Ceri Richards

A draughtsman of genius and a painter of rare energy and imagination, artist Ceri Richards is one of the most important, and underappreciated, British artists of the 20th century. In the 1930s, Richards made a numbers of relief constructions and paintings that constitute a major contribution to Surrealism and rank with the best European art of the era. In the postwar period, he developed an intensely lyrical vision of the world in which brilliant color, refracted light, and an exuberant visual music express a keen appreciation of the joy to be found in nature and the arts of music and poetry. In his accompanying text, Mel Gooding weaves together a rigorous analysis of Richard's art with an intimate account of his life, closely integrated with fine color illustrations of paintings, drawings, and constructions, as well as family photographs.