Tess Jaray facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tess Jaray
Early Piazza, 1964. Oil on canvas
Born	1937 (age 87–88) Vienna, Austria
Nationality	British
Education	Saint Martins School of Art, Slade School of Fine Art
Known for	Painting and drawing

Tess Jaray (born in 1937) is a British artist. She is famous for her paintings and prints. Tess also taught art at The Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1968 to 1999.

She has created many large art projects for public places. In 1995, she became an Honorary Fellow of RIBA (Royal Institute for British Architects). This means she was honored for her work related to architecture. In 2010, she became a Royal Academician, which is a special title for artists in the UK.

Early Life and Moving to England

Tess Jaray was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1937. Her family moved to the countryside in Worcestershire, England, in 1938. They left Austria because it was not safe for people of Jewish background after Nazi Germany took over.

Tess's father, Franz Ferdinand Jaray, was an engineer and inventor. Her mother, Pauline Arndt, studied art in Vienna. Tess's great-aunt, Lea Bondi Jaray, was an art gallery owner. She helped bring many German Expressionists' artworks to London. Tess has said that the artist Gustav Klimt, a leader of the Vienna Secessionists, was one of the first artists she learned about as a teenager.

Art School and Travel

Tess Jaray studied art at the Saint Martins School of Art and later at the Slade School of Fine Art. Before starting at the Slade, she traveled to Paris. She stayed in a hotel once run by Marcel Proust's former housekeeper, Céleste Albaret. In Paris, Tess met other artists, like Valli Myers and Zoran Mušič.

After five months, Tess returned to London for the Slade School. There, she was taught by important figures like William Coldstream, a painting professor, and E.H. Gombrich, an art historian. Both greatly influenced her artistic ideas.

After art school, Tess received two scholarships to travel. In 1960, she went to Italy. There, she was deeply impressed by Italian architecture, as well as the art. The next year, in 1961, she received a scholarship to return to France. She lived and worked there for several months. While in Paris, she worked in an etching studio with Stanley William Hayter.

Art Style and Teaching

The grand architectural spaces Tess saw in Italy greatly shaped her unique art style. She noticed how simple lines in ceilings could change a space. This made her feel strong emotions.

In her paintings from the 1960s, Tess explored how geometry, patterns, and colors affect space. Her patterns often create a feeling of changing structures and unclear spaces. This makes viewers see things in new ways. Art critic Terry Pitts said her work shows how "the history of decoration and patterning is embedded with elemental human experiences."

In 1964, Tess began teaching art. She taught at Hornsey College of Art for four years. Then, in 1968, she became the first female teacher at the Slade School. She retired from the Slade in 1999 as a Reader Emeritus in Fine Art.

Art for Public Spaces

Tess Jaray's paving design in Centenary Square, Birmingham

From 1985 to 2000, Tess Jaray spent a lot of time on public art projects. She used her knowledge of space and patterns to create large artworks for public areas.

One of her important works in the 1980s was a floor pattern design for London Victoria train station. In the 1990s, she completed more big public projects. These included paving, lamps, and railings in Centenary Square, Birmingham. She also designed areas for Wakefield Cathedral Precinct, Jubilee Square at Leeds General Infirmary, and the front area of the new British Embassy in Moscow.

Where to See Her Art

Tess Jaray's art can be found in many public collections around the world. Here are some places:

• Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, UK
• Arts Council Collection, London, UK
• Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
• British Council, London, UK
• British Museum, London, UK
• Brooklyn Museum
• Contemporary Art Society, London, UK
• Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, MA, US
• Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK
• The Tate, London, UK
• Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
• University of Warwick Art Collection, Coventry, UK
• Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK

Exhibitions

In 2021, Tess Jaray's work was shown in the Women in Abstraction exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Writing and Collaborations

Tess Jaray has always used writing to think about her own art. Later in her career, she also started writing about other artists' work. Some of her writings have appeared in exhibition catalogs and on BBC Radio 3.

In 2001, Tess worked with the German writer W.G. Sebald. They created an exhibition and a book called FROM THE RINGS OF SATURN AND VERTIGO. This show at Purdy Hicks Gallery in London featured sixteen of Tess's artworks. Each piece was her visual response to parts of Sebald's novels, The Rings of Saturn and Vertigo.

Later that year, a book called For Years Now was published. It combined twenty-three of Sebald's short poems with Tess's paintings. This book came out just before Sebald passed away in December 2001. In 2010, a collection of Tess's own essays and thoughts on art and life was published in a book called Painting: Mysteries & Confessions.

Tess Jaray lives and works in London.