paintings, these fragmented references hint at the region’s violent history of ecological and social devastation, the result of European invasions.

Additionally, this display includes three paintings from Williams’s series inspired by the music of Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906–1975). Williams sensed an apocalyptic quality within the music and felt his work reflected similar anxieties about the fate of the world. Both artists create works exploring the cycles of destruction and renewal within cosmological and human histories. Williams’s cross-cultural practice continues to resist simple classification.

This display reflects his engagement with international developments in abstraction and his enduring connection to ecology and expressive forms across time and place.

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Tate Britain
Main Floor
Room 24

Getting Here

19 December 2022 – 2 June 2024

Free

Balraj Khanna, Autumn Forest  1965

The warm brown tones of this painting, peppered with bursts of orange and yellow, are scored by grid-like markings. Khanna simultaneously evokes a macro and micro impression of the forest, suggesting both an aerial landscape and the grooves of a tree’s bark. This painting was made in France while Khanna recovered from a motorcycle crash. In stark contrast to London, the French town neighboured a forest. Immobilised, his leg in a cast, Khanna recalled lying in the grass: ‘I felt as if I had never seen trees before in all my existence.’

Gallery label, August 2024

1/7
artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Balraj Khanna, Garden  1987

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artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Balraj Khanna, Festival  1970

Stretching over three and a half metres in length, this painting is an expanse of leaping, tangled forms simultaneously exploding and contracting in space. Khanna is interested in using abstraction to explore related ideas of community and togetherness. Here, the painting’s title refers to the universal nature of festivals across all cultures and countries. This work, alongside Out of the Blue (2), was exhibited in the 1989 exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain at the Hayward Gallery, London, where Khanna served on the exhibition committee.

Gallery label, August 2024

3/7
artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Balraj Khanna, Discourse of the Wonderer  1967

4/7
artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Balraj Khanna, Such a Long Journey  1967–1968

5/7
artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Balraj Khanna, Saffron Field  1967

In 1966 Khanna began embedding string into his compositions, arranging it in twisting curves under layers of paint. Here, Khanna removed the string, allowing its white imprint to break through the sea of vivid orange. This rich saffron colour is highly symbolic in Indian culture. For Khanna it represented fire and purity. Working intuitively, Khanna allowed the string to determine the composition, adding geometric and organic forms into its intersections and bends. He explained, ‘I start feeling the structure of a painting – like a musician composing a raga and creating a feeling.’

Gallery label, August 2024

6/7
artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Balraj Khanna, Out of the Blue (2)  1987

Here, Khanna incorporates sand into the painting’s surface, creating the illusion of waves or ripples. The bright colours and shimmering texture evoke a dream-like space, reminiscent of the ocean or sky. After preparing the canvas with a mixture of sand and primer, Khanna applied countless layers of paint in a fine mist. In the early 1980s he did this using a diffuser and his own breath, but later adopted a spray gun. At various intervals Khanna added stencils, removing them at the final stage to reveal a kaleidoscopic cast of characters floating weightlessly across the scene.

Gallery label, August 2024

7/7
artworks in Aubrey Williams

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Art in this room

T16306: Autumn Forest
Balraj Khanna Autumn Forest 1965

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Balraj Khanna Garden 1987

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Balraj Khanna Festival 1970

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Balraj Khanna Discourse of the Wonderer 1967

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Balraj Khanna Such a Long Journey 1967–1968
T16307: Saffron Field
Balraj Khanna Saffron Field 1967
T16321: Out of the Blue (2)
Balraj Khanna Out of the Blue (2) 1987
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