Ivor Davies is a Welsh-speaking, Welsh artist born in Treharris, in November 1935. He currently lives and works in

Penarth Penarth (, ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg), Wales, exactly south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay. Penarth is a weal ...

. As a boy Davies went to

County School. He studied at

Cardiff College of Art Cardiff School of Art & Design (CSAD) is one of the five schools that comprise Cardiff Metropolitan University. It originated as the Cardiff School of Art in 1865. History Cardiff School of Art & Design opened in 1865 as the Cardiff School of S ...

and Swansea College of Art between 1952 and 1957, and then from 1959 to 1961 studied at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He then began teaching at the University of Wales before moving on to the University of Edinburgh, where he also completed a PhD on the Russian avant-garde. Davies finally retired from teaching at the Gwent College of Higher Education in 1988. He was elected Vice-President of the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1995 and is a member of

The Welsh Group ) , image = , image_border = , size = 200px , alt = , abbreviation = , motto = , formation = 1948 , type = Visual arts , location = Wales , membership = ~40 , website www.thewelshgroup-ar ...

. He was made an MBE in the 2007 New Year Honours list. At the 2002

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

he won the Gold Medal for Fine Art.

Artwork

Davies is passionate about the culture, language and politics of Wales, which inspire his artwork. For a number of years he has sponsored the ''Ivor Davies Award'' at '' Y Lle Celf'' (''Art Space'' in Welsh), at the

, for an artwork "that conveys the spirit of activism in the struggle for language, culture and politics in Wales". Davies' early works in the 1960s used explosives as an expression of society's destructive nature. Davies took part in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London in 1966. More recent work has included painting, installations; he has also designed and installed a mosaic of

Saint David Saint David ( cy, Dewi Sant; la, Davidus; ) was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw (now St Davids) during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail ab ...

at Westminster Cathedral. A major retrospective exhibition of his work from the 1940s onwards, ''Ivor Davies: Silent Explosion'', opened at National Museum Cardiff in 2015. This was the largest exhibition dedicated to the work of a single contemporary artist ever held in Wales.

References

* BBC 2007 New Year's Honours lis

* BBC News report on Ivor Davies winning the Gold Medal in Fine Art at the National Eisteddfod of Wale

* BBC Wales article, Framing Wale

* BBC Welsh language report by the artist, Cadw'r Chwedlau'n Fyw/Keeping Mythology Aliv

* BBC National Museum Wales Art Collectio

*

– Ivor Davies Awar

*

, Lle Cel

* Royal Cambrian Academy of Art overview of the artis

* Royal Cambrian Academy of Art members overvie

*

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

article, Byd o Liw/World of Colour (English translation from the original Welsh

*

list of contributors to their series Tywysogion/Prince

*

– Gold Medal Winner 200

*Review of art at Westminster Cathedral, including Ivor Davies' mosaic of St. David, by Germaine Greer, The Guardian, Sunday 19 September 201

Hard copy references *Certain Welsh Artists by Iwan Bala. Publisher: Seren (1 July 1999); (includes many references and illustrations of the artist's work on various pages throughout the book)

*Stephen Bann – "Ivor Davies – Recent Works", (touring catalogue), Clwyd County Council (1991). *Ivor Davies – "Notes towards the Definition of the Artist: Ivor Davies explores the indigenous roots of his work', Planet – The Welsh Internationalist Magazine, No.106 pp.40–48 (1994). *Jan Morris & Ivor Davies – "Ivor Davies – Legends from the White Book", (touring catalogue) Wolseley Fine Arts Ltd., London (1998). *Ivor Davies, 'Politics of the Picturesque Cambrian Landscape' (short history & background of the artist's life), in City Scape & Land Shape, a symposium; published by Cumbrian College of Art & Design, pp. 1–20 (2001). * Welsh Artist Talking" - interview by Tony Curtis, (Seren, 2000)

External Artist's Profile links

*The Welsh Grou

*Royal Cambrian Academ

*Art in Wales websit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Ivor 1935 births Living people Members of The Welsh Group People from Treharris People from Penarth 20th-century Welsh painters 20th-century Welsh male artists 21st-century Welsh painters 21st-century Welsh male artists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Welsh Eisteddfod Gold Medal winners Members of the Order of the British Empire Welsh contemporary artists Welsh male painters