y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library
Glamorgan Street, Brecon, Powys LD3 7DW
Mon–Fri 10–4.30, last entry 4; Sat–Sun 10–4, last entry 3.30
248mm x 210mm, 96 pages, softback, 116 colour images
Published by Crooked Window in 2025 and launched at y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library.
Over the last quarter century the Brecknock Art Trust has supported the remarkable expansion of the regional art collection at the museum and art gallery in Brecon. Now indisputably a collection of Welsh national significance it has, since 2019, been in the care of the town's refurbished y Gaer Museum, Art Gallery and Library. An unmissable exhibition of over a hundred artworks drawn from this collection and curated by David Moore opens on 1 February for four months. Astonishingly this is only half of the total number of works supported by the Trust. Displayed in two galleries and around the museum the exhibition is organised both geographically and thematically. .
While many of the artists have international reputations the importance of the collection is primarily due to the insights it provides into the range and quality of artworks inspired by aspects of Brecknockshire's society, culture and environment. Much of this is within Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. Around seventy artists are represented altogether and although earlier ones, such as Sir Richard Colt Hoare and Thomas Hornor, are featured the collection is particularly rich in modern and contemporary work. A section on industrial communities includes important work by Josef Herman while that with a livestock theme is explored by artists as varied in their approach as Iwan Bala, Radovan Kraguly and Sally Matthews. A focus on abstraction includes a fusion of Celtic imagery and jazz by John Uzzell Edwards while, elsewhere, Ivor Davies and Mary Lloyd Jones, among others, reveal aspects of folk tales. Regional sections include artworks by David Jones, Shirley Jones and Eric Ravilious..
Brecknock Art Trust was founded in 2000 as Brecknock Museum Art Trust to promote the appreciation, collection and display of art in the Brecknock Museum. Since 2010, while continuing to support the museum, the Trust has extended its vision to promote the appreciation and display of art in Brecknock and the surrounding area. It has grant-funded acquisitions, collection care, publications, an assistant art curator, exhibitions, museum redvelopment and a wide range of projects.
Ray Howard-Jones was a significant Welsh landscape artist and, intriguingly, a contemporary of Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Eric Ravilious. Long overdue for critical reassessment, she was extremely prolific over a life of ninety-three years and has left a considerable legacy of work.
Artists exhibited – Iwan Bala, Niel Bally, Thomas Baxter, William Brown, Roger Cecil, Dick Chappell, Ivor Davies, Marcelle Davies, Hendrik Frans De Cort, Ken Elias, Ann Catrin Evans, Hannah Firmin, Reg Gammon, Sam Garratt, Valerie Ganz, Arthur Giardelli, Veronica Gibson, Tony Goble, Richard Harris, Josef Herman, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Sue Hiley Harris, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Edgar Holloway, Michael Howard, Thomas Hornor, Ray Howard-Jones, Aneurin Jones, Mary Lloyd Jones, Samuel Jackson, Augustus John, David Jones, Megan Jones, Shirley Jones, Radovan Kraguly, Robert Macdonald, Sally Matthews, Eleri Mills, Bernard Mitchell, Glyn Morgan, Sir Cedric Morris, Paul Sandby Munn, William Payne, Robert Newell, Jeff Nuttall, Michael Organ, John Piper, Roger Reese, Roy Powell, Eric Ravilious, Richard Renshaw, Matthew Richardson, Tim Rossiter, Sarah Snazell, Philippine Sowerby, Peter Strevens, Graham Sutherland, Panico Theodosiou, Thomasin Toohie, David Tress, John Uzzell Edwards, John Varley, Islwyn Watkins, Meri Wells, Laurie Williams and Pip Woolf.