There’s ‘No Welsh Art’: new exhibition challenges the myth
A new exhibition opens this month which explores the myth that there is ‘no Welsh Art’, telling the story of Wales’ unique voice – featuring items curated by art historian Peter Lord from some of Wales’ most important national collections.
In 1950, Dr Llewelyn Wyn Griffith made his infamous statement: “So much for the past. No patron, no critic, therefore no painter, no sculptor, no Welsh Art. It is as simple as that.”
Since the 1980s the art historian and exhibition curator, Peter Lord, has been exploring the myth that there is ‘no Welsh art’, discovering and recording Welsh art and artists.
Unique opportunity
On Saturday 16 November 2024 a new exhibition will open in the Gregynog Gallery at the National Library of Wales, which combines his substantial collection with items from the National Art Collection at the National Library of Wales for the first time in order to tell this important story.
Peter Lord’s collection of Welsh art and artefacts, many of which are on public display for the first time, looks at the allegation made by Griffith in 1950, and upheld by many others afterwards.
His belief is that pictures should be valued not only visually but for what they say about the story of the nation.
The exhibition is a unique opportunity to view and enjoy over 250 works of art of national significance. With a central narrative running throughout, the story starts with the visual world of the gentry, middle classes and common people and moves on to various depictions of Welsh identities.
Through this, it reveals the richness of Wales’ visual culture as well as Wales’ social and political history.
“Remarkable” collection
Rhodri Llwyd Morgan, Chief Executive of the National Library of Wales said: “This new exhibition, which has been curated by Peter Lord, offers a highly enriching experience that is full of interesting stories and timely themes about our relationship with visual art.
“Peter’s deep knowledge and expertise and the effective pairing between his remarkable collection and the Library’s collections promise visitors a real feast.”
Peter Lord, Art Historian and exhibition curator said: “Taking the relevance of visual images to the national historical pathway as a starting point, rather than following the aesthetic conventions of mainstream English art history, reveals a huge and undervalued cultural resource for the Welsh nation.
“The present exhibition not only demonstrates the absurdity of Dr Wyn Llewelyn Griffith’s dismissal of Welsh art, made seventy-five years ago, but requires us to question the implications of the mindset that lay behind it, into the present day.”
Exhibition highlights include a self-portrait of Edward Owen, Penrhos; a picture of Elizabeth Gwynne, Taliaris by John Lewis; Hen Walia, Marquis of Anglesey by John Roberts; Tŷ Haf by Beca (Peter Davies); Conway Castle from the Shore by Clara Knight and Vase of Flowers by Gwen John.
Find out more and purchase tickets at the National Library website.
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If Griffiths had dug a little deeper, he would have come across the first-ever exhibition, a year prior to Griffiths’ “No Welsh art” statement, by a young artist called Kyffin Williams.
Like many others, I had the unfortunate experience of being taught sports by a sadistic PE teacher from Whitland, who vehemently opposed Peter Lord’s monument to Hywel Dda. Driven by the principle that “the enemy of your enemy is your friend,” those of us kids, who initially had little interest in art or Hywel Dda found ourselves actively supporting the monument’s creation. One day, I hope to visit the site and lay a wreath in memory of the boys who suffered under that teacher’s bullying. Since then, I have closely followed Peter Lord’s work, and everything he has done is… Read more »
Why is it so many PE teachers were sadistic? I attended a few schools as a child and in all of them the PE teachers were. to varying degrees, overbearing or apparently sadistic, and of the type so well observed as Brian Glover’s playing of the PE teacher in the film Kes. As far as the myth that Cymru has no artistic tradition of its own, I well remember that myth being perpetuated when I was studying on the Welsh Studies course at Coleg Harlech in the mid 80s when that view was more or less received wisdom. Fortunately by… Read more »
Mae Peter Lord yn haeddu ei gydnabod fel arwr y genedl. Mae ei waith ymchwil, ei lafur di-flino a dycnwch yn wyneb gwrthwynebiad a dirmyg y dehonglwyr a cheidwaid swyddogol yn syfrdanol. Cystal gwaith â chwalu gafael y Llyfrau Gleision, yw gorchest y dyn diymhongar hwn. Peter Lord deserves some (fitting) recognition as a national hero. His endless labours of research, his radical perception and his indefatigable determination in the face of the disparaging opposition of the ‘official’ keepers and interpreters of Welsh art has been astounding. His unassuming achievement stands equal to the unfinished efforts of Welsh historians to… Read more »