In 1953 George
Chapman made a journey through the coal-mining valleys of South Wales
and discovered the Rhondda Valley where, he said, 'I realised that here
I could find the material that would perhaps make me a painter at last.'
He returned to the south Wales valleys over the next ten years and produced
a large number of drawings, etchings and paintings, in particular of
the villages that comprise the Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach Valleys.
There followed a period of considerable success - highly praised one-man
exhibitions of paintings and prints in London and Cambridge, extensive
press and media coverage including The Studio, Apollo, Art News and
Review, The Times, The Guardian and television programmes for Anglia,
BBC Wales and Huw Weldon's Monitor which was screened twice on
the BBC in 1961 and later in the year at the Venice International Film
Biennale. Forty years on he continues to paint the Rhondda, reflecting
the changes that have occurred there since that first dark, wet day
in 1953 which 'transformed his purpose'.
George Chapman
made his first etchings in Michael Rothenstein's studio at Great Bardfield.
The earliest plates are of Pennant in Cardiganshire, of his wife Kate
pregnant, and from 1953 the Rhondda and other coal mining communities
in south Wales. The Rhondda Suite was commissioned in 1960 by
the Hon. Robert Erskine for St. George's Gallery Prints in Cork St.,
London. They are undoubtedly among the most important prints ever made
depicting Wales and its industrial landscape.
The early
prints are inventive and experimental in their varied combination of
etching processes; pattern, line and texture are more important than
the representation of three-dimensional space. A growing confidence
in the medium allowed him to develop on a very large scale drawing directly
onto the sheets of copper and zinc in front of the subject. Back in
the studio he worked further into the plates with aquatint and then
scored, scarped and burnished the metal to build up texture.
Chapman's
strong sense of graphic design is evident in his work as a printmaker,
the deceptively simple freehand drawing does not disguise an ordered
compositional structure. He revels in the patterns made by the telegraph
poles and wires, the television aerials, the pithead winding gear and
chimney stacks, the railway signals and the herring-bone roofs of the
steep terraced miners houses. Compositions become more dynamic in the
later etchings as he exaggerates the great sweeping curves of the terraces
perched upon the hilltops. Precipitous rows of houses tear away in sharp
perspective to draw the spectator quickly into his world. The dark foreboding
mountains topped with slag-heaps, the heavy stationary clouds, the rain
and the intense light over the horizon reflecting on the wet roads and
slate roofs create a stark visual drama.
The people
who inhabit this harsh environment are depicted with genuine affection,
they are an integral part of its makeup. Observed as they go about their
daily routine the women hang out the washing or totter with a heavy
shopping bag, the children play with scooters and hoops in the street,
the old men gossip on a bench, feed the pigeons and, on occasion, are
caught popping into the 'gents'.
Chapman's
pictures of the Rhondda Valley are a record of a particular place and
time - not a topographical record but a mood inspired by the character
of that place - a record of the people of the mining communities and
their homes. They convey the spirit of an industrial community that
has long since changed and as such are important historical
records of the industrial face of Wales.
Any contributions
to this section of the website, particularly photographs of George Chapman's
original work, would be greatly appreciated by the family.
Postcards
of the images are now available. Please see the Postcards
page for details