Tess Jaray, the British artist known for her geometric abstract paintings and architectural installations, has died.
Inspired by the Renaissance architecture she encountered on trips to Italy, Jaray from the 1960s onwards produced hard-edge paintings, the compositions of which often resembled architectural details, playing with perspective and trompe l’oeil. Later works, such as the Thorn series, which she began in 2014, featured patterns laser cut into acrylic laid on metal.
Having studied at the Slade School of Art under Ernst Gombrich, she returned to the London college as its first female teacher in 1968, going on to run the postgraduate course for nearly 30 years.
From 1985, Jaray turned her attention to public commissions, producing geometric patterned murals, pavements and building façades, including a terrazzo pattern for the floor of London Victoria train station; the stone floor for St Mary’s Church, Nottingham; Jubilee Square at Leeds General Infirmary; and the forecourt of the new British Embassy in Moscow.
In 2024, the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield held a retrospective of Jaray’s work, and in 2021 she had a solo show at Secession in Vienna, her city of birth. Previous exhibitions include the New Art Centre, Salisbury (2021); Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham (2019); Serpentine Gallery, London (1988); Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1984); Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia (1980); and the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1973).
