Her concept of abstraction is based on an attention to forms and motifs, which she regards not as superficial or decorative but as something ‘primary’ that relates us to the fundamentals of the world. Her paintings reflect her interest in the repetition of abstract motifs and patterns, both in nature and in architecture, ranging from plants to fossils and from buildings to landscaped gardens. Fascinated by the Château de Villandry in France, and by the geometric motifs of North African and Middle Eastern architecture, Jaray continued to create pictorial works that were firmly based on preliminary drawings. In fact, she rejected the idea of art as merely a visual experience and instead maintained that art must be fed by personal experience this reflects her strong relationship with both natural and built architecture.

In 1965, she took part in the ‘Op and Pop: Current English Art’ exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, which described her style as close to Op art. An example is St Stephen’s Green (1964), inspired by the Gothic cathedral of Vienna, which she had rediscovered in 1957 during a summer trip there and whose green roof inspired the title. During the 1960s, she began to forge her own style, with oil paintings that evoked architectural spaces that appeared finished and homogenous. This led her to move away from her early expressionist style. In 1960, when she went to Italy on a travel scholarship, she became fascinated by the architectural spaces in Filippo Brunelleschi’s cathedral in Florence and by the experiments of the Italian masters, from Giotto to Piero della Francesca, into linear perspective and ways of suggesting depth and three dimensions. She discovered Abstract Expressionism during visits to exhibitions at the Tate Gallery. In 1954, she began to study painting at St Martins School of Art in London, followed by studies at the Slade School of Fine Art. She was introduced to art by her grandfather, a collector, and her aunt Leah Bondi Jaray, who had founded the Würtle Gallery in Vienna. Tess Jaray, who was born in Vienna, was forced to flee Austria with her family during the Second World War, and in 1942 they settled in Britain.

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