ANDRÉ STITT
Merthyrtopia
15|11 - 20|12|26

[English below]

Pleser yw teithio arddangosfa André Stitt a gynhaliwyd yn yr oriel ar ddechrau’r flwyddyn i Amgueddfa ac Oriel Gelf Castell Cyfarthfa. Llythyr cariad yw celf yr arddangosfa yma gan Stitt I Ferthyr

Mae ‘Merthyrtopia’ yn adlewyrchu'r bennod ddiweddaraf ym mywyd Stitt a'i amgylchoedd newydd sbon. Yn 2023, symudodd o ganol dinas Caerdydd i dŷ a ddyluniwyd gan bensaer ym 1971 yn nhref Merthyr Tudful yng Nghwm Taf, ar gyrion Bannau Brycheiniog. Yn nodweddiadol o'i gyfnod - unllawr, un goledd, briciau noeth mewnol a nenfydau panel pren - mae'r adeilad wedi'i gynllunio yn hyfryd gan bensaer gyda'i Ddyfodol Newydd ei hun mewn golwg ac yn sicr o'i gyfnod - ac mor nodweddiadol o Stitt

Mae'r tŷ yn eistedd uwchben y dref, yn edrych allan ar draws y dyffryn, yn wyrdd ac yn wyllt. Mae ffenestr ei stiwdio atig dros-dro yn fframio'r olygfa o'r bryn gyferbyn - motiff ailadroddus y V yw'r olygfa honno o linell copa'r bryn, lle mae dau ddarn o fynydd yn cwrdd. Mae'r tŷ wedi'i leoli mewn gardd fawr o goed a dail a blodau, gyda golygfeydd di-dor o natur o bob ffenestr a'r awyr agored ddiderfn; llinellau solet, geometrig, ymwthiol yr adeilad ymhlith symudiad a dryswch ei blot

Mae'r gweithiau celf yn adlewyrchu hyn - mae natur wedi'i darlunio mewn marciau rhydd a mynegiannol y brwsh paent, y V a ailadroddir yn aml o'r dyffryn - mor finiog â rasel - yn torri trwy'r olygfa, a'r tŷ wedi'i haniaethu mewn blociau gwastad, onglog

Mae 'Merthyrtopia' - y term a fathwyd gan Stitt, enw'r tŷ a theitl y corff gwaith hwn - yn dyst i'r effaith y mae meddiannaeth newydd a'r amgylchoedd newydd yn ei chael. Mae wedi dod o hyd i'w Ddyfodol Newydd, wedi creu ei iwtopia ei hun

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It’s a pleasure to tour André Stitt’s exhibition held at the gallery at the start of the year to Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery. This body of work is a love letter to Merthyr and reflects the latest chapter in Stitt’s life and his brand new surroundings. 2023 saw a move from Cardiff city centre to a 1971 architect-designed house in the town of Merthyr Tudful in the Taf Valley, on the edge of Bannau Brycheiniog. Typical of its time - single story, mono pitched, interior bare bricks and wood panelled ceilings - the building is beautifully considered by an architect with his own New Future in mind and so of its era - and so very Stitt

The house sits above the town, looking out across the valley, green and wild. The window of his temporary attic studio frames the view of the hill opposite - the repeated motif of the dipped-V is that view of the hilltop line, where two bits of mountain meet. The house is set in a large garden of trees and foliage and flowers, with uninterrupted scenes of nature from each window and that wide-open-sky; the solid, geometric, jutting lines of the building amongst the sway and tangle of its plot

The artworks reflect this - nature is depicted in loose and expressive marks of the paintbrush, that oft-repeated dipped-V of the valley - sharp as a razor - cutting through the vista, and the house abstracted in flat, angular blocks

‘Merthyrtopia’ - a term coined by Stitt, the house name and title of this body of work - is testament to the impact Stitt’s new occupancy and new surroundings are having. He has found his New Future, made his own utopia

Merthrytopia: mid-century modern: the picturesque & the sublime reclaimed

These recent works are an unapologetic romantic evocation of the picturesque and the sublime as experienced throughout 2024-25 when I acquired a mid-century modernist bungalow set within a hillside overlooking the south Wales valley town of Merthyr Tydfil

The house was designed and built in the mid-century modernist style with connected mono pitch modules by Welsh architect T. Graham Davies for his family in 1971

I renamed the house Merthyrtopia.  Merthyr-topia : a living, physical home; and a wider, more complex historical, cultural, revolutionary, environmental, place, space and spiritual state of being

I completely renovated and remodelled the house over a period of a year in which I slept on a mattress on the floor surrounded by building materials, dust and refuge in the main body of the house while working in a small loft area as a studio.  The studio had a window that acted as a framing device enabling views to the town below and across the valley beyond. It was here that the simplicity and functionality of a mid-century modern living environment enabled these modest and domestic scale landscape paintings to be developed - André Stitt

André Stitt was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1958. He studied at Ulster Polytechnic and Belfast College of Art & Design, Ulster University 1976-1980. From 1980-1999 he lived and worked in London increasingly travelling and making work internationally throughout the eighties and nineties

In 1999 he moved to Wales to take up position as Director of Time Based Art at Cardiff School of Art & Design. He became Professor of Performance & Interdisciplinary Art at Cardiff School of Art & Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2004 and latterly programme leader of the MFA. In 2024 he made Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan University

From 1976-2013 he worked almost exclusively as a performance and interdisciplinary artist and gained an international reputation for cutting edge, provocative and politically challenging ‘live’ work. A predominate theme in his artistic output is that of communities and their dissolution often relating to trauma, conflict and art as a redemptive proposition. During this period his ‘live’ performances (or Akshuns) were presented at major museums, galleries and specific sites throughout the world

Since 2008 he has focused his practice on painting as an expanded proposition

Public Collections

UK Government Collection

National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

Derek Williams Trust

Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Wolverhampton Art Gallery, England

Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, Ireland

Karl Ernst Museum, Hague, Belgium

Artpool, Budapest

British Library, London

University of South Wales

Artworks can be purchased online or by contacting the gallery:

info@gallery-ten.co.uk  |  029 2060 0495

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info@gallery-ten.co.uk
+44 (0) 29 2060 0495

Wednesday - Saturday 10:30 - 17:00
The Coach House, Rear of 143 Donald Street, Cardiff, CF24 4TP