Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

A WELSH MILLET? THE WORK OF RHYS GRIFFITHS, ARCA 'ARTIST OF THE WELSH MINES' DYLAN REES Current research into the visual arts in Wales and in particular of the years before the second world war will revive interest in and restore the reputations of several relatively minor but nevertheless important figures in Welsh art history.' One of the most important of these was A(rchie) Rhys Griffiths.2 Part of the interest in Rhys Griffiths stems from his relatively humble working class origins which he translated so vividly into much of his early work: work which justly received considerable local critical acclaim between the wars. His early promise however was not fully realised and his later life was filled with sadness, disappointment and obscurity.3 My own interest in Rhys Griffiths arose almost by accident. A chance discovery of a print of Loughor Mill by Archie R. Griffiths, while having some paintings framed, kindled my curiosity.4 Initial enquiries in Loughor proved tantalisingly vague he was an artist, he was a miner, he had family in the area, he did not have any family, he lived locally, he lived away, and so on. Many remembered him but not in any detail. One interview led to the discovery that his brother lived locally and that several other engravings of the Loughor area had been produced.5 Winstone Griffiths was able to provide me with much valuable information regarding his elder brother's family and work.6 Although the family had not remained in close contact in recent years several useful leads were provided. A. Rhys Griffiths was born in Aberdare in 1902. His parents William Henry Griffith a coal miner, and his wife Sarah Jane moved to the Loughor/Gorseinon area in 1912 and settled near Penuel Chapel. They later moved and settled at 11 West Street. After leaving school the young Rhys worked in the steelworks and 'then had four years at the coal face at the Mountain Colliery'.7 As a young man he was 'wild and defiant' and opposed authority. By all accounts from an early age he showed a clear aptitude for drawing. His youthful high spirits were apparently tamed when he was given a box of paints. According to one story 'Griffiths, whose only other commission had been from a postman for daubing a few caricatures, suddenly found a release for his energies'.8 He started to exhibit work with the Swansea Art Society: an early entry was a portrait of a Gowerton schoolgirl. This work by an 'unknown' clearly impressed the art critic of the Herald of Wales, who remembered vividly the impact it made on