Since it was established in 1888, Leeds Art Gallery has concentrated on collecting contemporary art, in particular 19th and 20th century British painting as well as a renowned collection of modern British sculpture. Leeds Art Gallery continues to collect contemporary art and recent acquisitions include works by Dame Paul Rego RA, Bridget Riley, Mark Wallinger, Alison Wilding RA, Stephen Willats and Bill Woodrow RA .
Gillian Ayres RA was one of the leading British abstract painters of her generation. She studied at Camberwell School of Art from 1946-50 where she met her future husband Harry Mundy and established friendships with artists Roger Hilton, Robyn Denny and Sir Howard Hodgkin . As well as the vibrant, heavily worked abstract canvases for which she is best known, Ayres was also a dedicated printmaker. Leeds Art Gallery already own the major work Helios (1990) so were delighted to receive Babylon (1984) to strengthen and enhance their collection in this area.
Ayres had her first solo exhibition at Gallery One, London (1956), and was included in the Whitechapel Gallery’s British Painting exhibition (1965). By the mid-1960s, Ayres began to use acrylic paints to produce works using a limited colour range and simpler forms. From 1979 Ayres was regularly exhibiting in both London and New York and her paintings of this period had become more colourful and were painted in thick oil paint to build textured, impasto surfaces.
