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.[1]
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.[3] 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’.[4][5] 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.[6][7]
The first London showing of his work was in 1951 at The Redfern Gallery's Summer Exhibition.[8] 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.[9][10] 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.[11] 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 married Higford Eckbo, a Norwegian, on 28 April 1936, and they had four children: Wendy-Ann, Raymond, Jason, and Norman.[2] His daughter, Anglo-Norwegian artist, Wendy-Ann Wilson, went on to marry an American architect, Thomas J. Holzbog, and is the mother of Arabella Holzbog.[14]
Avray was a vegetarian for ethical reasons. He became a vegetarian through influence from his wife.[15] Avray authored two books supportive of vegetarianism for C. W. Daniel Company.[16] He identified as a philosophical vitalist.[1]
Selected public collections
Avray Wilson's work can be found in the following collections:[17]
The Way of Creation: Cosmos, Consciousness and the New Sciences, 1985, Coventure
Seeing is Believing: A Painter's Search for Meaning, 1995, Book Guild
To mark his 1995 exhibition, The Redfern Gallery published Frank Avray Wilson: An Exhibition of Recent Paintings and Work from the 50s to 80s by Cathy Courtney.
