Art-lover's collection goes on public show (From Penarth Times)

Art-lover's collection goes on public show

THE NATIONAL Museum and Gallery of Wales in Cardiff is currently exhibiting a collection of art owned by Penarthian John Gibbs.

The exhibition called 'An Art-Accustomed Eye: John Gibbs and art appreciation in Wales 1945-1996' runs until January 16.

John Gibbs (1945-1996) was one of the most important collectors of modern and contemporary art in Wales focusing on British modernism. His collection includes paintings by Christopher Wood, John Piper, Ceri Richards and Paul Nash.

The exhibition brings together more than 40 works from his private collection and pictures he helped to acquire for public institutions including 'The Cliff at Penarth, Evening, Low Tide' by Alfred Sisley.

John Gibbs came from a leading family of Cardiff shipowners and was instrumental in establishing the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art - a source of works available for loan to churches, exhibitions and colleges.

In 1944 John Gibbs made of his first major purchases 'The Stones Cry Out' by John Armstrong, one of the founders of the short-lived Unit One art movement.

'The Goods Train' by Richard Eurich was acquired by Sheila Gibbs in 1945. The addition to the collection of paintings by Paul Nash and Christopher Wood underlined the seriousness of the Gibbs' interest in modern art. Paul Nash, one of the giants of British art, was made famous by his depictions of the destruction of the First World War.

They bought 'Swan Song' and 'From the Smithy' by Nash.

Swan Song was loaned to the Tate for their retrospective on Nash in 1975.

'The Rug Seller' by Christopher Wood was painted in the summer of 1930.

It depicts an Arab rug seller showing his wares to a pair of Breton women in a town square.

Other major works in the collection include 'Cardiff Docks' by Lionel Walden, etchings by Georges Rouault, 'a study of Christ of a Donkey' by Stanley Spencer, 'Chicken on a Table' by Lucien Freud, 'Seaton Delaval' by John Piper and 'The Supper at Emmaus' by Ceri Richards.

Both of John Gibbs' parents were from families who had come to Cardiff in the 1860s because of their involvement with shipping.

The Gibbs family, from Portland in Dorset, and the Morel family, from Jersey, became intertwined.

John's grandfather, Sir Thomas Morel, was mayor of Cardiff in 1899 and played a leading role in promoting the city's municipal pride and trading power.

When Sir John died in 1903 his estate, valued at around £280,000, was divided equally between his five children.

John's childhood was spent at Marine Parade in Penarth.

He was brought up within the Methodist Church in Penarth which was a centre of social life and education as well as worship.

John's father, John Angel Gibbs II, a major in the Welsh Regiment, was killed in action in Flanders in 1917.

As a memorial to him his wife, Gladys, funded the conversion of the Penarth Hotel into a school for the children of sailors.

John Gibbs studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he met his wife Sheila.

John abandoned his career in law to study psychology and worked as an educational psychologist at Guy's Hospital.

They later returned to south Wales and commissioned an architect to build a family home in Penarth which they called 'Sea Roads'.

During the war John Gibbs was a conscientious objector.