| Biography
Born Dunvant, South Wales. Left school 1919 to be apprenticed to a local electrical engineering firm, but attended art classes. Studied Swansea School of Art, 1921-4. Royal college of Art 1924-7. Picasso and Matisse work influenced him. 1927-8, worked as an illustrator for the London Press Association. 1930, first one-man show at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea. Richards was associated with the Objective Abstractions group, Surrealist group and L.G. during the 1930s. First one-man show at Leger Gallery, 1942. Head of Cardiff School of Art, 1940-4. Involved in many projects during 1950s and 60s such as his painting Trafalgar Square for the 1951 Festival of Britain, the design of two stained glass windows for Derby Cathedral and lithographs to accompany poems by Dylan Thomas. Taught at Chelsea Polytechnic, 1947-57, the Slade School, 1955-8 and the Royal College of art, 1958-60. Awarded Gold Medal at the National Eisteddfod in 1961 and the Einaudi Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale, 1962. Tate Gallery which hold his work, put on a major exhibition in 1981. Important show in 2002 at the National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff. Pallant House Gallery, Chicester, a centenary exhibition, 2003. The Mayor Gallery, Five decades of works on paper, 2004. |
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