1912-1977
Keith Vaughan was a painter and writer who abandoned a career in advertising in 1939 to pursue painting. From 1941 to 1944 he served in the Pioneer Corps. His drawings of army life attracted attention and he entered the circle of Peter Watson in London.
As a younger generation Neo-Romantic he was heavily influenced by Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and William Blake. During the 1950s Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse were major influences on Vaughan, but most important was that of Nicolas De Stael, who enabled him to reconcile figurative and abstract elements. He was essentially a painter of figure compositions that attempted to balance male nudes with abstract environments.
He taught in London at Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and was a visiting teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art (1959-77). His remarkable journal, inspired by André Gide, reveals the tension in his life and work between intellectual Puritanism and unrepressed sensuality. His work can be regarded as an expression of his feelings about the male body.
1912
Born Selsey Bill, Sussex
1931-8
Works for advertising agency Lintas, painting in spare time
1939
Spends a year painting in the country
1941 - 1946
Army service, works as a clerk and German interpreter meets Graham Sutherland, John Craxton and John Minton
1946 - 1948
Teaches at Camberwell School of Art
1951
Commissioned to paint mural for the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain
1948 - 1952
Teaches at Central School of Art, shares a house with John Minton
1952
Moves to Hampstead, first sees the work of De Stael at the Matthiesen Gallery, London
1959
Travels to USA visiting Iowa (where he has a residency), Mexico and Chicago.
1964
Made Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art
1965
Holidays in North Africa, with major effects on subsequent work. Awarded the CBE
1965 - 1977
Lives and works in London, teaching at the Slade and spending weekends and longer periods in the Essex counryside
1977
Died 4th November in his studio
Selected Exhibitions
1981
Images of Man, Geffrye Museum, London and Birmingham City Art Gallery
1970
Retrospective Exhibition, University of York
1963
British Pavilion, Sao Paolo Bienal, Brazil (Drawings)
1962
Retrospective Exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1959
State University of Iowa, USA
1958
Retrospective Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
1957
Retrospective Exhibition, Arts Council touring exhibition
1953, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959
Leicester Galleries, London
1952, 1955, 1957, 1966
Durlacher Bros, New York, USA
1950, 1952
Redfern Gallery, London
1944,1946, 1948
Reid and Lefevre, London
Literature
1990
Keith Vaughan his Life and Work, Malcolm Yorke, Constable, London
1989
Keith Vaughan Journals 1939-1977, ed Alan Ross, John Murray, London
1981
Images of Man, John Nicholas Ball, Inner London Education Authority
1966
Keith Vaughan Journals and Drawings 1939-1965, Alan Ross, London