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, Wilfred’s 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 London’s commercial art scene, he would remain adamant that he was making work for future audiences

Francesca Ramsay is an art historian and writer. She trained at the Warburg Institute in London, specialising in Renaissance art and culture. As writer, guide and tutor, Francesca has worked in some world-renowned institutions. These include the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Royal Albert Hall, and Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. She currently divides her time teaching history of art in Italy and writing in her home city of Bristol. Francesca is the author of PINCH ME: trying to feel real in the 21st century (2023, Ortac Press).