Which major award did this beachcomber collect? The great British art quiz

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions are set by Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales. The library’s iconic building in Aberystwyth is a treasure trove of Welsh art, history and culture and is home to a wealth of collections that include paintings, manuscripts, archives, journals, newspapers, films, books, photographs and maps, recording the heritage and culture of Wales and the Celtic nations. Access to these resources is free at the library and online at library.wales.

You can see art from Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales on Art UK here. Find out more on the library website here.

1. 

   The Welsh artist Gwen John created this still life while living in which country c.1910?

   1. Italy

   2. France

   3. Spain

   4. Germany

2. 

   The Anglesey-born painter Kyffin Williams was one of the defining Welsh artists of his generation. He was a talented landscape and portrait painter, but what did the artist claim was the most important aspect when painting a portrait?

   1. The mood of the sitter

   2. The mood of the artist

   3. The placing of the figure within the canvas

   4. Light and shadow

3. 

   The highly regarded Welsh figurative artist Claudia Williams was awarded which prestigious artistic award in 1995?

   1. The silver medal by the Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters in Paris

   2. The Turner prize

   3. The BP portrait award

   4. Artes Mundi prize

4. 

   Mary Lloyd Jones is well known for her vibrant and highly charged Welsh landscapes. According to the artist, all four of the following painters had an influence on her work, but which influenced her the most?

   1. Ceri Richards

   2. Henri Matisse

   3. Victor Pasmore

   4. Ben Nicholson

5. 

   The Polish expressionist Josef Herman was greatly inspired by the miners and their community in Ystradgynlais, south Wales, in the 1940s. So much so that he decided to spend how long living in the town?

   1. Six months

   2. Three years

   3. Nine years

   4. Eleven years

6. 

   The internationally acclaimed Shani Rhys James is one of Wales’s most influential and successful artists. Which of the following statements are true regarding her works?

   1. Many of her works feature a self-portrait

   2. Gloves, symbolising the need to protect the hands, and the colour red, symbolising living blood and vibrancy, often feature in her work

   3. She is a great admirer of the Spanish artist Francisco Goya and his famous Black Paintings series

   4. The psychological state is central to her works

   5. All of the above

7. 

   In this work the artist Ivor Davies illustrates the famous legend of Branwen from the Welsh Mabinogion Tales. But according to the tales, which bird did Branwen send across the sea from Ireland to Wales asking for her brother the giant Bendigeidfran’s help?

   1. Goldfinch

   2. Starling

   3. Swallow

   4. Red Kite

8. 

   Gwilym Prichard was a notable Welsh landscape artist. Which well-known fellow artist once famously stated that Prichard ‘painted the bones beneath the land’?

   1. Augustus John

   2. Kyffin Williams

   3. Josef Herman

   4. Ceri Richards

Solutions

1:B - Gwen John was born in Haverfordwest, south-west Wales. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and from 1904 lived mainly in Paris. Many of her interior scenes have often been wrongly interpreted as a reference to her reclusive character, for as her brother Augustus John once said: 'She wasn’t chaste or subdued, but amorous and proud.' Today she is celebrated as one of the earliest modernist painters of her period. Image: Vase of Flowers, 1910s, Gwen John (1876-1939), © Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales , 2:B - Williams said: 'The most important element in a portrait is its mood and this is more likely to be that of the artist than the sitter … melancholy often denotes depth of feeling whereas a smile tends to irritate.' His expressive works were characterised by a thick impasto oil, heavily applied with a palette knife. The National Library of Wales houses the largest collection of Kyffin works in the world. Image: RS Thomas (1913-2000), c.1980, Kyffin Williams (1918-2006), © Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales, 3:A - At 16 Claudia Williams studied at the Chelsea School of Art. She lived in Brittany for 15 years with her husband, the artist Gwilym Prichard, where they both received the silver medal from the Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters in Paris in recognition of their contribution to the arts in France. She is known for the warmth of her scenes and her highly skilled use of colour and composition. Image: Collecting Shells, 1951, Claudia Williams (b.1933), © the artist, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales , 4:B - Mary Lloyd Jones is one of Wales’s most popular and highly regarded artists. She was born in Devil’s Bridge, south-west Wales in 1934 and trained at Cardiff School of Art. Her bold and expressionistic works are multilayered and concentrate on the Welsh landscape and language. She is especially interested in man-made marks on the landscape. She has exhibited across Wales and internationally. Image: Bro, 1996, Mary Lloyd Jones (b.1934), © the artist / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales , 5:D - Josef Herman was born in Warsaw in 1911 to a Jewish family. At the outbreak of the second world war he found refuge in Glasgow, but tragically lost his family in the Holocaust. In Ystradgynlais, south Wales, he discovered a community as he’d known as a child. Through the miners he discovered a new meaning to humanity. He was often preoccupied with images of mother and child in Ystradgynlais after his own mother’s death in the Holocaust. Image: Mother and Child, c.1945, Josef Herman (1911-2000), © estate of Josef Herman, all rights reserved, DACS 2020, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales., 6:E - Studio with Gloves epitomises James's works, which are bold, raw, emotional and challenging and where imaginative and observational elements often coexist. In her abstract compositions she searches for truth and reflects upon her vision of the human condition. Studio with Gloves, as many of her works, is a self-portrait that reflects on the physical and emotional act of painting. Image: Studio with Gloves, 1993, Shani Rhys James (b.1953), © Shani Rhys James, all rights reserved, DACS 2020, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales, 7:B - The artist and art historian Ivor Davies is one of Wales’s foremost contemporary artists. He studied at Swansea and Cardiff Colleges of Art and at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. In Edinburgh he acquired his PhD in the Russian avant garde. He is passionate about the language, culture and politics of Wales. In 1966 he took part in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London. Image: Branwen, 1999, Ivor Davies (b.1935), © Ivor Davies, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales , 8:D - Gwilym Prichard was born in Llanystumdwy, north Wales, and trained at the Birmingham College of Art. About his childhood, he said: 'Nature and landscape were part of my life; the river my bloodstream.' His vibrant landscapes created with thickly and expressively applied paint were a celebration of regional expression. He also painted in Brittany, Italy, Greece and Tunisia. He was married to the highly regarded figurative artist Claudia Williams. Image: Penmon and Puffin Island, 1960s, Gwilym Prichard (1931-2015), © the artist’s estate, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales

Scores

1. 8 and above.

   A brush with greatness!

2. 7 and above.

   You've made a great impression!

3. 6 and above.

   You've made a good impression

4. 5 and above.

   A palatable score

5. 4 and above.

   A palatable score

6. 3 and above.

   Lacking finesse

7. 2 and above.

   Better start brushing up

8. 0 and above.

   Better start brushing up

9. 1 and above.

   Better start brushing up