Frank Avray Wilson 1914 - 2009
Born in Mauritius in 1914, Frank Avray Wilson was described by the Guardian newspaper in 2009 as “one of the U.K.’s first abstract expressionist painters”.
In 1946 he moved to Paris, where he was exposed to Tachism, the European equivalent of American Abstract Expressionism, which was characterized by a vibrant, spontaneous and gestural style of painting. Although Avray Wilson’s paintings are abstract in appearance, with their striking colours and gestural brushstrokes, his background as a scientist, having read biology at Cambridge during the 1930s, is nonetheless present. In his paintings he strove to portray the geometry and structure that underpins nature and to capture the enigmatic and transcendental energy inherent in all living matter.
On his return to London, Avray Wilson became a member of the Free Painters Group and took part in the landmark exhibition, Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract at the Redfern Gallery, London in 1957. With fellow artist Denis Bowen, he founded the New Vision Centre Gallery in London in 1956, which became a showcase for modern and abstract art in London.
Frank Avray Wilson’s paintings are included in many prestigious museums and art collections internationally. In the United Kingdom his paintings are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Imperial College, London, the British Museum, London, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, Northampton, the Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, and the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, amongst others. In the United States his paintings are included in the collections of the Toledo Art Gallery, Ohio, the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, and the Cleveland Museum of Modern Art, Ohio.
In 1946 he moved to Paris, where he was exposed to Tachism, the European equivalent of American Abstract Expressionism, which was characterized by a vibrant, spontaneous and gestural style of painting. Although Avray Wilson’s paintings are abstract in appearance, with their striking colours and gestural brushstrokes, his background as a scientist, having read biology at Cambridge during the 1930s, is nonetheless present. In his paintings he strove to portray the geometry and structure that underpins nature and to capture the enigmatic and transcendental energy inherent in all living matter.
On his return to London, Avray Wilson became a member of the Free Painters Group and took part in the landmark exhibition, Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract at the Redfern Gallery, London in 1957. With fellow artist Denis Bowen, he founded the New Vision Centre Gallery in London in 1956, which became a showcase for modern and abstract art in London.
Frank Avray Wilson’s paintings are included in many prestigious museums and art collections internationally. In the United Kingdom his paintings are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Imperial College, London, the British Museum, London, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, Northampton, the Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton, the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, and the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, amongst others. In the United States his paintings are included in the collections of the Toledo Art Gallery, Ohio, the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, and the Cleveland Museum of Modern Art, Ohio.
