Kyffin Williams

by Qing Chao Ma

Kyffin Williams is the culmination of four years of research at two centers for Kyffin Williams’s art, the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Oriel Mon, Anglesey.

Dr. Qing Chao Ma’s illuminating new study incorporates Kyffin Williams’s full range; his inspirational landscapes and seascapes in oil, his delicate watercolours, his distinctive linocuts, and his mesmeric portraits. With her particular expertise, the author also draws comparisons between the work of Williams and Chinese art, linking him to other artistic traditions and establishing his rightful place in the worldwide art community.

Combined with a rigorous biographical account on the life which informed the work and a rich variety of illustrations, Kyffin Williams is an invaluable contribution to the study and appreciation of one of Wales’s foremost artists.

276 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2022

Reviews

[Andy]

Kyffin Williams was mainly known for his paintings of the Welsh landscape, and while there are a few portraits in here, it’s his landscapes that make up the bulk of the book. His oils were thick, sculptural, impressionistic, almost abstract in places and largely laid on with a palette knife. This heavily illustrated book might showcase his oils, but there is also plenty of his sketches and pen/pencil and wash drawings. The reproductions are high quality and Qing Chao Ma's text is informative, telling us more about Williams' life and thoughts about art and painting. This is a book I know I'll revisit time and again.