Large Paintings at Roche Court

Ceri Richards
La Cathédrale engloutie: Silver Grey
1963
Oil on canvas
152 x 152 cm
4ft 11 ⅞ x 4ft 11 ⅞ in.

Scale is always difficult to judge for artists, and periodically the urge emerges to create very large works. One has an idea and feels compelled to think big in an exclamation of experimentation. These works are often difficult to accommodate in exhibition plans, and oftentimes remain unseen. Nevertheless, we the viewer feel obliged to receive the dominating sensations large paintings offer, and wonder at the driving forces that pushed these artists to create on such a large scale.

The New Art Centre is celebrating three large paintings by Ceri Richards (1903-1971), Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) and Robyn Denny (1930-2014) and the inspirations behind their invaluable contributions to their generation of abstract art. Each of these artists received the support of the British Council; this generation is enormously indebted to Andrea Rose, who after joining in 1979 became the Director of Visual Arts until 2014.

The last paintings of Ceri Richards are large, colourful and compelling and explore the artist's major preoccupations with music, poetry and the Welsh landscape. One of the most successful and important painters and print-makers of his generation, Richards' Abstract Surrealism offered a vocabulary through which he could express the melody and rhythm of music and poetry.

The Cathédrale engloutie paintings allowed Richards to explore these preoccupations; imbued with the mysticism of spirituality, but also in the architecture of Cathedrals, the melody of hymns and the rhythms of readings. The series was also massively informed by the musical compositions of Debussy, of whom Richards said:

'Debussy... seems to me to have used more than other musicians the technique of impressionism to produce what is like a moment in time- a nature fragment, without necessarily having a start or an end... I paint using shape, colour and composition to accord to a feeling I have for something and I get a similar sensuous pleasure from music... There is certainly a deep link between music and painting - the proportions of time, the geometry of rhythms and divisions of spaces. This is also true about architecture and poetry. The sensuous entity that a piece of music or painting becomes ensues from the special adjustments of these elements.' (1964)

Ceri Richards was a prize winner at the Venice Biennale in 1962. After his death, he was the subject of major retrospectives at Tate (1981) and at the National Museum of Wales (2002).

Gillian Ayres
Green Grow the Rushes, O!
1990
Oil on canvas
138.1 x 414 x 4.1 cm
4ft 6⅜ x 13ft 7 x 1⅝ in.

Gillian Ayres was a celebrated abstract painter and printmaker. Green Grow the Rushes, O! marks a period in which Ayres travelled frequently. In 1990, she travelled to Jaipur at the invitation of the British Council, to paint for the Seventh Triennale-India. Vivacious brushstrokes and vibrant colours are influenced by landscape, mood and environment.

Many titles in her work are used as a linguistic tool, alluding to the mood of a completed painting with themes, including history and music. Green Grow the Rushes, O! references the traditional English folksong of the same name, and speaks of the culture of communal singing and celebration of nature.

Robyn Denny
Madras
1961
Signed, titled, inscribed and dated 'ROBYN DENNY. 'MADRAS'. 1961. 6' x 7' (on reverse) and inscribed 'XII' (on stretcher bar)
Oil on canvas
183 x 213 cm
72 x 83 ⅞ in.

Robyn Denny was a leading abstract British artist, who helped to change the face of British art, particularly in the 1960s and 70s. He aided in the organisation of the exhibition Situation at the RBA Galleries in 1960, a landmark exhibition for large British abstract painting. He represented Britain at the 1966 Venice Biennale, and in 1973 was the youngest artist (at the time) to be given a retrospective at the Tate.

Madras, a large-scale oil painting on display in the Artist House, is a prime example of Denny's work. A member of the Track series, Madras, Ted Bentley and Gully Foyle are characterized by vertical bands of colour. The paintings' meticulously manufactured structure have an architectural quality; evocative of a doorway, Denny always stipulated that his paintings should be hung 6 inches from the floor, so that the viewer may feel they may abandon reality, and step into another world.

Influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, Denny reacted against the tradition of British Landscape Painting and his rural upbringing; his paintings are urban, linear and future-oriented. He deliberately removed visible brushwork, using flat colours and graphic clarity to portray a minimal narrative.

To find out more about these artists, or to discover the wider collection of large paintings at Roche Court, please enquire below or visit the viewing room: