Frank Avray Wilson: British Tachist

Twenty-six years ago, Adrian Mibus, director of Whitford Fine Art, London, asked Tachist Abstractionist painter Frank Avray Wilson to write an essay to accompany a possible exhibition. Avray Wilson's artistic creative capacity was matched by a formidable mind and a talent for writing, and within a short timespan he duly produced a thirty-three-page long typescript, a bitesize introduction to his work, his thought process, his world. By then Avray Wilson had already published several academic books and essays in which he scholarly clarified his views on art in relation to Nature and Cosmos, on the human aesthetics being a reflection of Nature's art through the process of metaphysics and revelation, quantum theory and alchemy.

It is the first monograph on Avray Wilson to be published. This lavishly illustrated book contains alongside the unpublished essay written by the artist in 1990, the very first comprehensive biography, bibliography and exhibitions list researched by An Jo Fermon. As such, it finally repositions Avray Wilson as an important and early participant in British Post-War Abstraction. During the 1950s and early 1960s Avray Wilson enjoyed a celebrated status alongside Jean Paul Riopelle and Soulages, with no less than twelve one-man shows held at prestigious galleries in London, Paris, Brussels. Since, his art has been firmly inscribed in Art History as 'Tachist', the European form of Action painting. The monograph will be available as of 20th October 2016.