Forthcoming exhibitions at The National Museum Cardiff in Wales will be focussed around the Dylan Thomas centenary year
There is a lot in store for art lovers in 2014 and one of them is the feast of exhibitions at the National Museum Cardiff in Wales. These exhibitions will be surrounding the Dylan Thomas Centenary year.
Sir Peter Blake will present his illustrations of Under Milk Wood (1953) at the museum. This body of work is the culmination of a 25-year project and has been exhibited for the first time. The show includes portraits of each of the characters in the cast, watercolours of the dream sequences and collages and paintings of scenes and locations in a fictional village of llareggub (now until 16 March 2014).
Ivor Roberts-Jones was one of this country’s finest portrait sculptors and produced some impressive monumental public sculptures in bronze. The Double Edge: Ivor Roberts-Jones exhibition focuses on his remarkable portraits in bronze of Welshmen who achieved greatness in all walks of life (December 7, 2013 — May 11, 2014).
Poetry, romanticism and myth in art takes inspiration from American writer, Allen Ginsberg’s poem Wales Visitation at another exhibition Wales: A Visitation, using works from the Museum’s collection to explore modern and contemporary forms of romanticism. Ginsberg visited Wales in 1967 and after taking lSD explored the Welsh countryside. His experience inspired his poem Wales Visitation which drew on an imagined Celtic past and the landscape and folklore of Wales. The featured artists in this exhibition are David Jones, Richard long, Graham Sutherland and Clare Woods. Supported by the Colwinston Charitable Trust (February 22 — September 7, 2014).
Colwinston Charitable Trust also supports a new installation by Andrea Büttner combining two diverse collections held at National Museum Cardiff — the drawings of Gwen John from the art collections and moss from the herbarium.
One of Constable’s most famous paintings Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows will also be on loan to the museum at the Tate Gallery for six months. The display and a series of related events will be supported by the Heritage lottery Fund and the Art Fund. (March 7 — September 7, 2014)
During his brief and tragic life, the Welsh artist James Dickson Innes (1887-1914) painted a unique vision of the Welsh landscape in an intensely colourful post-impressionist style. Marking the centenary of the artist’s death, the exhibition landscapes by JD Innes: Beauty Most Wild will shed new light on the work of this neglected artist (April 12 — July 20, 2014)
Efforts and Ideals: Prints of the First World War is a display of all 66 lithographs from the 1917 print portfolio The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals, commissioned by the Ministry of Information. They provide a fascinating representation of Britain’s war objectives, military activities and effort on the home front, and include some of the best-known British artists of the period such as Augustus John, Frank Brangwyn, William Rothenstein and CRW Nevinson. (August 2 — January, 2015)
The Artes Mundi 6 exhibition will be presented for 17 weeks at the National Museum of Art, Chapter and other locations around Cardiff from October 25, 2014. The Artes Mundi 6 Prize will be awarded on January 22, 2015. Ten artists from eight countries have been shortlisted coming from the UK, USA, Portugal, Israel, Croatia, Iceland, Brazil and the Netherlands. The winner will be announced in 2015 and receive £40,000.