1994, oil on canvas (signed lower right), 198 x 198 cm, lent by the artist (© Gillian Ayres)

Furrina

Gillian Ayres (b. 1930)

Gillian Ayres has been one of Britain?s foremost abstract painters since the 1950s. She usually paints in oils on canvas, applied in bold strokes using brushes and her hands to manipulate the colours. Her style has gone through numerous transformations over the years, but vibrant colours have remained her basic pre-occupation

1992, silkscreen print (signed and dated in pencil and numbered 14/25), diam. 88 cm, British Academy Collection (© Gillian Ayres)

Juno and the Paycock

Gillian Ayres (b. 1930)

Circular compositions are common in Ayres? work since the 1980s. The title, taken from Sean O?Casey?s tragi-comedy of 1926, may conceivably be a guide to the emotional mood, and the peacock?s feathers are clearly visible on the left.

1991?1992, oil on canvas, 163 x 224 cm, lent by the artist (© John Golding)

1992, oil on canvas, 112 x 147 cm, British Academy Collection, © John Golding

Arco Iris (top) and Pulse

John Golding, FBA (b. 1929)

John Golding is unique in being a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Academy. Indeed, having been a renowned teacher at the Courtauld Institute with a standard book on Cubism (1959) to his name, he was the first specialist in the history of modern art to be elected to the Academy. He is also well known as an exhibtion curator, most recently of the Picasso-Matisse exhibition at Tate Modern. Given the hang in this room, it is of interest to note that he exhibited with Gillian Ayres at the Hayward Gallery in 1971.

1967, acrylic on box-construction hardboard, 225 x 225 cm, lent by the artist (© Joe Tilson)

Zikkurat, 3

Joe Tilson (b. 1928)

After a brief period of figurative painting in the 1950s, Tilson derived his inspiration from his training as a carpenter, and most of his work has been in the form of reliefs. In the 60s, his Pop images mirrored the anti-authoritarian politics of the time, but in the same period he developed an interest in ordered structures containing words and symbols. This ziggurat, originally an Assyrian or Babylonian temple tower, indicates his interest in emblematic images drawn from pre-classical mythology.