Artist Gillian Ayres pictured in her extraordinary studio in North Wales.
Gillian Ayres was a single-minded, spirited British artist whose life and career were driven by fierce determination and passion for her work. Ayres’ vast abstract canvases are an explosion of colour and joie de vivre, and the artist – who died in 2018 – is widely-remembered today as one of the most important painters and printmakers of her generation.
Ayres’ work is most popular in the United Kingdom, and demand for her art has remained steady in recent years. Though best-remembered for her enormous paintings, Ayres was also a skilled printmaker who enjoyed experimenting with the medium. Indeed, prints account for 42% of her work sold at auction, with the majority fetching between £1,000 and £5,000.
Below is a list of Gillian Ayres’ six most expensive prints sold at auction. If you’d like to know more about how much a Gillian Ayres print is worth, or how to sell it, contact Mark Littler today.
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Turkish Blue And Amber Green That In The Channel Stray, Triptych
Gillian Ayres once said: “To me, painting is a visual thing, and that’s it. People like to understand, and I wish they wouldn’t! I wish they’d just look.” The same sentiment applied to her prints, and indeed, it’s impossible not to look at this vast triptych and be amazed by the sheer range of shapes and colours within it, or by the energy and life that it exudes. Like much of Ayres’ work, the hand-coloured carborundum etching has a romantic and enigmatic title, and it was sold by Aspire Art Auctions in June 2019 for £16,283.
Turkish Blue and Amber Green That In The Channel Stray sold by Aspire Auctions in 2019
Muscari (1-4)
Gillian Ayres stated numerous times throughout her life that she interpreted the world through “Shapes. Spaces. And, of course, colour.” She also said, “I respond to colour more than anything”, a fact that is exemplified by this series of four hand-painted acrylic and carborundum prints from 2005. The prints all contain the same shapes and layout as each other, but Ayres’ masterful use of colour imbues each of them a distinct individuality at the same time. They were sold by Chiswick Auctions in July 2024 for £8,100.
Rufous
Though, in her own words, the titles of Gillian Ayres’ pieces usually had “nothing to do with the works”, they tended nonetheless to be poetic and “very romantic”. Such is the case of Rufous, a print from 1999 which was sold by Sotheby’s in March 2020 for £5,000, more than double its estimated price, and which was titled after the reddish-brown colour that dominates it.
The print dates from just a couple of years after Ayres first began working with gallerist and print publisher, Alan Cristea, and master printmaker, Jack Shirreff. It was a partnership which allowed her to start exploring new printing techniques and distribute her finished pieces to a wider market. Moreover, Ayres’ use of carborundum to apply colour directly to the printing plate using a brush, as well as her tendency to hand-colour her finished prints, blurred the distinctions between printmaking and painting to an extraordinary extent.
Someday #1
This is a unique aquatint with carborundum and hand-colouring, and it was sold by Sotheby’s in March 2018 for £4,800, more than double its top estimate. The print dates from 2009-2010, when Ayres was in her late seventies or early eighties, but showing no signs of slowing down. When interviewed at the age of 85, Ayres said her advancing years meant she could no longer physically paint vast canvases whilst perching on a precarious ladder, a habit she described as “so dangerous”, she “shouldn’t have been allowed” to do it. She remained extraordinarily prolific nonetheless, working vigorously right into the last years of her life, and still living with her ex-husband and fellow artist, Henry Mundy.
Sikar II
Up until 1981, Gillian Ayres held various teaching positions, and it was these that provided her with a steady income, though, as she said, “Deep down, I suppose I always thought this was a drag and wanted to paint, really, truthfully.” In 1981, Ayres left her position of head of painting at Winchester School of Art and moved to a larger house in the Llyn Peninsula of north-west Wales so that she could focus purely on painting.
Though her financial situation was a little precarious, she had some savings, and she simply chose not to worry about it, and to “paint like hell” instead. Luckily, her creative frenzy led her to produce some incredible pieces of work, many of which began to sell. This print dates from 1993, by which time Ayres was making a full-time living from her artwork. The joyous, vibrant etching features extensive hand-painting, and it was sold by Bonhams in December 2021 for £2,800.
Blue Flame
Gillian Ayres became “obsessed” with painting at the age of 13 when she first encountered books at school featuring the work of great artists such as Cézanne, Monet, and Van Gogh, which made her think, “Christ, painting can do this!”
She has cited other influences as being Picasso, Matisse, and Pollock, and it isn’t hard to see their presence in the organic shapes and intense colours that dominate Ayres’ work. This print from 1999 is exemplary of that, and it was sold by Bonhams in November 2010 for £2,500, more than twice its estimate.
