"Look!"
Oil on cavas - 5x4ft (2007) |
"Horse
Girl" Oil on canvas - 5x4 ft (2007) |
"Mad
as Birds" Oil
on cavas - 5x4ft (2007) |
"Angel"
Oil on cavas - 5x4ft (2007) |
| REVIEW
OF THE WORK OF
KEITH BAYLISS
by
Malcolm Parr
Baudelaire wrote of truly imaginative artists that "nature
is nothing but a dictionary. There one looks up the meaning
of words, the formation of words; here one finds all the elements
that make up a phrase or a story, but no one has ever viewed
a dictionary in the practical sense of the word. Painters who
follow their imagination look in their dictionary for the elements
that match their idea; by adapting them with a certain art they
give them an entirely new look. Those who have no imagination
copy the dictionary.Keith Bayliss threw the dictionary
away years ago. When he had his first one-man show in Swansea
in 1980 he was praised for his strong, confident stylised line
drawings (usually portraits) in pencil or ink, with the occasional
use of watercolour. Some of these were extremely delicate and
sensitive and sold well. Since then something has happened,
something disturbing which, admittedly, had subtly suggested
itself already at the first exhibition. Pandora has opened the
box sufficiently wide to let out cruelty, satire, grotesqueness,
mystery - all there suggested through the human figure (male
and female, hermaphrodite) hideously distorted, jagged, foetal,
mutilated, often locked in hieratic gestures of daunting ferocity. |
"Young Poet" -
oil on canvas - 50 x 21in (2007)
|
 "and
this" - oil on canvas - 183cm x 170cm (2004) |
|
|
"Bayliss
is drawn to the mystical conversations in odd settings of
early Renaissance Annunciations. There are intimate silences
between the figures in his work, but the paintings in particular
suggest wordless dialogues, with figures present or obliqely
symbolised."
Peter
Wakelin |
|
|
"Two
Heads " - oil on canvas - 3x4ft (2007) |
"Journey"
- oil on canvas - 6x5ft (2007) |
.JPG)
"Journey"
-(detail) |
|
"Love"
- oil on canvas - 122cm x 91cm |
"standing head" - oil on canvas
- 122cm x 91cm (2004) |
|
First
Flight 38x15x15cm (2006) |
|
Spirit
of a Frugal Meal 38x15x15cm (2006) |
|
Keith
Bayliss was born in Swansea in 1954 and educated
at Swansea College of Art in 1973. He also studied
at Sheffield City Polytechnic (faculty of Art & Design),
graduating in 1977 with a B.A.(Hons) Fine Art.
Selected Exhibitions
Since 1995
1995
- 6: Intimate Portraits, Glynn
Vivian Art Gallery and Mostyn Art Gallery - Featuring Contemporary
artists in Wales, as exhibitor & co-ordinator.
1996
- 7: Boxes, Touring Group Show
of box art.
1996:
Voyages: works
on paper; Keith bayliss, William Brown &
Malcolm Parr. Narodni Kulturni Pamatka Vysehrad, Prague,
Czech Republic.
1998:
La Bise Touring Group Show.
1998
- 9: FAUST Touring Group Show,
Germany.
1999:
Dreaming Awake, Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre.
2001:
Five Artists from Wales, Brugge, Belgium.
2001
- 2: Dreaming Awake exhibition
tour of the Czech Republic Group show; Keith Bayliss, William
Brown, Tony Goble, Iwan Bala, Roger Moss, Clive Hicks-Jenkins,
Jaroslav Mykisa and photographer Bernard Mitchell.
2005
"as
if by magic..." a
one man show of recent works in oil on paper and larger
works in oil on canvas. Including responses to poetry, by
David Greenslade, Dylan Thomas, David Woolley and Pablo
Neruda at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.
2006 "La Maison Hantee,
The Haunted House, Ty Sgrech" Keith Bayliss
& William Brown. "We are both the haunters and
the haunted" An exhibition of recent paintings, graphic
works and constructions. Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.
2006 "Orbis Pictus: Europa"
Inaugural exhibition of the new European Group initiative
at the VOJNA Memorial Pribram, Czech Republic.
2007 "Drawn Together"
Keith Bayliss, Petr Jochmann, Peter Jonckheere. An exhibition
of drawings by the artists from Flanders - Belgium, Moravia
- Czech Republic and Wales - Britain. Pontardawe Arts Centre,
Wales. Touring to Belgium and the Czech Republic.
|
Untitled -
oil on canvas - 183 x 152cm
|
|
Publications:
Keith Baylisshas
written articles for Scolastic Publications, Art &
Craft Magazine on numerous projects and workshops
in Primary education.
He has written
for BARN Welsh language cultural magazine on,
among others, Josef Herman,
Fred Janes, John Piper and the Dreaming Awake exhibition.
Keith Bayliss has
produced and published Me, Myself, I and Image and
Word, school and community project publications.
Serious Games,
published by Swansea Poetry Workshop.
White Voices,
published by Old Stile Press, Tintern. |
|
|
Selected
Involvements:
Developed
the Community Art Service for the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery,
Swansea.
Has
devised numerous school and community projects, festivals
(including the Ceri Richards Festival) and workshop programmes,
working with all areas of education, the elderly, special
needs and those with disability.
Has
developed and co-ordinated numerous exhibitions, including:
The Festival of Czech & Slovak Surrealists,
1998, Swansea.
Poem in October - Two Belgian Artists and a
Writer, Swansea 1995 (part of the U.K. Festival of Literature.
Intimate Portraits, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery,
Swansea.
The
Visual Word: An exhibition of Responses. Swansea Arts
Workshop & Old Library, Cardiff. Part of the U.K. Festival
of Literature. |
|
"Swsana"
-
oil on canvas - 152 x 183cm |
|
|
|
Emailbaylis206@tiscali.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
