This fascinating book was published in 1985 and, after a Foreword, in which he emphasizes that this is a personal view of Welsh art which complements an earlier volume, "Art in Wales 2000 BC- AD 1850" which was published in 1978, and Introduction, the author addresses the specified period of Welsh art in six chronological chapters: 1. "The Nineteenth Century"; 2. "Civic Pride"; 3. "A Time of Revolutions"; 4. "The Long-Delayed Revival"; 5. "After 1945" and 6. "Contemporary Art in Wales". The book is completed by a Bibliography, a List of illustrations and a General Index.
In his Introduction, Rowan suggests that lack of commissions, limited numbers of art schools and a lower level of teaching than in Royal Academy schools in London, few exhibitions and the lack of a metropolitan focus such as Dublin or Edinburgh, (it was only in 1955 that Cardiff became the capital city) all militated against a `cultural art tradition', a School of Welsh Art. To paraphrase Jackson Pollock's dictum, "the idea of an isolated [Welsh] painting...seems absurd to me, just as the idea of creating a purely [Welsh] mathematics or physics would seem absurd".
In the 19th century, there was an abortive attempt to found a national academy of arts, but the most eminent sculptor of the 1850s-1860s was John Gibson who spent most of his life in Rome, as did Penry Williams. Commissioned by the 3rd Marquis of Bute, William Burgess designed the Pre-Raphaelite-inspired Castell Coch and Cardiff Castle. Each contains outstanding sculptures but the murals and other artistic decorations are of a lesser quality. In painting, the most significant event was the visit to Penarth and the Gower Coast by Sisley at the end of the century. The early 20th century was characterized by the building of Cardiff City Centre and the opening of the Welsh Museum, previously the Cardiff Museum. Starting in Cardiff, Gascombe John became one of the most successful British sculptors and championed the National Museum of Wales. Frank Brangwyn was responsible for several large decorative schemes in Wales, including the British Empire Panels now in Swansea's Guildhall.
New avant-garde movements, such as Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism, were without much influence in Wales in the first quarter of the 20th century, the leading artists being Augustus and Gwen John, James Dickson Innes and Clifford Williams. Thanks to his American patron, John Quinn (who also bough works by his sister), Augustus John was the most represented artist at the 1913 New York Armory Show, the Exhibition Committee of which was chaired by Arthur B. Davies, son of a Welsh preacher. In the period before World War I, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies created a collection of modern art which, by 1924, included some 200 works, including many by French Impressionists, Whistler and Augustus John. After the war, Eric Gill came to Capel-y-Ffin and established a close relationship with other artists, including David Jones. In the 1930s, Ceri Richards, Will Evans and non-Welsh artists such as John Piper, Graham Sutherland and John Nash were all very active painting Welsh landscapes and motifs, whilst Mervyn Evans ploughed his unique Surrealist furrow.
In the late 1940s, the most prominent Welsh artists were Brenda Chamberlain, Kyffin Williams, John Elwyn, Alfred Janes and Eric Malthouse, one of the few Welsh artists to link with the St Ives artists' colony, alongside foreigners who settled or stayed in Wales, such as Frederick Konekamp, Heinz Koppel and Josef Herman. Contemporary artists from the period 1960-1980, include Glyn Jones, Terry Setch, Tom Phillips and Keith Arnatt whilst Allan Jones, known for his erotic and girlie images, is Welsh by descent. Photographers working in Wales include Julian Sheppard, John Thomas, John Chantry and Sue Wells.
Since this is the first such book, it is important although it is somewhat let down by its illustrations, only a minority of its 172 works being shown in colour. However, it is a useful starting point and a later edition was published in 1997.
I quite understand that the author had to draw a line with the non-Welsh artists working in Wales or painting Welsh motifs, but my flabber was absolutely gasted when I realised that the most iconic Welsh painting was not included in this book. When I was a child, my grandmother had a copy of a painting of an old woman arriving for worship at a small Baptist chapel in Cefncymerau, near Harlech, wearing traditional dress and clutching a Bible. I later learned that the model was Sian Owen, who is shown making her way to the family pew.
Its contrasting colours, sombre nature and the way it captured life in Wales, or perhaps in North Wales, at the turn of the 20th century led to it being seen as much as a symbol of Wales as Constable's Hay Wain is of England. However, what terrified me in Sidney Curnow Vosper's "Salem", painted in 1908, was the face of the devil in the shawl that is still its greatest discussion point. Some suggest that the shawl's brightness is Vosper's comment on the sin of vanity, which is not really fair on poor Sian. However, in the folds on the left arm, many people, including me, see the pattern forming the devil's horn, the folds its eye, nose and mouth and the shawl's trim his beard.
So how come neither the artist nor the painting is included in this book? Indeed how come it did not replace one of Brangwyn's British Empire Panels on the front cover? Was the author perhaps too terrified to include it?
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