Welsh Journals

A WELSH ARTIST THE WORK OF MR. FRED RICHARDS, A.R.E. THE rebirth of education in Wales during the past thirty years has laid the foundations of a new national culture. Theology, Philosophy, Archaeology, Economics, Science and Poetry have already a place in the edifice, but it must be sorrow- fully admitted that hitherto the aesthetic side, with perhaps the exception of vocal music, is almost entirely absent. Beauty in Art and in Craft is a closed book to the great majority of our countrymen. Now that educational reconstruction is in the air one may express the hope that the claims of Aesthetics ih a complete scheme of education shall not be overlooked. Welshmen are by no means insensitive to the imaginative appeal, neither, especially in literature, do they lack an appreciation of form," and good craftsmanship. The very structure of our allitera- tive poetry is based on an extraordinary sensitive- ness to perfection of form. At two stages, at least, in the history of Wales the practice of good crafts- manship in wood and stone was not lacking. In the 7th and 8th centuries the craftsmen of Wales, in common with their Celtic cousins in Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland, showed proof of a sense of design and of good workmanship in the orna- mentation of memorial monuments which has given, to the so-called Celtic Ornament of the Book of Ricemarc or Rhygfarch, the Book of Kells and the stone monuments of South Wales, a distinct place :.1 the history of ornament. Moreover, the scanty remains of Rood Screens in outlying districts of Montgomeryshire and other counties, which are unfortunately but a small proportion of what once existed, suggest that Wales, too, under the influence of local monasteries, shared to some degree the gift of good craftsmanship in wood and stone which the- mediaeval builders and craftsmen possessed in such a marked degree. Is it beyond the bounds of possibility to recreate in Wales, within our educational system, if not a school of native craftsmen, at any rate a more general appreciation of good craftsmanship, in wood, in stone, in colour, in the etched or engraved plate, the printed page or the bound book? The Welsh National Museum has already set its face to accom- plish this end by its admirable temporary exhibitions, and its no less excellent series of lectures on Art. When the war is over, with the co-operation of the University College and the Intermediate Schools, it should be possible to extend the scope of the Museum's operations by arranging a series of lectures and exhibitions in as many centres as possible throughout Wales. The teaching of Art in the various Schools of Art as well as in all the other Schools of Wales, requires careful consideration and if necessary, re-organisation. It is only by an organised and sustained effort that this defect in our national culture can be remedied, so that Wales may one day take her place by the side of the other small nations of Europe-Greece, Holland, Belgium- in the cultivation of a widespread love and practice of the fine arts. These reflections have been suggested by the con- templation of the work and career of a young Welsh artist and craftsman, Mr. Fred Richards, A.R.E., characteristic examples of two phases of whose work, of necessity greatly reduced in size, are reproduced in this number. Mr. Richards has already gained for himself a well established reputation as an accomplished etcher and draughtsman and a de- signer of decorative ornament of exceptional merit. His achievements and his ideals appear to be of special interest at this present juncture in relation to art education in Wales. First of all, the develop- ment of Mr. Richards' natural gifts is to a large extent due to the wise and. generous policy of the Newport Education Committee, in the evening classes of whose Art School his promise as a draughtsman was discovered. The Committee not only granted him extended vacations during the summer, which he might spend abroad sketching, but awarded him a Scholarship for three years at the Royal College of Art. Two Education Authori- ties in Wales at least have already awarded special scholarships in art to students of exceptional promise- Glamorgan to Miss Margaret Lindsay Williams, and Newport to Mr. Richards. The obvious result of this policy in both these cases should prove an object lesson to other Welsh Education Authorities when any pupil of conspicuous promise in the Arts is discovered in the schools. Secondly, Mr. Richards is not only an artist of exceptional technical skill, but he has the imaginative vision of a seer, and the enthusiastic spirit of a true missionary. He is imbued with the ideals of Ruskin and of William Morris, and with them he realises the vital need of educating the nation into a sense of the beautiful in all aspects of life. Especially is he insistent on good craftsmanship in book pro- duction, and he has already, through the sympathetic