Mae’r deunaw mis diwethaf wedi bod yn gyfnod heriol i’r byd i gyd: pandemig Covid-19, yr anghyfiawnder cymdeithasol a amlygwyd gan ymgyrch Mae Bywydau Du o Bwys, ac argyfwng hinsawdd sy’n teimlo’n gynyddol apocalyptaidd. Ar adeg fel hon, efallai eich bod chi’n dechrau amau beth yw gwerth celf.

Yn achos fy nghydweithwyr a minnau yn Amgueddfa Cymru, caiff y ddealltwriaeth bod celf yn bwysig i’n llesiant ac yn ffordd rymus o archwilio a mynegi syniadau ei hatgyfnerthu gan ein projectau Celf ar y Cyd, a ddatblygwyd i rannu’r celfyddydau ledled Cymru mewn ymateb i’r argyfwng iechyd. Rydyn ni wedi bod yn mynd â chelf i ysbytai i gefnogi staff a chleifion y GIG yn ystod y pandemig, ac fe sefydlon ni gylchgrawn ar-lein o’r enw Cynfas fel llwyfan newydd ar gyfer ymatebion creadigol a beirniadol i gasgliad celf Amgueddfa Cymru.

Mae llawer o’r gwaith celf ddefnyddion ni ar gyfer y projectau hyn wedi cyrraedd Amgueddfa Cymru gyda chefnogaeth elusen y Gronfa Gelf (artfund.org). Mae’r Gronfa Gelf wedi bod yn helpu’r Amgueddfa i gaffael gwaith ar gyfer casgliad celf cenedlaethol Cymru ers 1928, ac maent wedi bod yn gefnogwr allweddol drwy gydol y cyfnod clo wrth i ni barhau i weithio ar ddatblygu’r casgliad. Dyma rai enghreifftiau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magdalene Odundo, Anghymesur I, 2016, teracota
Prynwyd gyda chefnogaeth y Gronfa Gelf ac Ymddiriedolaeth Derek Williams
© Magdalene Odundo

 

I Magdalene Odundo, mae ei photiau’n cyfleu iaith ddynol fyd-eang. Mae gan Anghymesur I gymeriad anthropomorffig cryf, sy’n ymddangos fel pe bai’n cyfeirio at gorff benywaidd beichiog ac yn addo bywyd newydd. Gan dynnu ar draddodiadau Affricanaidd, mae’n pwysleisio grym potiau i wella ac i goffáu’r meirw, gan droi’r llestr hwn yn wrthrych huawdl i’r oes sydd ohoni.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henri le Sidaner, Y Tŷ (La Maison), dim dyddiad, olew ar banel
Cymynrodd Daphne Llewellin o Frynbuga gyda chefnogaeth y Gronfa Gelf

 

Un nodwedd a amlygwyd yn ystod y pandemig oedd y cysur mae pobl yn ei gael o fyd natur ac o fyw yn yr eiliad. Mae tri phaentiad bach Ffrengig o ddiwedd y 19^eg ganrif a gaffaelwyd drwy’r Gronfa Gelf yn enghreifftiau da o sut mae artistiaid wedi bod yn arbennig o dda am hyn. Yn Y Tŷ, mae Henri Le Sidaner yn creu ymdeimlad o eiliad dawel o fyfyrio. Gallwch ddychmygu’r artist yn dabio paent yn gyflym ar draws ei banel bach i gyfleu’r golau a adlewyrchir oddi ar ffenestri a drws y tŷ hwn sydd wedi’i orchuddio â gwinwydd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Delance, Traeth â Ffigyrau’n Eistedd (La côte déserte), 1900, olew ar banel
Cymynrodd Daphne Llewellin o Frynbuga gyda chefnogaeth y Gronfa Gelf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Delance, Golygfa o Fryn, Sannois, Seine-et-Oise, 1890au, olew ar banel
Cymynrodd Daphne Llewellin o Frynbuga gyda chefnogaeth y Gronfa Gelf

 

Yn Traeth â Ffigyrau’n Eistedd (La côte déserte) gan Paul Delance, gallwn deimlo’r artist yn gweithio’n gyflym ar draeth gwyntog ar arfordir Môr yr Iwerydd yn Ffrainc er mwyn cofnodi ymweliad iachusol â glan y môr gyda chyfeillion. Mae Golygfa o Fryn, Sannois, Seine-et-Oise yn waith personol iawn arall ganddo, y credir iddo gael ei baentio ar ôl marwolaeth ei wraig ym 1892, ac sy’n ei ddangos yn troi at gelf a natur fel ffynonellau cysur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Sandby, Llyn Llanberis, Castell Dolbadarn a’r Wyddfa (Llanberis Lake, Castle Dol Badern and the Great Mountain Snowdon), tua 1771, gouache ar bapur.
Prynwyd gyda chefnogaeth Cronfa Goffa’r Dreftadaeth Genedlaethol, y Gronfa Gelf a chymynrodd gan Mary Cashmore
Llun © Sotheby’s

 

Mae tirwedd Cymru wedi bod yn ffynhonnell ysbrydoliaeth a phleser ers amser maith. Dyma ddarganfu Paul Sandby ym 1771, pan aeth ar daith i ogledd Cymru yng nghwmni'r tirfeddiannwr ifanc a'r noddwr celf Syr Watkin Williams-Wynn. Mae ei gyfres hyfryd o 21 golygfa o’r daith hon yn dangos bod y twristiaid arloesol yn ymhyfrydu yn eu darganfyddiad o’r tir dramatig hwn. Un uchafbwynt oedd y daith ar gwch i Gastell Dolbadarn, yng nghysgod yr Wyddfa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bernd a Hilla Becher, Gweithfeydd Paratoi, 1966-1974, printiau arian gelatin
Prynwyd gyda chefnogaeth y Gronfa Gelf ac Ymddiriedolaeth Henry Moore
© Ystâd Bernd a Hilla Becher

 

Mae treftadaeth ddiwydiannol Cymru hefyd wedi cynnig testun cyfoethog i artistiaid. Roedd yr artistiaid o’r Almaen, Bernd a Hilla Becher, yn fwyaf adnabyddus am eu teipolegau, sef ffotograffau o un math o strwythur diwydiannol wedi’u trefnu yn gridiau. Mae Gweithfeydd Paratoi, 1966-1974 yn cynnwys naw ffotograff a dynnwyd gan Bernd a Hilla ar ymweliadau â Phrydain rhwng 1966 a 1974, gan gynnwys pyllau glo’r de fel Glofeydd Penallta, Fernhill, y Brittanic a’r Tŵr. Gydag ecosystem ddiwydiannol gyfan y Cymoedd wedi diflannu erbyn hyn, mae’r delweddau hyn yn teimlo fel rhyw fath o gofeb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna Boghiguian, A meteor fell from the sky, 2018, gosodwaith amlgyfrwng
Prynwyd gyda chefnogaeth y Gronfa Gelf ac Ymddiriedolaeth Derek Williams
Diolch i'r artist.

 

Pan wahoddwyd yr artist o Cairo, Anna Boghiguian, i gymryd rhan yn arddangosfa Artes Mundi 8 yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd, fe ymdrochodd yn hanes diwydiant Cymru. Mae ei gosodwaith A meteor fell from the sky yn creu cysylltiadau rhwng Gweithfeydd Dur Tata Port Talbot a gweithfeydd dur y cwmni yn India, gan ganolbwyntio ar weithwyr dur a’u brwydr dros eu hawliau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea, 2015, gosodwaith fideo tair sianel

Wedi’i gaffael ar y cyd gyda Towner Eastbourne gyda chefnogaeth gan y Gronfa Gelf (gyda chyfraniad gan Sefydliad Wolfson), Ymddiriedolaeth Derek Williams, Ymddiriedolaeth The Search drwy’r Gymdeithas Celf Gyfoes a Chronfa Ddatblygu Casgliad Towner.
© Ffilmiau Smoking Dogs. Diolch i Oriel Lisson

 

Mae gosodwaith fideo John Akomfrah Vertigo Sea yn fyfyrdod grymus ar gamdriniaeth dynoliaeth o’r môr, o’r fasnach gaethweision a mudo modern i ddinistr yr amgylchedd morol. All y gwaith ddim bod yn fwy perthnasol i’n hoes ni heddiw, a gellir ei weld nawr yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd yn yr arddangosfa Rheolau Celf?

 

Andrew Renton
Ceidwad Celf

From my recent musings you may have deduced that my research is centred around a beautiful group of marine bristleworms, which are given the name shovel head worms. Most people will be unfamiliar with shovel head worms, but they may have come across other marine bristleworms such as ragworms and lugworms used as bait by sea fisherman (the latter also being responsible for the casts of sand you see on sandy beaches), or the ornamental feather duster worms that people often keep in aquaria.

‘Who’s who in Magelona’ is a question I have asked myself for the 20 years or more that I have worked with marine bristleworms, but are we closer to knowing the answer?

 

Marine bristleworms, as the name suggests, are a group of worms that are predominately found in our seas and oceans. They are related to earthworms and leeches and can make up to 50-80% of the animals that live in the seabed. 

I am a taxonomist, and as such, part of my role is to discover new species that have never been seen before, which I then get to name and describe, so other scientists can identify the newly discovered species. I may also rediscover new things about species we have long known about. Although people may not know much about marine bristleworms they are vital to the health of our seas, so understanding what species we have and where they live is an important part of protecting our oceans.

Magelonids, or shovel head worms to give their common name, are a beautiful group of worms, whose spade-shaped heads are used for digging in sands and muds at the bottom of the sea. Of course, I may be biased in thinking they are beautiful, having spent over two decades studying them, I shall let you decide! They are unusual, even amongst bristleworms, and it is for this reason that we have often had trouble relating them to other marine bristleworm groups, or even understanding how they are related to one another.  As part of my job, I have discovered and named species from around the world, including species from Europe. I am currently investigating up to 20 new species off West Africa, and the similarities they share with those here in Wales, but that is a story for another day!

We cannot understand the natural world without first understanding how life on earth is related to one another. With this in mind, we have been looking at shovel head worms and the relationships between them. We have been working with colleagues in the USA and Brazil to answer this question, looking at different characteristics, for example, the size and proportions of the head and body, whether they have pigment patterns or whether they are known to build tubes. Due to the number of different characters and the numbers of species studied it has taken a long time to process the results. However, the results have just been published in the journal PeerJ, so we can share with others our findings. If you want to read more about ‘Who’s who in Magelona’ then the article can be downloaded here from their web-site.

 

 

A large part of our work in the Art Department at Amgueddfa Cymru is researching and working on new acquisitions for the collection. Even with the Museum closed for much of the last 18 months, activity has continued behind the scenes on developing our collections.

With the Museum reopening, we thought we would put together a small group of these new acquisitions in Gallery 11 at National Museum Cardiff that we hope you will enjoy. There is an eclectic mix of work; from Welsh artists, artists working in Wales and some leading national and international figures of modern and contemporary art.

New acquisitions

An individual acquisition can sometimes take months or even years to complete, with a great deal of work going into research and fundraising. We are incredibly grateful to artists and individuals who often donate work to us, and also to Trusts and Foundations who help us to buy pieces – and in particular the Derek Williams Trust. So, while some of the new works that are on display in have arrived at the Museum over the past few months, many have been worked on by curators for 2-3 years in some cases.

Also, what is currently on show is actually a small fraction of what has been collected over the last year or two. The development of the Art Collection has been an ongoing, century long project – one that never stops and is key to the Amgueddfa Cymru collections more generally remaining relevant and dynamic. That said, there is a great deal more to do in terms of what our collection says about Wales in the 21^st century as the National Collection of today is also an important artistic and historic resource for future generations.

Below is some information on each of the new works on display. But what better way to appreciate them than by coming to the Museum and seeing them in person!

The organic and the systemic

Magdalene Odundo’s impressive terracotta vessel Asymmetric I has a strong anthropomorphic character. It seems to allude to a pregnant female body and promise new life. Odundo draws on African traditions to emphasise the power of pots to heal.

In contrast to Odundo’s organic making style, David Saunders, in works like Black Transformation (1973-74, oil on canvas), relies on logical and mathematical processes to produce a systematic method of creating work.

 

Shaped by life experiences

A strong theme of this display is the way that artists draw on their own experiences, either their own life histories or in response to the landscapes and histories of Wales. Gareth Griffith’s Bertorelli recalls his childhood memory of a double portrait in the Bertorelli ice cream parlour in Caernarfon. He later purchased the portrait and reworked it into this piece.

 

 

Exploring the landscape

Mary Lloyd Jones
Pwerdy Ceunant (2019)

Mary Lloyd Jones’s abstract paintings explore the landscape as a place of memory, culture, and identity. Ysgwrn (2018) is named after the farm where poet Hedd Wyn (1887-1917) grew up prior to being killed in the First World War, while the place names and calligraphic signs in Pwerdy Ceunant (2019) allude to Coelbren y Beirdd, the alphabet that Iolo Morganwg invented and claimed was that of the ancient bards.

 

 

Urban and industrial Wales

Bernd and Hilla Becher’s Preparation Plants, 1966-1974 (gelatin silver prints)

Urban and industrial Wales are an equal source of artistic inspiration. In Winter Night with Angharad no.7 (2006, oil and plaster on board), Roger Cecil (born into a mining family from Abertillery) draws parallels between the landscape and the human body. Bernd and Hilla Becher’s Preparation Plants, 1966-1974 (gelatin silver prints) is one of their typologies, a grid of nine photographs of a single type of industrial structure that was once a familiar feature of the industrial ecosystem of the south Wales Valleys.

André Stitt’s Municipal Wall Relief for a Housing Complex in a Parallel Universe (2015-16; oil, acrylic and enamel on wood panels) also looks back to what now seems a bygone age, capturing the modernist optimism of post-war architecture and town-planning.

 

Plan your visit

These artworks are now on display for the first time in the art galleries in National Museum Cardiff. Access to the museum is free, but you will need to pre-book a free ticket in advance. Please see our Plan Your Visit page for more information.

 

With thanks

Amgueddfa Cymru is grateful to Mary Lloyd Jones, David Saunders, the estate of Roger Cecil, Art Fund, the Derek Williams Trust and the Henry Moore Foundation for their generosity in making these acquisitions possible.

Amgueddfa Cymru is home to almost 1,400 paintings and drawings by Augustus John (1878-1961). A prolific portraitist, John painted many notable figures such as the poet and writer Dylan Thomas and the musician Guilhermina Suggia. He also made frequent sketches – in both pencil and oil paint – of unnamed people he encountered in everyday life. One such work in our collection has recently had its sitter identified thanks to the crowd-sourced resource Art Detective, where art lovers and experts can discuss artworks in public UK collections.

The work in question depicts a distinctive looking woman with cropped hair and a full fringe, sporting an inquisitive expression on her face. While the model’s dress and lower body is loosely sketched out, her face is richly detailed, suggesting that she was known to the artist.

A discussion about this painting was launched on Art Detective after Dr. Margot Schwass wrote in to share her research into Greville Texidor (1902-1964) and her belief that this is the “lost” Augustus John portrait of the author and world traveler. Schwass comments that: “When I chanced across an image of the portrait in the Amgueddfa Cymru collection, I knew straight away that it was Greville”. This prompted a lively and well-researched discussion among other Art Detective users, leading to our curatorial team being utterly convinced that this is in fact a portrait of Texidor, who, it was uncovered, worked as John’s secretary in the early 1920s.

We would like to thank Dr. Schwass for contributing her research and helping us learn more about this work in our collection. Her 2019 book All the Juicy Pastures is the first to tell the story of Texidor's extraordinary life.

You can read more about Art UK’s Art Detective Network here.