
Looking Out
Welsh painting, social class and international context
Peter Lord(Author)
Parthian Books (Publisher)
Published on 1. November 2020
Book
Hardback
300 pages
978-1-912681-97-6 (ISBN)
Description
'Over the last twenty five years, almost single-handedly,
Peter Lord has transformed a collection of poorly
understood evidence of art created in Wales, and lazy
theoretical assumptions about it, into a discipline in its
own right, equipped with analytical frameworks and
supported by an accumulating body of knowledge.'
-Andrew Green, Wales Arts Review (on The Tradition)
The six sequential essays in this collection provide a
narrative of a century and a half of Welsh painting,
written with an emphasis on issues of social class
and national identity. Through his earlier writing,
Peter Lord has contributed to the establishment of an
historical tradition of Welsh painting, but because it
does not feature in the wider story of western art history
as presently told, the work revealed continues to be
perceived as marginal, existing in isolation from ideas
and movements in other countries. These essays break
new ground by discussing the concerns of Welsh painters
not only in domestic terms but also in the context of the
ways in which artists in other parts of Europe and in the
United States reacted to the common underlying causes
of those concerns. The author challenges the idea that the
work of Welsh painters is relevant only to the evolution
of their own communities and, through confident and
detailed analysis, validates their pictures also in terms of
the arts of other western cultures.
Peter Lord has transformed a collection of poorly
understood evidence of art created in Wales, and lazy
theoretical assumptions about it, into a discipline in its
own right, equipped with analytical frameworks and
supported by an accumulating body of knowledge.'
-Andrew Green, Wales Arts Review (on The Tradition)
The six sequential essays in this collection provide a
narrative of a century and a half of Welsh painting,
written with an emphasis on issues of social class
and national identity. Through his earlier writing,
Peter Lord has contributed to the establishment of an
historical tradition of Welsh painting, but because it
does not feature in the wider story of western art history
as presently told, the work revealed continues to be
perceived as marginal, existing in isolation from ideas
and movements in other countries. These essays break
new ground by discussing the concerns of Welsh painters
not only in domestic terms but also in the context of the
ways in which artists in other parts of Europe and in the
United States reacted to the common underlying causes
of those concerns. The author challenges the idea that the
work of Welsh painters is relevant only to the evolution
of their own communities and, through confident and
detailed analysis, validates their pictures also in terms of
the arts of other western cultures.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cardigan
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 252 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
1318 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-912681-97-6 (9781912681976)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2023
Parthian Books
€12.00
Available for download
Person
Peter Lord was born in Exeter in 1948, and
now lives near Aberystwyth. He took a degree
in Fine Art at Reading University in 1970.
He has published and broadcast extensively
on the visual culture of Wales in both
Welsh and English languages, and curated
major exhibitions for national institutions.
Between 1998 and 2003 he published the
three volumes of The Visual Culture of Wales,
which is regarded as the authoritative text
on the subject. In 2013 an autobiography,
Relationships with Pictures (Parthian) was
published, followed by The Tradition: a New
History of Welsh Art 1400-1990 (Parthian),
which in 2017 was Wales Non-fiction Book
of the Year. His most recent monograph,
William Roos and the Itinerant Life (Oriel
Mon, 2020) breaks new ground as the first
detailed study of an itinerant portrait painter
working in Britain.
now lives near Aberystwyth. He took a degree
in Fine Art at Reading University in 1970.
He has published and broadcast extensively
on the visual culture of Wales in both
Welsh and English languages, and curated
major exhibitions for national institutions.
Between 1998 and 2003 he published the
three volumes of The Visual Culture of Wales,
which is regarded as the authoritative text
on the subject. In 2013 an autobiography,
Relationships with Pictures (Parthian) was
published, followed by The Tradition: a New
History of Welsh Art 1400-1990 (Parthian),
which in 2017 was Wales Non-fiction Book
of the Year. His most recent monograph,
William Roos and the Itinerant Life (Oriel
Mon, 2020) breaks new ground as the first
detailed study of an itinerant portrait painter
working in Britain.