Martin Tinney celebrates five years at St. Andrew's Crescent with an exhibition of important 20th Century and Contemporary Welsh Art from 21st September - 20th October.

If you haven’t been to the Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff’s St Andrew’s Place then it is a visit all Welsh art lovers should certainly make. The envy of many other galleries, its polished floors and knocked-through, wide-open, brilliant-white space radiates light to provide a pristine setting for the art. 

The first exhibition held at the gallery was a survey of twentieth century Welsh art, and to celebrate its fifth anniversary this theme is being revisited. Over the years Martin Tinney has been collecting precisely with this exhibition in mind. As he says, ‘it is probably the best selection of Welsh art ever put up for sale in one collection’. Living artists have specially put work aside for this and, adds  Tinney, ‘ergo, if nothing else, will ensure their best work is side by side with historic artists’.

There are several Ceri Richards, in particular a 1930’s construction, three pieces of James Dixon Innes, all very rare,’ he explains. ‘The Cedric Morris oil of flowers hung in The Tate in 1998, is one of his best - he was a great gardener, and that appreciation really comes through. And a lovely David Jones watercolour of Caldey Bay, very delicate, is typical of the artist.’ Several of these works are evocative of a different era, a typical 1940’s work by Eric Malthouse and a ‘gem of an oil’ by Graham Sutherland. Many of the pictures are major pieces of work by seminal Welsh artists - for instance John Piper’s original painting of St. David’s from which the popular print was taken.

There are a few portraits too: an early Kyffin Williams portrait of a Mr Thomas, done whilst he was still at The Slade is reassuring in its familiarity. His well-known style is already evident; it couldn’t be by anybody else. Included also is a very distinctive self-portrait by Peter Prendergast.

Alongside these hang the works of the artists of today: Emrys Williams, winner of the Gold Medal in fine art at this year’s National Eisteddfod. Gwilym Prichard, in Tinney’s view ‘the foremost landscape painter in Wales Today’, Claudia Williams, Shani Rhys James, Kevin Sinnott, to name just a few.

‘In recent years the modern British art market has boomed, and these Welsh artists are part of that,’ Tinney adds, and his gallery certainly embodies the new found confidence of twenty-first century Wales:‘There is a new confidence in the Welsh market, a maturation. From my knowledge and observation I would expect much of this work to stay in Wales. This is a marked change in attitude and shows a new self-confidence. There has always been an element of low expectation in Wales, but now there is a feeling that Welsh artists are as good as any. Some of the best known artists in Britain have done their very finest work here in Wales – Sutherland and Piper are just two examples. To have this sale here and expect these works to stay here is a sign of that new confidence.’

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