Features

The exhibition marks the centenary of the birth of the British painter, Keith Vaughan (1912–1977). Born in Selsey, West Sussex, Vaughan was a largely self-taught artist who initially worked in advertising in the 1930s. After serving in the Second World War, Vaughan participated in a war art exhibition in London, soon after which he met Graham Sutherland and other Neo-Romantic English artists including John Minton and John Craxton. His first solo exhibition was held in 1944 at Reid & Lefevre in London. From 1959, Vaughan taught art at the Slade School of Art for almost twenty years and he was awarded a CBE in 1965. A retrospective of his work was held at the Whitechapel Gallery, London in 1962 and a year later, he represented Britain at the São Paolo Biennale. An accomplished writer, Vaughan kept a regular journal throughout his life, even writing up to the moment of his suicide on 4 November 1977.

Village in Ireland (1954), a composition of geometric forms, depicts village buildings set against an unfettered hilly landscape painted in sludgy greens and greys. A cool, yet absorbing study of a small village, the unusual geometric blocks clearly defined in light and shade, instill a remarkable atmosphere in the painting.

Painted towards the end of his life, Bathers by a Green Bank (1972) is one of many images of the male nude that Vaughan painted in his career. Two naked male figures, with obscured heads, are shown leaning against a green bank, focusing attention on their gangly naked bodies. This is not an immediately sexual image although there is a sense that the figures are intimately related. Earlier in his career, Vaughan's celebratory images of the male nude, painted during the 1950s, gradually shifted to the freer, more abstract approach shown here.

Further Information:

Keith Vaughan: Romanticism to Abstraction runs from 10 March to 10 June 2012

Pallant House Gallery
9 North Pallant
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 1TJ

Opening hours
Monday CLOSED
Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm
Thursday 10am – 8pm
Sunday/Bank Holidays 11am – 5pm

+44 (0) 1243 774557
info@pallant.org.uk