A presentation by Peter Lord and Rhian Davies will be The National Library of Wales’ contribution to the Hay Festival programme this year. On Wednesday 31 May they will look at visualizing Welsh music and musicians, which is the subject of their recent publication The Art of Music: Branding the Welsh Nation.
Once again this year, to accompany the presentation, an original painting from the National Art Collection at the Library will be exhibited during the event, namely Tad yr Arlunydd, Thomas Coslett Richards / The Artist’s Father, Thomas Coslett Richards by Ceri Richards, one of the 20th century’s most important artists.
Using images and music, Peter Lord and Rhian Davies will discuss the trope of Welsh musicality between the mid-16th century and the present, and analyze the development of the national brand of Wales and its political and social effects, particularly in relation to the idea of British identity
Pedr ap Llwyd, Chief Executive and Librarian at the National Library of Wales said:
“The Library is very proud to be part of this year’s Hay Festival again for the second time. Ceri Richards is one of the most important Welsh artists of the 20th century and we are looking forward to the opportunity to share this treasure by him, which is in the Library’s National Art Collection, with the Hay Festival audience.”
The painter Ceri Richards was closely involved with music. He painted many pictures of musicians at work, and returned frequently to the keyboard as a formal element in his pictures. His intense engagement with music is unsurprising, given his family background. His father, Thomas Coslett Richards, had been greatly involved in choral music in chapel, and was a founder of the Dunvant Male Choir. Tom Richards ensured that his children were taught music,
In 1955, Ceri painted this superb portrait of his father, two years before his death, in which he returned to the elegant realist aesthetic of his earliest portraits. The picture movingly represents the contrast between the painter’s working-class Welsh origins and the cosmopolitan international art world into which he had moved.
For more information about the event and to book a ticket visit the Hay Festival website.
