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Tess Jaray, Influential Painter of Understated Abstractions, Dies at 88

Tess Jaray, a British painter known for her understated abstract works featuring grids, cubes, and zigzags on pale backgrounds, died on Sunday at age 88, as announced on her official Instagram account. Born in Vienna in 1937, she fled the Nazi regime with her Jewish parents and later studied at Saint Martin's School of Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art, where she became the first female teacher in 1968. Her career included monumental commissions in the 1980s and '90s, a survey at Vienna's Secession in 2021, and an appearance at the Centre Pompidou that same year.

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Tess Jaray, painter and teacher inspired by architecture, 1937–2026

Tess Jaray, the British painter known for geometric abstract works and architectural public commissions, has died at age 88. Born in Vienna in 1937, she studied at the Slade School of Art under Ernst Gombrich and became the school's first female teacher in 1968, running its postgraduate course for nearly three decades. Her hard-edge paintings, inspired by Renaissance architecture, evolved into public artworks such as the terrazzo floor at London Victoria station, the stone floor at St Mary's Church in Nottingham, and the forecourt of the British Embassy in Moscow. Major exhibitions included a 2024 retrospective at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield and a 2021 solo show at Secession in Vienna.

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