Kyffin Williams
Kyffin Williams was born on Anglesey, North Wales, in 1918. He attended Shrewsbury School and after being recommended to take up art for the sake of his health, he went to study at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1941-1944.
He was the Senior Art Master at Highgate School, London from 1944 to 1973. During that time, Kyffin travelled, as a Winston Churchill Fellow to Patagonia in 1968. From this trip, he created an extraordinary group of paintings which have been exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1973, he returned to live and work in his native North Wales.
Kyffin Williams has become known as an artist who took Wales and her people as his inspiration. In remaining true to subjects offered by his native land, he has undoubtedly made a unique contribution to the tradition of British landscape painting, and has become the adopted father of contemporary Welsh art.
Kyffin Williams has received many honours, which acknowledge both his own outstanding work and the generosity he has shown towards other artists. The University of Wales, the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorian and the Contemporary Art Society of Wales are all among bodies who have conferred honours on him. He was a senior Royal Academician, and was President of the Royal Cambrian Academy for many years. In 1982, he was awarded an OBE for services to the Arts, and in the New Year Honours list 2000, Kyffin was honoured with a knighthood by Her Majesty the Queen.
Towards the end of Kyffin's life, he battled away with cancer, which sadly took his life in 2006. We miss him enormously, but his legacy of extra-ordinary paintings lives on. In honour of his life and work, Thackeray Gallery hosted a Memorial (non-selling) Retrospective Exhibition in 2007.
Kyffin Williams exhibited with Thackeray Gallery from 1968 and we continue to represent his work.
