Turner Prize 1989 artists: Gillian Ayres

Gillian Ayers is an English painter. She studied at Camberwell School of Art, London (1946–50). Painters such as Henry Mundy (b 1919), Roger Hilton, Robyn Denny (b 1931) and Howard Hodgkin were close friends.

Gillian Ayres CBE RA
Antony and Cleopatra (1982)
Tate

© Estate of Gillian Ayres RA CBE

In 1960 she took part in the Situation exhibition at the RBA Galleries in London but, unlike most of her colleagues, who worked in a cool hard-edge style, she painted in a free tachist manner inspired in part by photographs of Jackson Pollock working on the floor. From 1964 to 1976 she worked in acrylic, producing powdery, close-toned canvases that were similar in their textures to the contemporary work of the Americans Jules Olitski and Larry Poons.

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