Frank Avray Wilson

Frank Avray Wilson (3 May 1914 – 1 January 2009) was a British artist, author and vegetarian. He was one of the first British artists to use Tachist or action painting techniques.

Early life Wilson was born in Vacoas, Mauritius, in 1914, the son of Albert James Wilson, a sugar manufacturer, by his marriage to Anna Avray. He was educated at Brighton College and St John's College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in biology, before studying art in Paris and Norway.

Career Inspired by both American Abstract Expressionism and French Tachisme, Avray Wilson produced amongst the most dynamic abstracts during the post-war period in Britain. His work ranged from spiky linear compositions, through others more spare and geometric towards a mature style that comprised images both disciplined and energetic. Critic Peter Davies described this contrast as ‘a meaningful, if tense, dichotomy between structure on the one hand and what Avray Wilson termed "Vitalist" or impulsive free form on the other’, whilst Cathy Courtney characterised Avray Wilson's paintings as ‘articulating something sensed but not fully seen’. Seeking to 'create a synthetic vitality, more living than life, the means of supplying our anti-vital, anti-human society with intense symbols', Avray Wilson's scientific background was of key importance in understanding his approach to painting, which he expounded in several books.

The first London showing of his work was in 1951 at The Redfern Gallery's Summer Exhibition. In 1953, Wilson met Denis Bowen and they formed the New Vision Group then, in 1956, the New Vision Centre Gallery, a showplace for abstract and other modern art near Marble Arch in central London. Avray Wilson had his first solo show at the Obelisk Gallery in 1954, before being included in the British Council's influential La Peinture Anglaise Contemporain, which toured in France and Switzerland. He also took part in the New York Foundation's New Trends in British Painting in Rome in 1957 and was shortlisted for the John Moore's prize exhibition in Liverpool in 1959. He later showed at Leicester Galleries, the Royal Academy of Arts and Austin/Desmond Fine Art amongst others. He was represented for many years by the Redfern Gallery and gained a reputation in Europe, notably in Belgium and in France where he also exhibited. Major retrospectives were held by the Paisnel Gallery in 2011 and by the Whitford Fine Art Gallery in 2016 and 2018.

Avray Wilson's work is held in the United States by the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg and Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio among others. Public collections in the UK include the Arts Council, the British Museum, Loughborough University and galleries in Durham, Leeds, Leicester, Swansea and Wakefield.

Personal life

Avray Wilson married Higford Eckbo, a Norwegian, on 28 April 1936, and they had four children: Austin Raymond, Wendy-Ann, Jason, and Norman. His grandson Halliday Avray Wilson was elected Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Fredrick Mitterand, Minister of Culture France in 2011 for his contribution to the arts in France and internationally with his monumental sculptures.

Avray was a vegetarian for ethical reasons. He became a vegetarian through influence from his wife. Avray authored two books supportive of vegetarianism for C. W. Daniel Company. He identified as a philosophical vitalist.

British Museum, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge National Museum of Wales, Cardiff Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum Loughborough University Leeds City Art Gallery Manchester City Art Gallery Northampton Museum and Art Gallery Southampton City Art Gallery Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea The Hepworth Wakefield The Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh The Getty Research Institute, California Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio The National Museum, Gdańsk

Selected exhibitions 1954: Obelisk Gallery, London 1955: Frank Avray Wilson: Recent Paintings, AIA Gallery, London 1956: Galerie Helios Art, Brussels 1957: British Council touring exhibition 1957: Metavisual, Tachist, Abstract, The Redfern Gallery, London 1957: Frank Avray Wilson, Galerie Craven, Paris 1958: New Trends in British Painting, Rome 1958: Survey of Contemporary British Painting, Howard Wise Gallery, New York 1959: John Moores Prize Exhibition, Liverpool 1959: Six Young Painters, Arts Council touring exhibition 1960: Art Alive, Northampton Museum and Art Gallery 1961: Avray Wilson, The Redfern Gallery, London 1961: Avray Wilson, Galerie Fricker, Paris 1961: Commonwealth Vision Painters 1961, Commonwealth Institute, London 1962: Avray Wilson, Galerie im Griechenbeisl, Vienna 1970: Works from the Personal Collection of Sir Herbert Read, The Morley Gallery, Morley College, London 1986: Frank Avray Wilson: recent work and some recent paintings, Warwick Arts Trust, London 1995: Frank Avray Wilson. An Exhibition of Recent Paintings and Work from the 50s to 80s, The Redfern Gallery, London 2011: Frank Avray Wilson – the Vital Years, Paisnel Gallery, London 2016: Frank Avray Wilson: British Taschist, Whitford Fine Art Gallery, London