Tess Jaray RA

(b. 1937-2026)

Tess Jaray was a British painter, printmaker, and writer known for her geometric abstractions and complex linear compositions. Born in Vienna, she came to Britain as a child refugee during the Second World War and later studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. She became associated with the development of post-war British abstraction, particularly through works exploring rhythm, space, architecture, and pattern. Jaray was the first female tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she taught from 1968-1999. During this period Stanley Jones was also teaching lithography at the Slade, reflecting the close relationship between the school and contemporary printmaking practice at Curwen Studio during the 1960s and 1970s. Alongside painting, Jaray produced lithographs and screenprints that extended her interest in repetition, structure, and optical movement. She worked with Curwen Studio and later Curwen Chilford Prints, collaborating with Stanley Jones and Kip Gresham on editions that explored layered grids, subtle colour relationships, and serial variation through print.