I
first encountered Glyn Morgan’s
paintings whilst helping to organise the
exhibition Cedric Morris and Lett Haines:
Teaching, Art and Life which opened at Norwich
Castle in 2002. The exhibition presented
work by Cedric Morris and his partner Lett
Haines, alongside paintings by leading students
of the East Anglia School of Painting and
Drawing (EASPD) – a wonderfully idiosyncratic
art school that they established in 1937.
The unique environment created by Haines
and Morris at the EASPD nurtured and influenced
the life and work of an important group of
artists including David Carr, Lucian Freud,
Lucy Harwood, Maggi Hambling, and of course
Glyn Morgan.
Morgan first met Morris in 1943
whilst he was still a student at Cardiff
School of Art. He was invited to Benton End
to attend the EASPD the following year. Whilst
he benefited from the formal training at
Cardiff – in
particular the importance of draughtsmanship
that he learnt from his inspirational tutor
Ceri Richards – little can have prepared
him for the unique atmosphere of Benton End.
Here formal training was eschewed in favour
of advice, encouragement and the creation
of an environment where art was an integral
part of life. As another student Esther Grainger
remarked, the school was ‘The place
where only painting mattered; where almost
everything else was a joke. A school for
more than painting; a world, a sort of family,
created warmed and lit by Cedric and Lett.’
One
important lesson Morgan did learn from Morris
was the importance of colour. Both artists
share an often unconventional, yet highly
accomplished sense of colour. Morris remarked
to Morgan ‘You have a disgraceful
sense of colour, therefore you might become
an artist’ and Morgan later returned
the compliment describing Morris as ‘one
of the great colourists of the century’.
Although Morgan’s early work was influenced
by Morris he soon established his own identity
as an artist. If asked to characterise his
considerable achievements of over six decades
of painting, I would point to the rich tradition
of visionary landscape painting that has
been such an important strand in the history
of British art. In common with Samuel Palmer,
Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland, Morgan’s
engagement with landscape transcends the
particulars of place. His paintings invoke
the mysterious and spiritual qualities of
nature that have enticed painters and poets
into the romantic tradition since the eighteenth
century.
In the new paintings featured in
this exhibition these qualities come to the
fore. Blodeuwedd Landscape is one of a series
inspired by a traditional Celtic legend.
The maiden Blodeuwedd, created from flowers,
is represented metamorphosing into an owl
as punishment for her infidelity. In Procession
the mushrooms, perhaps influenced by Morris’ wonderful ‘recipe
still-lives’, are imbued with a mysterious,
almost sinister presence in the landscape.
These visionary qualities have also been
explored in work in collage and mixed media
such as the impressive Landscape with Owl
2. The mysterious light that illuminates
this scene is a recurring motif in Morgan’s
work. It places him and secures his place
within the visionary tradition of British
art.
Nicholas Thornton
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
GLYN MORGAN |
EXHIBITIONS SINCE 1969
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Richard Demarco Gallery,
Edinburghn
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Gardner Arts Centre, University
of Sussex
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Gilbert-Parr Gallery, London
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Gilbert-Parr Gallery, London
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The Minories, Colchester
(Retrospective)
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Archway Gallery, Houston,
Texas
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Taliesin Arts Centre, University of
Swansea
(Retrospective)
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Quay Gallery, Sudbury,
Suffolk
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Chappel Galleries, Essex:
Portraits of Gaia
and Other Paintings
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Chappel Galleries, Essex:
Master and Pupil,
Cedric Morris and Glyn Morgan
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Simon Carter Gallery, Woodbridge:
Glyn
Morgan. A Fifty Year Retrospective.
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Chappel Galleries, Essex: “The
Green Man”,
70th birthday celebration,
Oriel Llundain, London, Glyn Morgan – Fifty
Years
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Glyn Morgan – Fifty
Years, Rhondda
Heritage Park
Y Tabernacl (Museum of Modern Art, Wales)
Retrospective
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Chappel Galleries, Essex:
The Observant
Eye: Botanical and Other Watercolours
Brecknock Museum & Gallery, Brecon
(Retrospective).
John Russell Gallery, Ipswich
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Chappel Galleries, Essex:
75th Anniversary
Exhibition The Song of the Earth.
Selected Paintings, Martin Tinney Galery,
Cardiff.
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National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth:
Retrospective
Chappel Galleries, Essex: Retrospective
80th
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GROUP
EXHIBITIONS (excluding local exhibitions) |
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Contemporary Welsh Painting
and
Sculpture, National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff
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1962
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Leicester Galleries, London
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1968 |
Canaletto
Gallery, London |
1969 |
Recording
Wales (Welsh Arts Council) |
1970 |
John
Whibley Gallery, London |
1975 |
Alwin
Gallery, London |
1976 |
Gilbert-Parr
Gallery, London
Oriel, Cardiff (Welsh Arts Council) |
1978 |
The
Oxford Gallery |
1986 |
Invited
Artists Exhibition, Oriel, Cardiff
(Welsh Arts Council) |
1987 |
Royal Academy, London |
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Royal Academy, London
Manchester Academy of Fine Art, Open
Exhibition
Royal Horticultural Society, London
Society of Botanical Artists, London
Royal Society of Marine Artists, London
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1989 |
Society of
Botanical Artists, London
Four Painters and a Sculptor from Benton
End, Bury St. Edmunds Art Gallery
Art Expo, New York
Royal Horticultural Society |
1990 |
The Broad Horizon,
Agnews, London
(National Trust)
Society of Botanical Artists, London |
1991 |
Society
of Botanical Artists, London |
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Woburn Festival, High Wycombe
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1995 |
Welsh
Contemporaries, Oriel Llundain,
London |
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Colchester Art Society – Fifty
Years,
Chappel Galleries, Essex
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Aldeburgh Festival
Society of Botanical Artists, London
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Fifty Years of the Welsh
Group, National
Gallery, London
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Norwich Castle Museum and
Art Gallery
touring to National Museum and Gallery,
Cardiff: “Cedric Morris and Lett
Haines;
Teaching, Art and Life; with David Carr,
Lucian Freud, Maggi Hambling, Lucy
Harwood, Frances Hodgkins, Glyn Morgan
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COLLECTIONS
Derbyshire, Monmouthshire, Oxford and
West Riding
Education Committees, Auckland and Brisbane
City
Art Galleries, Contemporary Art Society for
Wales,
Arts Council for Wales, the Crane Kalman Gallery,
the
Wertheim Collection, Ipswich Museum and Art
Gallery,
Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Brecon Museum
and Art Gallery, the National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea,
and
National Library of Wales (Gifts of the Arts
Council for
Wales); University of Essex: ‘Portrait
of Ronald Blythe’
2002 and private collections in Britain, France,
Italy,
Germany, China and the U.S.A. |
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1955
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Cheltenham Hotel mural commission
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1968 |
Goldsmiths’ Company
Fellowship to work
and study in Crete |
1972 |
Lecturing
during summer at Aegina Art
Centre, Greece |
1985 |
Organised
and presented “The Benton End
Circle”, an exhibition of more than 40
years’
work by students of Cedric Morris and
Lett-Haines at Bury St. Edmunds Art
Gallery |
1988-89 |
Member
of the Society of Botanical Artists |
2002 |
Cedric
Morris Anniversary Lecture, Glynn
Vivian Museum, Swansea |
2002,
03 |
Lectures
on Cedric Morris at various venues,
including Norwich Castle and the National
Museum of Wales, Cardiff |
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