Tess Jaray
Piero Inspirations
Preface by Tess Jaray. Extracts by Roberto Longhi, 2021
Hardback
Publisher: Ridinghouse
ISBN: 978-1-909932-60-9
Dimensions: 31 x 24 cm
Pages: 48pp
£25 — Buy Now
Tess Jaray, RA (b. 1937, Vienna, Austria) is one of Britain’s most distinguished and influential painters. Jaray works in the abstract tradition; for over 50 years she has used painting, drawing and printmaking to explore and expand her personal interactions with architectural space, mass, surface and light. This publication focuses on a series of new works, small format paintings made in response to the frescoes of fifteenth-century painter Piero della Francesca. Jaray’s longstanding interest in Piero’s depictions of three-dimensional space – in which biblical scenes are enacted in such a manner that the viewer is invited to actively participate in their narratives – arose following a transformative period spent in Italy as a young artist. Here Jaray’s paintings are paired with the respective Piero frescos that inspired them, along with short extracts from art historian Roberto Longhi’s seminal Piero della Francesca publication (first published in 1927) chosen by the artist.
Tess Jaray
Thinking on Paper
Preface by Tess Jaray, 2021
Hardback
Publisher: Revolver Publishing
ISBN: 978-3-95763-500-6
Dimensions: 23 x 28.5 cm
Pages: 336pp
£40 — Buy Now
Tess Jaray: Thinking on Paper was published on the occasion of the exhibition Return to Vienna: The Paintings of Tess Jaray, at Secession. The drawings appear chronologically in decades, from 1960-2000, printed actual size and falling off the page without captions, enabling the viewer to be immersed in pencil and graph paper without interruption. Reproduced as found, with rubbings and calculations, the drawings clearly show the mechanisms and thought process of Jaray’s work.
Tess Jaray
Tess Jaray (Sotheby’s S2 Gallery, London 2017 – 26 January 2018)
Essay by Natalie Rudd. Interviews by Alister Warman and Jonathan P. Watts, 2017
Softback
Publisher: Sotheby’s London, 2017
Dimensions: 25.8 x 18.5 cm
Pages: 87pp, 36 ill.
£17.95 — Buy Now
Fully illustrated catalogue with text by Natalie Rudd, and interviews with the artist.
Tess Jaray
Desire Lines
Preface by Vivien Lovell, text by Charles Darwent, interview with the artist by Doro Globus, 2016
Softback
Publisher: Ridinghouse 2016
ISBN: 978 1-909932-25-8
Dimensions: 23 × 19.5 cm
Pages: 96 pp, 67 colour ill.
£20.95 — Buy Now
Draws together ten important public commissions by Tess Jaray RA, one of Britain’s foremost abstract painters, taking her work out of the studio and into our shared spaces.
Tess Jaray
The Art of Tess Jaray
Texts by Richard Davey, John Stezaker, Alison Wilding, and an interview with the artist by Alister Warman, 2014
Hardback
Publisher: Ridinghouse 2014 in association with Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham
ISBN: 978-1-905464-80-7
Dimensions: 29.4 × 25.2 cm
Pages: 256 pp, 198 colour ill.
£40 — Buy Now
Tess Jaray RA focuses on producing the illusion of space, using perspective to create a field of spatial paradox that equates to distance and closeness in the mind. In many of her works the area of pattern – whether polygons, waves or rectangles – is contained by a strong, grounding background colour, thereby controlling the movement of the forms. Alongside a large group of Jaray’s paintings of enigmatic forms and colours – which celebrate the vitality inherent within archetypal rhythms and patterns – this first monograph explores her contemporary influence. From Kazimir Malevich and Lucio Fontana to Italian architecture and Islamic mosaics, this volume situates the artist within the tradition of abstract painting and the history of art.
Tess Jaray
The Blue Cupboard: Inspirations and Recollections
Hardback
Publisher: Royal Academy Publications 2014
ISBN: 978-1-910350-09-6
Dimensions: 20.4 × 13 cm
Pages: 211 pp, 46 ill.
£21.95 — Buy Now
This book was started as a memoir of my mother and subsequently developed into something more like a diary, covering my recollections of a postwar childhood in Worcestershire, an art-school education and subsequent obsessions. It may be read in the light, or perhaps one should say in the shadow, of its political history.
So begins an irresistible sequence of reflections by Tess Jaray RA. Whether providing insights into the mind of an artist, or recounting the eccentricities of her singular childhood, The Blue Cupboard is a consistently characterful, humorous and life-affirming piece of writing.
‘Post-Imperial Vienna, rural Worcestershire at war, art now – these are Tess Jaray’s accumulated recollections of her roots, the subjects of her inward eye, her wistful reverie reflective, wry and touching. An enviably beautiful book’ Brian Sewell
Tess Jaray
Thresholds
Text by Richard Davey, 2012
Hardback
Publisher: Royal Academy Publications 2012
ISBN: 978-1-907533-57-0
Dimensions: 27.5 × 30 cm
Pages: 40 pp, 13 colour ill.
£30 — Buy Now
The metaphysical Threshold drawings of Tess Jaray RA are the subject of this beautifully crafted book.
Tess Jaray
Painting: Mysteries & Confessions
Hardback
Publisher: Royal Academy Publications 2010
ISBN: 978-1-907533-57-0
Dimensions: 22 × 17 cm
Pages: 128 pp, 44 colour ill.
£20.95 — Buy Now
Softback
Publisher: Royal Academy Publications 2010
ISBN: 978-1-907533-17-4
Dimensions: 21.5 × 16.5 cm
Pages: 128 pp, 44 colour ill.
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In these subtle and penetrating essays the artist Tess Jaray RA considers the work of painters past and present whom she admires, from Giotto and Piero to such contemporaries as Basil Beattie and younger artists like Martin Creed. She also reflects on the questions and preferences that motivate her own practice – how we apprehend beauty, the qualities of particular colours – and returns often to the idea that artists are looking for patterns to make sense of the world. Jaray shares this modernist sensibility with the writer W. G. Sebald, who features in several pieces in this collection and whose presence is felt throughout. Like Sebald, in these essays Jaray approaches the mysteries of making art – where it comes from and what happens when we look at it, in our heads and in our hearts.
Tess Jaray
For Years Now
Poems by W.G. Sebald. Images by Tess Jaray, 2001
Softback
Publisher: Short Books 2001
ISBN: 978-1-904095-09-5
Dimensions: 20 × 15 cm
Pages: 80 pp, 23 colour ill.
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This work is a collaboration between two artists. It contains 23 short poems by W. G. Sebald, each of them paired with a related image by Tess Jaray. The oblique nature of his poems complements the tension and weightlessness of her works.
Tess Jaray
New Paintings
Text by Mel Gooding, 2003
Softback
Publisher: Purdy Hicks Gallery Limited, 2003
ISBN: 978-0-907849-06-3
Dimensions: 25 × 21 cm
Pages: 32 pp, 16 colour ill.
£20 — Buy Now
Catalogue of an exhibition held in the Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, 14th February – 15th March 2003.
Tess Jaray
Paintings and Drawings from the Eighties
Essays by Richard Cork and Robin Vousden, 1988
Softback
Publisher: Serpentine Gallery, 1988
ISBN: 1-87081-10-X
Dimensions: 27 × 22 cm
Pages: 46 pp, 22 colour ill.
£20 — Buy Now
Catalogue of an exhibition held in the Serpentine Gallery, London, 21st May – 26th June 1988.
Tess Jaray
Prints and Drawings, 1964-84
Introduction by Deanna Petherbridge, 1984
Softback
Publisher: Ashmolean Museum Oxford, 1984
ISBN: 0-907849-06-7
Dimensions: 24 × 21 cm
Pages: 32 pp, 4 colour ill.
£20 — Buy Now
Catalogue of an exhibition held in the McAlpine Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 20th May – 14th July 1984.
Tess Jaray
Exhibition Poster, Revue
Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Dimensions: 70 × 50 cm
Printed on paper-silk 170gsm
£15 — Buy Now
Exhibition poster for Tess Jaray: Paintings. and Drawings Across 60 Years, an exhibition held at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK in 2024, featuring an image of her painting Revue, 2018.
Tess Jaray
Exhibition Poster, Finial
Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK
Dimensions: 70 × 50 cm
Printed on paper-silk 170gsm
£15 — Buy Now
Exhibition poster for Tess Jaray: Paintings. and Drawings Across 60 Years, an exhibition held at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, UK in 2024, featuring an image of her painting Revue, 1966.
