Kyffin (rhymes with ‘puffin’) Williams taught art at Highgate from 1944 to 1973, mostly part-time. On becoming an RA in 1974 he moved back to his native Anglesey to paint full-time and became one of Wales’s most cherished artists. A couple of years ago David Smith, former Head of Physics and now Heritage Officer and a member of the Sir Kyffin Williams Trust, thought that it would be fitting to celebrate Kyffin’s centenary with an exhibition in Highgate. That idea eventually led to two parallel shows which opened to the public on 14th September, one in the School Museum and a second at the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution. The former comprises items from the School’s collection of original works by Kyffin plus loans from private individuals and other galleries, while the latter consists primarily of a large loan of (mostly) works on paper from the National Library of Wales. Together they probably represent the largest retrospective of Kyffin’s work ever staged outside Wales. Following a lecture in the ‘Mondays in the Mills’ series by David about Kyffin’s ‘London years’, there was a busy reception at the HLSI on the opening night. The following week former Highgate parent Elinor Talfan Delaney formally launched the School’s exhibition in front of over sixty Kyffin fans, and to cap the associated events Rian Evans, who had co-authored a new book about Kyffin that was published earlier this year, gave a stimulating gallery talk at the HLSI to a full-house. Almost five hundred people have visited the School Museum so far, and both displays are up until 7th October with the following opening times: Tues-Fri 1300-1700, Sat 1100-1600 and Sun 1100-1700.
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