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Ceri Richards (27 Feb 2004) |
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Ceri Richards was born in Dunvant near Swansea in 1903. His father was a tin plate worker and music and poetry formed an important part of every day life. His father conducted the local choir and Ceri Richards was taught to play the piano. Aspects of this Welsh childhood, of music, poetry and nature influenced his art throughout his life. It became the source of inspiration for his painting, drawing, printmaking and constructions. On leaving secondary school he was apprenticed to an electrical engineer. He attended evening class to study engineering drawing. He soon realised that drawing was his main interest and became a full time student at the Swansea School of Art in 1921. It was during a Summer School in 1923 at Gregynog that Ceri Richards encountered modern art. Gregynog was the home of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. It was there that he first saw works of art by great European artists. He was especially drawn to the work of Claude Monet. He then moved from Swansea to the Royal College of Art. He lived in London for the rest of his life apart from 4 years during the Second World War when he was Head of Painting at Cardiff School of Art. By the 1920s his reputation as a painter was growing and he had his first one-man exhibition at the Glynn Vivian Museum and Art Gallery, Swansea, in 1930. In 1929 he married Frances Clayton who was his contemporary at the Royal College. While at the Royal College he read Kandinsky and became increasingly interested in the work of Picasso and Matisse. By the 1930s he became interested in the work of the Surrealists especially their automatic techniques and the use of chance. Ceri Richards himself was not afraid to change his subject and to experiment with style and technique. The 1930s was a period of experimentation and he made a number of relief constructions and paintings that reflected his interest and understanding of cubism and abstraction. 1943 saw the beginning of work relating to the theme of the cycle of nature. This theme was related to the poetry of Dylan Thomas, in particular 'The Force that through the green fuse drives the flower.' By the end of the 1940s he was exploring a different subject matter, the music room interior, usually with a piano and female pianist. This was an expression of Richard's great love of music. The mood of these paintings is not always calm. Reference to the legend of the Sabine Women was often suggested by paintings of the sabines on the walls of the interiors. By the 1950s Richards made a number of paintings paying homage to his favourite composer, Beethoven. During the 1950s and 60s Ceri Richards created paintings, collages and constructions on the subject of the submerged cathedral. Music was still prevalent since this subject was taken from Debussy's prelude La Cathédrale Engloutie. During the 1960s he won many prestigious prizes and was awarded some important commissions. He died in London on 9 November 1971.
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