Obsessed - The Biography of Kyffin Williams

Many people regard Sir Kyffin Williams RA as Wales’s greatest artist, as renowned for his rugged landscapes as for his intimate portraits. When he died in 2006, there was an outpouring of national grief that revealed Kyffin as a public and private figure as much loved for his genial personality and humanity as he was admired for his paintings. This was the Kyffin Williams that David Meredith and John Smith knew so well, and Obsessed is as much a tribute to Kyffin the man as it is an assessment of his life, work and achievement. And it is the privileged perspective born of friendship that gives this biography its authenticity and integrity. As well as tracing Kyffin’s fascinating family history, Obsessed details his life in the army and at the Slade College of Fine Art, followed by his long career as a teacher at Highgate School, London, before his return to his beloved Anglesey via a great adventure in Patagonia. As they outline Kyffin’s long career as an artist, and his battle with epilepsy, the authors also remember his railings against Modern Art and his campaign to see justice done to Welsh artists at the National Museum of Wales. Featuring almost a hundred illustrations, forty of them reproductions of Kyffin’s own masterpieces, this book offers a lavish and affectionate insight into the life of one who was, by his own admission, obsessed with his art.