Wilfred Avery and the Unpredictable Image

The painter and collagist Wilfred Avery (1926 2016) tackled just two subjects in his career: landscape and the male body. A sixty-year investigation into both subjects developed out of his fascination with the unconscious mind as well as an exploration (and acceptance) of his own sexuality. By the end of his life - one led with a rare and intense creative focus - he had unified his two chosen subjects into one compelling whole. Untrained in any conventional sense and largely unrecognised, Wilfreds style evolved outside of any popular movement. He worked in self-imposed isolation from his creative contemporaries. Struggling to find his work a home in Londons commercial art scene, he would remain adamant that he was making work for future audiences.