Ernest Zobole

Ernest was born in April 1927, in Ystrad Rhondda in South Wales/UK, an important coal mining area at that time. His parents had emigrated from Italy in about 1910 to settle here. The Rhondda Valley and its industry was a melting pot of peoples from all over Europe, which was re-aligning itself after the First World War. From 1948-53 he studied for a Fine Arts degree at Cardiff College of Art and became one of the major representatives of the so-called Rhondda Group. Although Zobole lived and worked in a number of places in Wales, he spent most of his life in Ystrad Rhondda, where he died in 1999. For more details of his life and work click HERE (in Welsh, English, Italian or German).

Artist's Staments: "Painting is a part of my life...your breathing I suppose...it is part of what you're about...part of your thinking. It sounds a bit lofty to say that this thing called painting is the whole reason for existing, and if I say yes it is, then accept the fact that I have a lofty thought. The imagery for the work is taken from my immediate surroundings - the house, the outside landscape, and the landscape seen through doors and windows. The outside and inside come together in places. The system used in painting parallels one we use naturally, in that when we examine any situation, we look around or turn our heads, or move our eyes, or more likely, do all three. The differing viewpoints we take in help us build some kind of picture. In making use of these differing viewpoints, plan views, side elevations, end elevations and perspectives are used; eye levels vary, scale varies and emphasis varies; there is also time and memory".

Teaching Experience: 1953-57 teacher in Llangefni Anglesey; 1957-63 teacher in Aberdare & Treorchy; 1963-84 painting lecturer at Newport Art School.

Awards: 1965 Welsh Arts Council bursary; 1968 prize winner at WALES NOW group exhibition; 1996 Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales Swansea; 2001 posthumous doctorate by the University of Glamorgan.

Commissions: 1967 design for the Welsh Arts Council's poster print scheme; 1974 Painting for the foyer of the Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Retrospective Exhibitions: 2004 touring exhibition in Newport Museum & Art Gallery/Gwent, The National Library of Wales/Aberystwyth; 2005 Royal Cambrian Academy/Conwy; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery/Swansea. For a full assessment CLICK here.
The National Museum of Wales has made (amongst others) the following loan of a Zobole painting to a museum abroad: People & Ystrad by Ernest Zobole to the Wales European Centre, Brussels. Initial 3 year loan