Artist: Wilfred Avery
Date: 1996
Medium: Gouache and collage on paper
Dimensions: 76.2 × 55.8 cm
Credit: Towner Collection, gift of the Estate of Wilfred Avery. Image Towner Eastbourne, © Estate of Wilfred Avery
Wilfred Avery was born in South Molton, Devon in 1926. Whilst studying painting at St Paul’s College, Cheltenham, Avery’s growing interest in modern painting was reinforced by a meeting with Paul Nash who encouraged him to look to Paris, rather than to London or New York, for the influences which would subsequently shape his work. Avery’s paintings, neither real nor surreal, were developed from his interest in psychology. Coming from a dialogue between the conscious and unconscious minds he created strangely enigmatic images often depicting and unifying landscape and the male body. These exist in a mystical and ambiguous space – a space that both advances and recedes.