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REVIEW OF THE WORK OF
KEITH BAYLISS
by
Malcolm Parr
Baudelaire wrote of truly imaginative artists that "nature is nothing but a dictionary. There one looks up the meaning of words, the formation of words; here one finds all the elements that make up a phrase or a story, but no one has ever viewed a dictionary in the practical sense of the word. Painters who follow their imagination look in their dictionary for the elements that match their idea; by adapting them with a certain art they give them an entirely new look. Those who have no imagination copy the dictionary.
Keith Bayliss threw the dictionary away years ago. When he had his first one-man show in Swansea in 1980 he was praised for his strong, confident stylised line drawings (usually portraits) in pencil or ink, with the occasional use of watercolour. Some of these were extremely delicate and sensitive and sold well. Since then something has happened, something disturbing which, admittedly, had subtly suggested itself already at the first exhibition. Pandora has opened the box sufficiently wide to let out cruelty, satire, grotesqueness, mystery - all there suggested through the human figure (male and female, hermaphrodite) hideously distorted, jagged, foetal, mutilated, often locked in hieratic gestures of daunting ferocity.
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"
I saw this
" - oil on canvas - 152 x 140cm
(2004)
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"and this" - oil on canvas - 183cm x 170cm (2004)
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"Bayliss is drawn to the mystical conversations in odd settings of early Renaissance Annunciations. There are intimate silences between the figures in his work, but the paintings in particular suggest wordless dialogues, with figures present or obliqely symbolised."
Peter Wakelin
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"Love" - oil on canvas - 122cm x 91cm
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"standing head" - oil on canvas - 122cm x 91cm (2004)
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Keith Bayliss
was born in Swansea in 1954 and educated at Swansea College of Art
in 1973. He also studied at Sheffield City Polytechnic (faculty of Art & Design), graduating in 1977 with a B.A.(Hons) Fine Art.
Selected Exhibitions
Since 1995
1995 - 6:
Intimate Portraits
, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Mostyn Art Gallery - Featuring Contemporary artists in Wales, as exhibitor & co-ordinator.
1996 - 7:
Boxes,
Touring Group Show of box art.
1996:
Voyages
:
works on paper
; Keith bayliss, William Brown & Malcolm Parr. Narodni Kulturni Pamatka Vysehrad, Prague, Czech Republic.
1998:
La Bise
Touring Group Show.
1998 - 9:
FAUST
Touring Group Show, Germany.
1999:
Dreaming Awake
, Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre.
2001:
Five Artists from Wales
, Brugge, Belgium.
2001 - 2:
Dreaming Awake
exhibition tour of the Czech Republic Group show; Keith Bayliss, William Brown, Tony Goble, Iwan Bala, Roger Moss, Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Jaroslav Mykisa and photographer Bernard Mitchell.
2005
"as if by magic..."
a one man show of recent works in oil on paper and larger works in oil on canvas. Including responses to poetry, by David Greenslade, Dylan Thomas, David Woolley and Pablo Neruda at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.
2006
"La Maison Hantee, The Haunted House, Ty Sgrech"
Keith Bayliss & William Brown. "We are both the haunters and the haunted" An exhibition of recent paintings, graphic works and constructions. Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.
2006
"Orbis Pictus: Europa"
Inaugural exhibition of the new European Group initiative at the VOJNA Memorial Pribram, Czech Republic.
2007
"Drawn Together"
Keith Bayliss, Petr Jochmann, Peter Jonckheere. An exhibition of drawings by the artists from Flanders - Belgium, Moravia - Czech Republic and Wales - Britain. Pontardawe Arts Centre, Wales. Touring to Belgium and the Czech Republic.
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Untitled
- oil on canvas - 183 x 152cm
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Publications:
Keith Baylisshas written articles for Scolastic Publications,
Art & Craft Magazine
on numerous projects and workshops in Primary education.
He has written for
BARN
Welsh language cultural magazine on, among others,
Josef Herman
, Fred Janes, John Piper and the Dreaming Awake exhibition.
Keith Bayliss has produced and published
Me, Myself, I
and
Image and Word,
school and community project publications.
Serious Games
, published by Swansea Poetry Workshop.
White Voices
, published by Old Stile Press, Tintern.
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Selected Involvements:
Developed the Community Art Service for the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.
Has devised numerous school and community projects, festivals (including the Ceri Richards Festival) and workshop programmes, working with all areas of education, the elderly, special needs and those with disability.
Has developed and co-ordinated numerous exhibitions, including:
The Festival of Czech & Slovak Surrealists
, 1998, Swansea.
Poem in October
- Two Belgian Artists and a Writer, Swansea 1995 (part of the U.K. Festival of Literature.
Intimate Portraits
, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.
The Visual Word
: An exhibition of Responses. Swansea Arts Workshop & Old Library, Cardiff. Part of the U.K. Festival of Literature.
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"Swsana"
- oil on canvas - 152 x 183cm
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Email
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