The Welsh Group

The Welsh Group (Welsh: Y Grŵp Cymreig) is an artists' collective, with the purpose of exhibiting and "giving a voice" to the visual arts in Wales.^[1]

Beginnings

The group began in 1948 as the South Wales Group, consisting of both professional and amateur artists.^[2][3][4][5] The group's initial conception was a response to the Royal Cambrian Academy's relatively weak representation from south Wales at that time.^[6] In the foreword to the South Wales Group’s first exhibition catalogue, David Bell wrote "It is the purpose of the Group to establish a new link between the artists of South Wales and their public".^[5]

During the 1960s the South Wales Group had begun exhibiting further afield in north and mid Wales and into Bristol and Shrewsbury. The group adopted its current, broader title of The Welsh Group by 1975,^[1] by which time it had also become a fully professional artists' group and, though its south east tendency is still an issue of some contention, the group had expanded its membership beyond south Wales^[5] (including a number who are also members of the Royal Cambrian Academy and/or the 56 Group Wales, a splinter group initiated in 1956 when the South Wales Group failed to become a southern Academy).^[1][5]

21st century

An exhibition curated and researched by Welsh Group member Dr Ceri Thomas and funded by

Membership

Full membership is made up of approximately 40 Welsh or Wales-based artists,^[3][5] including:^[13]

The chair is Paul Edwards, the secretary Neil Stone and the treasurer Heather Eastes.^[14] Since 2002, with the deaths of a number of long lasting members, new members were elected, resulting in a greater gender balance and an increase in members from outside Cardiff.

From 2007 the group has included a graduate member^[5] and in 2012 artist Tiff Oben began a three-year Fellowship with the group.^[15]

Former members have included major names from the field of modern Welsh art including Peter Bailey,[3] William Brown,^[16] Brenda Chamberlain,^[1] Mary Fogg,^[17] Arthur Giardelli,^[18] Tony Goble,^[19] Bert Isaac,^[20] John Petts,^[1] David Tinker,^[21] Islwyn Watkins,^[22] Laurie Williams^[3] and Ernest Zobole.^[3][23]

Publications

• Eastes, Heather; et al. (2014). Yma ac Acw / Hier und Da / Here and There. The Welsh Group / BBK Düsseldorf.
  ISBN 9780956086723
  .
• Moore, David (2018). Y Grŵp Cymreig yn 70 / The Welsh Group at 70. Crooked Window / Ffenest Gam.
  ISBN 9780956086730
  .
• Thomas, Ceri (2009). Mapping The Welsh Group at 60. Llantrisant: Diglot Books.
  ISBN 9780956086709
  .
• Wakelin, Peter (1999). Creu cymuned o arlunwyr: 50 mlynedd o'r Grŵp Cymreig/Creating an art community: 50 years of the Welsh Group. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.
  ISBN 0-7200-0472-1
  .