From Wales

A Welsh Arts Council and Scottish Arts Council exhibition.

From Wales (1977) was a survey show presenting the work of six artists living and working in Wales: Barrie Cook, John Gingell, Harry Holland, Glyn Jones, David Nash and John Selway. The exhibition began in response to a Scottish Arts Council request for a contemporary exhibition from Wales. The selectors were Rollo Charles, Keeper of Art at the National Museum of Wales, and Adviser Peter Jones. The structure of the show was determined by the decision that each artist should have enough space to show a significant body of work, but that only work produced in the last two years would be eligible, and that each artist must have been living and working in Wales during the period. There was a strong awareness that only a small part of what is happening in the Principality could be shown and that the exhibition’s audience should be urged to regard this as a miniature anthology. Rollo Charles died suddenly just before the exhibition opened, and the catalogue essay by Peter Jones is dedicated to him.

‘On behalf of the Welsh Arts Council, I would also like to express gratitude to the Scottish Arts Council for this opportunity to share an aesthetic experience with a sister country of Celtic origins…

This exhibition was the last project that Rollo Charles and I worked on together. Through it I shall remember his complete integrity, his love for art and his great sympathy towards and his understanding of its creators.’ – Peter Jones, Cardiff, March 1977