Lecture

Kyffin Williams (1918-2006) was born on Anglesey and attended the Slade School of Art which had been evacuated to Oxford during the War. He later became art master at Highgate School before deciding to devote himself entirely to painting in 1973.

Kyffin developed a very personal style of painting using a palette knife and thick paint. He loved Wales, its mountains and its coast as well as the people. He painted large and powerful landscapes and seascapes, but he was also a wonderful portrait painter. He drew and painted Welsh farmers with sympathy and understanding but also tackled official commissions. His portraits of children are extraordinary.

Kyffin was sceptical of many aspects of contemporary art and was a great believer in drawing. He was a superb draughtsman capturing landscapes, people, birds and animals with a light touch. He was wary of the Art Establishment and believed that art should be enjoyed by the people. Although relatively unknown outside Wales, Kyffin met with great success. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1974, awarded the OBE in 1982 and knighted in 1999. He was twice elected President of the Royal Cambrian Academy and was also Deputy Lieutenant of Anglesey – quite an achievement for an artist!

I am not Welsh, but was a pupil of Kyffin at Highgate School in the 1960s. He became a friend and I kept in touch with him by letter and meetings in London, so this lecture is based on personal knowledge and friendship. Kyffin was a great raconteur, superb writer (his two autobiographies are greatly admired) and an important artist – deservedly considered Wales’ greatest artist of the 20th century.

I try to put Kyffin’s work into an art historical perspective based on my many conversations with him and on his own writing. I look at his influences – Van Gogh, Courbet, Turner, Nolde, Eardley, Rouault, and de Stael. I also discuss his strongly held opinions about contemporary art which upset the Art Establishment at the time.