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GRAPHICS by CERI RICHARDS,
1903 - 1971.
(born in Dunvant near Swansea, trained at
the Swansea School of Art 1921-24 and
the Royal College of Art 1924-27).

In the preface to the catalogue of the 1979 exhibition on CERI RICHARDS GRAPHICS at the National Museum of Wales, Stanley Jones wrote: "...Ceri Richards was one of the first important artists asked by Robert Erskine [St. George's Gallery] to begin work on limited edition prints, with the ideas created specially for this kind of publication.
Apart from book illustrations and posters, early examples of Ceri's work were produced in art colleges where he taught - particularly at the Slade School of Fine Art. They were usually drawn and proofed by the artist himself and pulled in very small quantities. Often the accidents of processing would intrigue Ceri, and such discoveries would form the basis for other prints."

"Bagatelle", 1970, silkscreen print, 57x78cm

Mel Gooding wrote in 1979: "In only one of these prints [of the Beethoven Suite] is the image directly drawn, (Bagatelle) - and even here the negative image of the sheet music can be discerned in the darkness behind the pianist"

"Blossom", 1965, lithograph, 60x82cm
(copy right National Museum of Wales)

This print is related to The Force That Through The Green Fuse... the opening lines of which may be discerned on the manuscript fragment at the centre of the composition.