Tess Jaray: Piero Inspirations

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, the artist’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 Jaray herself.

Published to coincide with the exhibition, ‘Tess Jaray: From Piero and other paintings’ at the New Art Centre, Roche Court, 23 January – 10 April 2021.