Tag: Frank Brangwyn

Breaking up the Hannibal

February 9, 2024 5 Comments
Breaking up the Hannibal

Bruges may be his birthplace and where you’ll find his museum, but Swansea has a claim to be the second home of Frank Brangwyn, ever since his huge ‘British Empire’ panels were diverted from the House of Lords in London to Swansea’s Guildhall in 1933.  Today it’s possible to see Brangwyn’s visions of the fruits […]

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Swansea and Chile: exploitation, sanctuary, fulfilment

May 6, 2022 0 Comments
Swansea and Chile: exploitation, sanctuary, fulfilment

The Glynn Vivian has a show of work from its collection on the theme ‘art and industry’.  It’s full of wonderful and thought-provoking things: well-known paintings as well as much less familiar items on paper and in other media.  A whole wall is taken up with Josef Herman’s massive ‘Miners’ oil painting of 1951, surely […]

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In Bruges, with Gerard David and friends

July 1, 2018 0 Comments
In Bruges, with Gerard David and friends

There are many good reasons for going to Brugge (why do we say Bruges, when it’s a mainly Flemish-speaking city?): the townscape and amazingly preserved buildings, the canals and windmills, the beer and chocolates, the football and the multilingualism. But for me a visit was a chance to renew my long friendship with Gerard David. […]

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Frank Brangwyn’s British Empire Panels

March 9, 2018 11 Comments
Frank Brangwyn’s British Empire Panels

1          Introduction Most Swansea people are familiar with the British Empire Panels.  Many sitting through a dull patch in a concert in the Brangwyn Hall will have turned to ponder Frank Brangwyn’s enormous work.  In a few months’ time the Panels will get more exposure, as Marc Rees’s performance piece Nawr yr arwr / Now […]

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From empire to environment: inside the Brangwyn Hall

September 4, 2014 5 Comments
From empire to environment: inside the Brangwyn Hall

It was a Monday morning a few weeks ago and I was taking some photos of the outside of the Brangwyn Hall. A motor caravan had parked in the bay in front. A man leaned out of its window and kindly promised to move out of the way and let me perfect my Leni Riefenstahl […]

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