Ivor Davies (artist) explained

Ivor Davies MBE
Birth Date:	November 1935
Birth Place:	Treharris, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales
Nationality:	Welsh
Known For:	Painting / Multi-media / Conceptual / Mosaic
Training:	Cardiff College of Art Swansea College of Art University of Lausanne University of Edinburgh
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 is a Welsh-speaking, Welsh artist born in Treharris, in November 1935. He currently lives and works in Penarth.^[2]

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] [10]}

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".^[11]

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.^{[12] [13]}

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.

References

• BBC 2007 New Year's Honours list http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/30_12_06_hons_main.pdf
• BBC News report on Ivor Davies winning the Gold Medal in Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod of Wales http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/2172213.stm
• BBC Wales article, Framing Wales https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/ivor-davies/index.shtml
• BBC Welsh language report by the artist, Cadw'r Chwedlau'n Fyw/Keeping Mythology Alive https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymru/celf/eisteddfod02/artist/ifor-davies.shtml
• BBC National Museum Wales Art Collection http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/art/online/?action=show_works&item=179&type=artist
• National Eisteddfod of Wales – Ivor Davies Award https://web.archive.org/web/20110705043202/http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/uploads/publications/336.pdf
• National Eisteddfod of Wales, Lle Celf https://web.archive.org/web/20120311175253/http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/english/content.php?nID=431
• Royal Cambrian Academy of Art overview of the artist https://web.archive.org/web/20150205161947/http://www.rcaconwy.org/ivor_davies-84.aspx
• Royal Cambrian Academy of Art members overview https://web.archive.org/web/20120823151435/http://www.rcaconwy.org/rca_members-17.aspx
• S4C article, Byd o Liw/World of Colour (English translation from the original Welsh) https://archive.today/20130505042725/http://www.s4c.co.uk/bydoliw_archive/e_ifordavies.shtml
• S4C list of contributors to their series Tywysogion/Princes http://www.s4c.co.uk/tywysogion/e_contributors.shtml
• National Eisteddfod of Wales – Gold Medal Winner 2002 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311175253/http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/english/content.php?nID=431
• Review of art at Westminster Cathedral, including Ivor Davies' mosaic of St. David, by Germaine Greer, The Guardian, Sunday 19 September 2010 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/sep/19/germaine-greer-catholic-art-papal-visit

Hard copy references

• Certain Welsh Artists by Iwan Bala. Publisher: Seren (1 July 1999); (includes many references and illustrations of the artist's work on various pages throughout the book). https://www.amazon.com/Certain-Welsh-Artists-Iwan-Bala/dp/1854112511
• Stephen Bann – "Ivor Davies – Recent Works", (touring catalogue), Clwyd County Council (1991).
• Ivor Davies – "Notes towards the Definition of the Artist: Ivor Davies explores the indigenous roots of his work', Planet – The Welsh Internationalist Magazine, No. 106 pp.40–48 (1994).
• Jan Morris & Ivor Davies – "Ivor Davies – Legends from the White Book", (touring catalogue) Wolseley Fine Arts Ltd., London (1998).
• Ivor Davies, 'Politics of the Picturesque Cambrian Landscape' (short history & background of the artist's life), in City Scape & Land Shape, a symposium; published by Cumbrian College of Art & Design, pp. 1–20 (2001).
• Welsh Artist Talking" - interview by Tony Curtis, (Seren, 2000)
• Roms, Heike. Silent Explosion: Ivor Davies and Destruction in Art. London: Occasional Papers, 2015

External Artist's Profile links

• The Welsh Group http://www.thewelshgroup-art.com/#!ivor-davies/c23td
• Royal Cambrian Academy https://web.archive.org/web/20150205161947/http://www.rcaconwy.org/ivor_davies-84.aspx
• Art in Wales website https://web.archive.org/web/20110906080709/http://www.artinwales.250x.com/ArtistsDa.htm

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Welsh Group – Ivor Davies . thewelshgroup-art.com . 9 January 2015.
2. Web site: Ivor Davies . BBC . 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 . en.
4. Web site: Ivor Davies . dead . Rcaconwy.org . 26 December 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150205161947/http://www.rcaconwy.org/ivor_davies-84.aspx . 5 February 2015.
5. Web site: Byd o Liw . S4C . 26 December 2012 . https://archive.today/20130505042725/http://www.s4c.co.uk/bydoliw_archive/e_ifordavies.shtml . 5 May 2013 . dead.
6. Web site: Ivor Davies . 2016 . 10 March 2016 . The Welsh Group.
7. News: Knights Bachelor . . 28 December 2006 . 2 January 2015.
8. Web site: Ivor Davies to open Y Lle Celf at the Vale of Glamorgan Eisteddfod The National Eisteddfod of Wales . Eisteddfod.org.uk . 11 August 2012 . 26 December 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120311175253/http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/english/content.php?nID=431 . 11 March 2012 . dead.
9. News: UK Eisteddfod art turns political . BBC News . 4 August 2002 . 26 December 2012.
10. Web site: The Welsh Group – Ivor Davies . thewelshgroup-art.com . 9 January 2015.
11. Web site: Visual Arts Exhibition, Y Lle Celf at Blaenau Gwent. 15 October 2009. 2 January 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20110705043202/http://www.eisteddfod.org.uk/uploads/publications/336.pdf. 5 July 2011. dead.
12. News: Germaine Greer . Catholic art was once the domain of Titian. Now, we get Susan Boyle Art and design . The Guardian . 19 September 2010. 26 December 2012 . London.
13. Web site: CatholicHerald.co.uk » Pope to bless mosaic with holy water from Wales. catholicherald.co.uk. 2 January 2015.