ABOUT US

"The objects of the Society shall be to foster and promote the maintenance, improvement and development of artistic taste and the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the arts among the people of Wales." (From the Constitution of the Society)

The Society endeavours to fulfil it's aims by:

• purchasing artworks for gifting to appropriate institutions;
• sponsoring a National Eisteddfod purchase prize;
• grant aiding other visual art bodies;
• investing in young people with an annual studentship prize;
• organising educational programmes involving lectures and study visits to galleries, exhibitions and studios in the British Isles and abroad;
• operating a social programme designed to promote and increase awareness of current artistic trends by bringing together those with mutual interests.

Remarkably, the beginnings of the Society lie in the 1930’s depression, with a belief in the ability of the visual arts to uplift the human spirit in times of material adversity.

From the outset the Society, whose activities were modelled on the UK Contemporary Art Society, regarded the purchase of works of contemporary art, their exhibition and subsequent donation to appropriate Welsh institutions as prime functions.

An annual buyer was elected and given ‘free range of choice’, though there was (and is) a presumption to purchase works by Welsh artists or those with significant association with the Principality.

The first work acquired by CASW was not by purchase but was a fraternal gift in 1938 by the Contemporary Art Society, David Jones’ Petra.

David Jones - Petra (1929) Gift from the Contemporary Art Society, 1938(CASW 1) © Trustees of the David Jones Estate Reproduced with the kind permission of City and County of Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection

Augustus John - Lyndra (c. 1920) Purchased 1942 (CASW 21) ©The Estate of Augustus John. All rights reserved; Bridgeman Art Library. Reproduced with the kind permission of City and County of Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection

Gwen John - Girl in Profile (1929-30) Purchased 1930 (CASW 9) ©The Estate of Gwen John 2005. All rights reserved; DACS Image courtesy of National Museums and Libraries of Wales

Landscapes form a significant element within the CASW collection, with many leading exponents of the genre represented, including Bert Isaac and Maurice Cockrill.

Maurice Cockrill RA - Small Enclosure (2001) Purchased 2003 (CASW 717) ©Maurice Cockrill

Bert Isaac - Manmade Mountains (2002) Artist's gift 2003 (CASW 721) ©Bert Isaac

The dominance of the coal industry is equally well reflected, together with social aspects of mining and Valleys life.

Vincent Evans - Repairing Main Road Purchased 1996 (CASW 665) ©Audrey Lane. Image courtesy National Museums and Galleries of Wales.

Jack Crabtree - Save this Pit Purchased 1973 (CASW 394) ©Jack Crabtree Reproduced with the kind permission of City & County of Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection

Valerie Ganz - Dai Deacon – Portrait of a Miner Purchased 1985 (CASW 555) © Valerie Ganz Courtesy Newport Art Gallery

Clive Hicks-Jenkins - December From The Year of the Artist Print Portfolio, 2000 (CASW 703) © Clive Hicks-Jenkins To see the full set go to: ACQUISITIONS - 2000 – YEAR OF THE ARTIST

In recent years the Society has significantly widened its activities to reflect the needs and changing face of the Welsh contemporary art scene.

Support for the young has always been implicit in CASW’s work, traditionally by purchasing the work of young, emerging talent.
To this has been added an annual modest financial bursary, The David Tinker CASW Studentship (named after a notable artist, university teacher and long serving member of the Society’s Executive), which rotates systematically among the art-teaching institutions of Wales.                                  

Angharad Fflûr Davies -The David Tinker CASW Studentship 2006

A CASW National Eisteddfod Purchase Prize was launched in 2004 at the Newport Eisteddfod. Worth £2,000, the selection is made by a local, public museum/gallery service or other charitable art-collecting institution in the Eisteddfod location, with the purchase going directly to it, though still titularly part of the CASW Collection.

Walter Keeler - Branch Teapot

Walter Keeler - Teapot with Thorns

Melanie Brown - Sang de Boeuf

The CASW National Eisteddfod Purchase Prize, 2004

The Welsh art scene recently has seen two major initiatives.
In 2003 the Principality participated for the first time in the Venice Art Biennale where it has established its own pavilion.

In 2004 the Artes Mundi prize, a world competition involving leading avant garde artists was initiated and funded in Wales. Both these events are bi-annual and have hugely raised the profile of Welsh art and Wales as a significant art patron. CASW has been and remains a financial contributor and sponsor of these events, albeit on a modest scale.

CASW continues to develop an advocacy role and its views are increasingly sought on visual art issues by a range of bodies including the Welsh Assembly Government, National Museums and Galleries of Wales and the Arts Council of Wales. Its credo in the need and lobbying for a dedicated gallery of contemporary Welsh art continues with passionate intensity.

The Society is largely self financing through subscriptions and profits made from educational activities. All public and charitable collections in Wales have benefited enormously from CASW and for many our gifts form not just the core but the essence of their holdings.


CASW members at the 51st Biennale of Art with Mike Tooby,
Director of the National Museum and Gallery of Wales

And so we hope, indeed believe like those early pioneers, that the Contemporary Art Society for Wales enriches and uplifts the human spirit and that our Country is the better for our existence and activities.

Why not join us? For, as well as these more lofty aspirations, we are essentially enjoyers of visual art and of each others company.