William Wilkins C.B.E.
William Wilkins was born in 1938. On his mother’s side, he is descended from the doctors of Myddfai of Welsh legend. He is the great-grandson of the architect of the National Gallery in London. Brought up in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, he trained at Swansea College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London.
Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s he had a series of sensationally successful exhibitions in leading New York and London galleries. At that time Hilton Kramer, the New York Times art critic, wrote under the headline ‘British Artist Dazzles’ - “There is something both very modest and very courageous in Mr. Wilkins’ art. And something very refreshing, too. Against all the empty-headed injunctions of modern ideology, he dared to be himself, to go his own way. Bravo!”
William Wilkins is a pointilliste, building up an image from a series of tiny dots of paint, in the style of Seurat. This is a painstakingly slow process, and necessarily means very few paintings are produced. William is also the founder chairman of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, Project Director of Middleton National Botanic Garden of Wales, Former Director of the Aberglasney Restoration Trust, and Chairman of the Artes Mundi Prize, therefore he does not get as much time to paint as he would like.
Ganwyd William Wilkins ym 1938. Olynai o ochr teulu ei fam o feddygon Myddfai yr oesoedd canol. William yw gorwyr pensaer yr Oriel Genedlaethol yn Llundain. Wedi’i fagu yn Sir Gaerfyrddin a Sir Benfro, addysgwyd yng ngholeg celf Abertawe ac yn y Coleg Brenhinol, Llundain.
Trwy’r 1970au a’r 1980au cafodd gyfres o arddangosfeydd llwyddiannus iawn yn orielau blaenaf Efrog Newydd a Llundain. Ysgrifennwyd amdano gan Hilton Kramer, critic celf y New York Times, o dan y penawd ‘British Artist Dazzles’ - “There is something both very modest and very courageous in Mr. Wilkins’ art. And something very refreshing, too. Against all the empty-headed injunctions of modern ideology, he dared to be himself, to go his own way. Bravo!”
Piontilliste yw William, adeilada’r ddelwedd drwy gyfresi o ddotiau bychan o baint, yn arddull Seurat. Araf iawn yw’r broses hon ac, o’r herwydd, golyga hyn taw ond nifer fach o weithiau a gynhyrchir, ac mae arddangosfeydd undyn yn brin.
Ni chai William gymaint o amser ag yr hoffai i beintio, oherwydd ei gyfrifoldebau eraill, gan gynnwys cadeirydd y ‘Welsh Historic Gardens Trust’, cyfarwyddwr gerddi Botanegol Cymru, cyn-gyfarwyddwr yr ‘Aberglasney Restoration Trust‘ a cadeirydd gwobr yr Artes Mundi.
Solo Exhibitions
2008 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff
2007 Buildings and Landscapes, National Botanic Garden of Wales
2006 Piccadilly Gallery, London
2004 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff
2000 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff
1994 Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York
1991 Piccadilly Gallery, London
1989 Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea
1988 Albemarle Gallery, London
1987 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
1986 Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida
1985 Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
1984 Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York
1983 12 Duke Street Gallery, London
1981 Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York
1979 Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York
1977 Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York
1975 Langton Gallery, London
1975 University College, Swansea
1973 British Institute, Warsaw
1972 Covent Garden Gallery, London
1972 Welsh Arts Council, Cardiff
1971 University College, Cardiff
1970 University College of Wales, Aberystwyth
Selected Group Exhibitions
2004 Artes Cambria, Martin Tinney Gallery
1996/07 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff
1987/88 ‘The Self-Portrait: A Modern View’, Artsite, Bath and touring.
1987 Gruenebaum Gallery, New York
1986 Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, ‘Intimate
and Intense - The New Genre of Painting’
1985 Leinster Gallery, London, Critics Choice
1985 Andrew Knight Gallery, Cardiff, ‘Painting in Wales: 1850 - 1980’
1976 Welsh Arts Council, Cardiff, ‘The Probity of Art’
1976 Allan Stone Gallery, New York
1975 Elected member of 56 Group Wales - exhibitions in England, Scotland,
Wales, Ireland, France, Italy and Czechoslovakia
1974 Agnews, London
1974 Roland, Browse & Delbanco
1973 Covent Garden Gallery, London
Awards
1971 Welsh Arts Council Bursary
1978 Welsh Arts Council Grant
1980 First International Artist in Residence, Artists for the Environment Foundation,
Delaware Water Gap National Park, New Jersey
1980 Ingram Merrill Foundation Grant
1993 Royal Cambrian Academician
1993 Honorary Research Associate, St. David’s University College, Lampeter
2001 Honorary Fellow, Royal Institute of British Architects
2001 Honorary Fellow, Trinity College, Carmarthen
2002 Honorary Fellow, Swansea Institute of Higher Education
2003 Chancellor’s Medal, Glamorgan University
2003 Honorary Fellow, University of Wales Institute Cardiff
2003 Awarded C.B.E.
2007 Honorary Fellow, Cardiff University
Selected Bibliography
A.G. Rhys: ‘Tynnu at a golau’, Barn, August 1996
William Wilkins: ‘The True Expression of the Subject’, Art and Design, June 1988
Marina Vaizey: Critics Choice, Sunday Times 31.1.88
Charles Jencks: ‘Post Modernism’, Academy Editions, 1988
Sean Kelly/Edward Lucie-Smith: ‘The Self Portrait A Modern View’ Sarema Press 1987
Charles Jencks : ‘The Classical Sensibility’ Art and Design, August 1987
Rosalind Roberts : ‘Radiating the Otherness’ Status, April 1987
John Russell Taylor: The Times, 24.5.83
Eric Rowan: ‘Painting in Wales 1850-1980’ University of Wales Press
Hilton Kramer: New York Times, 9.10.81
Elizabeth Dipple: ‘The Work of William Wilkins’, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery 1981
Hilton Kramer: ‘The Work of William Wilkins - Miniaturist of Light’, New York Times, 19.10.79
Gerrit Henry: Art News, January 1978
Hilton Kramer: ‘New British Painter Dazzles’, The New York Times 28.10.77
Public Collections
National Museum of Wales
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
Welsh Arts Council, Cardiff
University College of Wales Aberystwyth
University College Swansea
Contemporary Arts Society of Wales
Private collections worldwide
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The Welsh Art Specialists Arbenigwyr Celf Cymreig Copyright 2007 Martin Tinney Gallery.