Ivor Davies (artist)

Last updated

Ivor Davies MBE
BornNovember 1935
NationalityWelsh
Education Cardiff College of Art
Swansea College of Art
University of Lausanne
University of Edinburgh
Known forPainting / Multi-media / Conceptual / Mosaic
Awards Fine Art Gold Medal winner, National Eisteddfod of Wales
MBE
Vice-President of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art
Elected The Welsh Group [1]
Royal Cambrian Academy

Ivor Davies MBE is a Welsh-speaking, Welsh artist born in Treharris, in November 1935. He currently lives and works in Penarth. [2]

Contents

As a boy Davies went to Penarth County School. He studied at Cardiff College of Art and Swansea College of Art between 1952 and 1957, and then from 1959 to 1961 studied at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He then began teaching at the University of Wales before moving on to the University of Edinburgh, where he also completed a PhD on the Russian avant-garde. [3] Davies finally retired from teaching at the Gwent College of Higher Education in 1988. [2] [4] [5]

He was elected Vice-President of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1995 [4] and is a member of The Welsh Group. [6] He was made an MBE in the 2007 New Year Honours list. [7] At the 2002 National Eisteddfod of Wales he won the Gold Medal for Fine Art. [8] [9] [1]

Artwork

Davies is passionate about the culture, language and politics of Wales, which inspire his artwork. For a number of years he has sponsored the Ivor Davies Award at Y Lle Celf (Art Space in Welsh), at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, for an artwork "that conveys the spirit of activism in the struggle for language, culture and politics in Wales". [10]

Davies' early works in the 1960s used explosives as an expression of society's destructive nature. Davies took part in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London in 1966. [2] [4] [5] More recent work has included painting, installations; he has also designed and installed a mosaic of Saint David at Westminster Cathedral. [11] [12]

A major retrospective exhibition of his work from the 1940s onwards, Ivor Davies: Silent Explosion, opened at National Museum Cardiff in 2015. This was the largest exhibition dedicated to the work of a single contemporary artist ever held in Wales. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Novello Davies</span>

Clara Novello Davies was a Welsh singer, teacher and conductor. She used the pen name Pencerddes Morgannwg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts Council of Wales</span> Welsh Government sponsored body for funding the arts

The Arts Council of Wales is a Welsh Government-sponsored body, responsible for funding and developing the arts in Wales.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1993 to Wales and its people.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1958 to Wales and its people.

Ogwyn Davies was a Welsh artist, born in Trebanos in the Swansea Valley. He studied at the Swansea School of Art, before living and working in Tregaron, Ceredigion. He taught art at Ysgol Uwchradd Tregaron from 1955 to 1985, while also maintaining and developing his independent career as an artist. He was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy (RCA) in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Seward</span> British architect (1853–1924)

Edwin Seward (1853–1924) was an architect based in Cardiff, Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Davies (photographer)</span> Welsh photographer

Ron Davies, OBE was a Welsh photographer.

Grahame Davies LVO is a poet, author, editor, librettist, literary critic and former journalist. He was brought up in the former coal mining village of Coedpoeth near Wrexham in north east Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh art</span>

Welsh art refers to the traditions in the visual arts associated with Wales and its people. Most art found in, or connected with, Wales is essentially a regional variant of the forms and styles of the rest of the British Isles, a very different situation from that of Welsh literature. The term Art in Wales is often used in the absence of a clear sense of what "Welsh art" is, and to include the very large body of work, especially in landscape art, produced by non-Welsh artists in Wales since the later 18th century.

Fflur Dafydd is a Welsh novelist, singer-songwriter and musician. Though mainly publishing in Welsh, she also writes in English. She contributes regularly in Welsh to Radio Cymru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osi Rhys Osmond</span>

Osi Rhys Osmond was a Welsh painter and an occasional television and radio presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iwan Bala</span> Welsh artist

Iwan Bala is a Welsh artist, born May 1956 in Sarnau, Merionethshire, near Bala.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Garner (artist)</span> Welsh installation artist

David Garner is a Welsh installation artist known for his use of found objects and overtly political themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold Medal (National Eisteddfod of Wales)</span>

The Gold Medal of the National Eisteddfod of Wales is awarded annually in three categories for excellence in Fine Art, Architecture, or Craft and Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alun Oldfield-Davies</span> Welsh broadcaster and public servant

Alun Bennett Oldfield-Davies was a Welsh broadcaster and public servant. He joined the BBC in 1937, holding several posts before being appointed director of the Welsh Region for BBC radio. Throughout his long stewardship of the BBC in Wales, he oversaw a golden age in Welsh spoken broadcasting, and always sought to increase the resources for Welsh broadcasting. He oversaw the introduction of television broadcasting in Wales, and although seen as unadventurous by some, his devotion to the Welsh language was absolute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Y Lle Celf</span>

Y Lle Celf is an annual art, craft and architecture exhibition held during the National Eisteddfod of Wales, claimed to be the biggest temporary art exhibition in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maes (eisteddfod)</span> Site of a Welsh cultural festival

Maes is the name commonly given to the site of a Welsh eisteddfod, such as the National Eisteddfod or the Urdd Eisteddfod. All the main events and event venues are located on the Maes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Cardiff National Eisteddfod</span> Welsh music and poetry festival

The 2018 Cardiff National Eisteddfod was held in Cardiff Bay, Wales, from 3 to 11 August 2018. It was the seventh time the National Eisteddfod of Wales had been held in Cardiff. The 2018 event was billed as the Eisteddfod with "No fences" because it dispensed with the traditional enclosed 'Maes', or entrance fees to the event location. It made a £290,000 loss, but its popularity led to the suggestion of future Eisteddfods without fences.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Welsh Group – Ivor Davies". thewelshgroup-art.com. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ivor Davies". BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  3. Davies, Ivor (1975). "Certain aspects of art and theory in Russia from 1905 to 1924 in their relationship to the development of avant-garde art and ideas in the West".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. 1 2 3 "Ivor Davies". Rcaconwy.org. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  5. 1 2 "Byd o Liw". S4C. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  6. "Ivor Davies". The Welsh Group . 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  7. "Knights Bachelor" (PDF). BBC News. 28 December 2006. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  8. "Ivor Davies to open Y Lle Celf at the Vale of Glamorgan Eisteddfod | The National Eisteddfod of Wales". Eisteddfod.org.uk. 11 August 2012. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  9. "UK | Eisteddfod art turns political". BBC News. 4 August 2002. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  10. "Visual Arts Exhibition, Y Lle Celf at Blaenau Gwent" (PDF). 15 October 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  11. Germaine Greer (19 September 2010). "Catholic art was once the domain of Titian. Now, we get Susan Boyle | Art and design". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  12. "CatholicHerald.co.uk » Pope to bless mosaic with holy water from Wales". catholicherald.co.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  13. "Ivor Daves: Silent Explosion At National Museum Cardiff", CCQ, 13 November 2015, retrieved 13 November 2015

Hard copy references