Silk scarf, Zika Ascher "Artists' Squares" project 1Zika Ascher was a Czech artist and designer who became pre-eminent in the related fields of British textiles, art, and fashion. For his 'Artists' Squares' project, running from 1946 to 1955, he invited fifty-one leading French and English artists to participate – among them Barry Kay, who entitled his scarf design Neptune. It was produced in seven different background colours, including versions in café-au-lait, cerise and lavender. The cerise-coloured exemplar features in the comprehensively illustrated book 'Scarves' by Nicky Albrechtsen and Fola Solanka; publisher Thames & Hudson, London & New York; publishing date: March 2011; ISBN-13: 978-0-500-51564-8.

Fashion Accessories
designed between 1951 and 1953

Two-tone silkscreen print on pure pre-died silk, produced in seven different background colours

Theatre-related Designs

Décor for 'The Colonnades'
Bath, Somerset, England
in celebration of the Bath Festival of the Arts, June 1964

Impromptu sketches drawn recto and verso on a manilla envelope

Graphics / Paintings

Oil on canvas
signed and dated: Barry Kay 1956
76 x 105 cm; 30 x 41.3 ins

Barry Kay created this painting depicting a pastoral scene with the god Pan and a pair of lovers in early 1956. It is believed to have first been shown at the Peter Bray Gallery, Melbourne. The exhibition opened in February of the same year, just prior to Kay settling in London. In a statement, dated 30 June 1956, the gallery records the sale of 'Daphnis and Chloé'.

In June 2009, a painting by Kay had been sold at a 'Sunday Art Auction' arranged by the Melbourne auctioneers Leonard Joel. Unaware of what the sales item represents, it was offered as "Landscape with Figures". It may, however, well be the very "Daphnis and Chloé" originally sold by Peter Bray.

In 1955, Kay had already exhibited paintings and designs for the theatre at Peter Bray's.

Private Australian collection

Graphics / Paintings

Brush drawing depicting a view of Mornington Beach, Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne

Watercolour, gouache and partial we-in-wet technique on paper
42 x 59.4 cm; 16.5 x 23.4 in

Inscribed: Mornington; signed: Barry Kay
believed to have been created in 1956

Theatre-related Designs2The tapestry designs were commissioned by the Victorian Arts Centre in early 1983. A year later, upon their submission, its Committee however – influenced by in-house intrigues involving the designer John Truscott, as Barry Kay observed, and ostensibly artistically illiterate – engaged in ever more abstruse discussions about the ideas he presented. Unable to reach a conclusion, the Committee eventually abandoned the use of his designs altogether. – See also Biography.

Barry Kay's designs were intended as permanent installations in one of the foyers of the newly built State Theatre at the Victorian Arts Centre (since 2003 known as Arts Centre Melbourne), Melbourne. The four tableaux he created were to be hand-woven into tapestries. To harmonize his designs with their destined environment, he utilized monochrome vintage engravings to attain subtly homogeneous collage compositions illustrating the performing arts throughout the centuries.

Created 24 February 1983 - 19 March 1984

Graphics / Paintings

A girl and a boy holding a fish

Brush drawing
Watercolour, gouache and white highlihgting on paper
22 x 27 cm; 8.7 x 10.6 in

Inscribed: Jo Sammy [? indecipherable] & fish
Signed and dated: Barry 53

Believed to have beeen created in Melbourne

Private collection, United Kingdom