Merlyn Oliver Evans

Merlyn Oliver Evans (born March 13, 1910 in Cardiff , Wales , † October 31, 1973 in London , England ) was a Welsh painter and printmaker . He is one of the most important representatives of abstract painting after the Second World War .

Life

Merlyn Evans studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1927 to 1931 , and from 1932 to 1934 at the Royal College of Art in London . During this time he went on extensive study trips to Paris , Berlin , Copenhagen and Italy . In 1934 he became an art teacher at Wilson's Grammar School in Camberwell for some time .

Merlyn Evans worked as both a painter and a printmaker. He always understood graphics as an extension of the possibilities of painting. From 1935 Evans was a member of the Royal Institute of Philosophy . He was also interested in questions of aesthetics , optical research and shape theory - topics that he also processed in his art.

Evans studied Cubism while studying in Glasgow . He was introduced to the techniques of metal engraving by the Scottish artist Charles Murray (1894–1954) . In 1936 Merlyn Evans exhibited at the International Surrealist Exhibition in London. In 1938 he moved to South Africa and became a visiting professor at the Durban School of Art . During World War II he served as an engineer with the troops of South Africa and was deployed in North Africa and the Middle East . This period influenced his art enormously and he began to use ethnic elements in his work. In the late 1940s, Evans painted anti-war pictures that thematized scenes of violence from the previous war.

After the war he returned to London. He had his first exhibition at the time in the Leicester Galleries in February 1949. He attended postgraduate studies at the Central School of Arts and Crafts . There he learned the Tuschätzung the engraving and mezzotint ( mezzotint ) techniques that he used from then amplified. His painting became looser and significantly more monumental.

His art received international attention and recognition: In 1959, Merlyn Evans was a participant in documenta 2 in Kassel in the print department . In 1966 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Fine Art of the National Eisteddfod of Wales . Merlyn Evans was a lecturer at the Royal College of Art London from 1965 until his death .

literature

• Exhibition catalog for documenta II (1959) in Kassel: II.documenta'59. Art after 1945 . Catalog: Volume 1: Painting; Volume 2: Sculpture; Volume 3: Graphic Art; Text tape. Kassel / Cologne 1959

Web links

• Examples of his work
• more examples of his work
• Materials by and about Merlyn Evans in the documenta archive