Visual arts: New exhibition showcases work of acclaimed Welsh artist John Selway

Jon Gower visits an exhibition of the work of John Selway, who has been described as a ‘William Blake for the CNN generation.’

For over six decades the Abertillery-based artist John Selway produced art of the highest order, often reflecting the world in all its complexity, weaving in news reports from the Middle East or South Africa or pondering poetry or the art that had preceded him.

His fellow artist Osi Rhys Osmond reached for the biology textbook when he described Selway’s way of working as that of a ‘cultural bi-valve, creatively filtering all the literary, actual, filmic, personal and poetic stimuli that pass through his orbit.’

Courageous

Janet Martin runs Barnabas Arts House in Newport which is staging the current exhibition.

She considers Selway to be one of the bravest, most courageous, scary, innovative, off-the-wall men she has ever met: ‘I was extremely fond of him. I remember once building some studios here around the corner. I wasn’t sure about the windows and the lighting and he said “I don’t know what you’re mucking about with. You know you paint under electric light. The work is shown under electric light, stop worrying.”

That was his attitude and yet with that attitude which seems somewhat slapdash he produced mastery I think. He was extremely deep in his conversation and his prowess as an artist but the thing I will always remember him will be his courage. I’ve got a background in medicine myself and I’ve never seen anyone deal with near-death experiences through his condition in such a magnificent way.

‘About 20 odd years ago he was having his tongue and teeth removed at the Royal Gwent Hospital because his cancer had returned. I was having a Christmas show in my shop across the road and he came in his pyjamas and dressing gown from the Gwent to see me to have a whiskey and a mince pie and then forgot he didn’t have a tongue as he was eating it. But he was just full of spirit, always.’

Literate

Selway was a deeply literate artist, who read widely and studied art throughout his life. The artist and critic Osi Rhys Osmond suggested he worked ‘from the philosophy of the vigilant imagination; he is continuously alert to every stimulus, possessing sweeping aesthetic antennae, and nothing passes without intense scrutiny.’

Many of his works reference plays and poetry, such as J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan or the work of favourite poets of his such as Jean Genet.

Janet Martin recalls how ‘He soaked up Dylan Thomas. His interest in the Holocaust was very deep. He was very, very deep. And yet, if he was drinking in a pub, in a Wetherspoons, say and they said, what do you do? He’d say, “I’m a painter.” And then they’d say, ‘Oh, my nan’s house could do with a new coat and he wouldn’t bother to correct them about what sort of painter he was exactly.’

Poetic

John Selway mixed old school with new school,’ suggests Martin, ‘along with philosophical school – and any school you could think of – all thrown in the mix and that was what was so magical is his works. They are like poetry in themselves I think and they’re layered as a good poem should be. And the viewer is left doing some work and I like that. I hate a finished piece of work where there it is, lovely, there’s the swans on the water and they’re just looking at me.’

Janet Martin thinks John Selway was quietly self-assured, confident in his talent: ‘I think he knew he was good. I don’t think he was backward in coming forward with his talent. I don’t think he ever doubted himself.’

Craftsman

Professor Gerda Roper is a fellow artist who, like Selway taught at Newport College of Art. She holds his work in high regard:

‘Well I think he’s first of all an ace craftsman. I mean the work here covers several decades but I remember that his work in the 70s and 80s, had this flair and imagination that was simply wonderful.

And technically, he really kept pushing the boat out. So he would do different perspectives, he would do different repeat images. He played a lot with representation in a very exciting way. And he was really very well thought of by painters.’

Selway certainly had a gift for sharing his enthusiasm for art with others, be they fellow artists or students in his charge.

Mike Rowland was on the technical staff in the printmaking department at Newport College of Art at the same time as John Selway and remembers him as a good and very popular teacher: ‘What he was great at was identifying students who had potential and through him they would be motivated by the idea that somebody’s supporting me here and therefore find a way to work more freely.’

The exhibition at Barnabas House offers a rare opportunity to see a selection of work-for-sale by a Welsh artist who deserves to be much better known. As the photographer David Hurn puts it: ‘The mystery, to me, is that he’s a major, major painter who was at the Royal College at the same time as Hockney, Kitaj and Peter Blake – who all became international figures – and I think he’s as good as any of them. If that is true you can only begin to analyse why he hasn’t got the same status.’

The exhibition of works for sale by John Selway runs at Barnabas Arts House in Newport until the 31^st May 2025.

A book about this singular artist, called Vigilant Imagination is available at Barnabas House and good bookshops.