Keith Vaughan 1912-1977

From 1941 to 1944 he served in the Pioneer Corps. His drawings of army life attracted attention and he entered the circle of Peter Watson in London. As a younger generation Neo-Romantic he was heavily influenced by Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and William Blake. During the 1950s Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse were major influences on Vaughan, but most important was that of Nicolas De Stael, who enabled him to reconcile figurative and abstract elements. He was essentially a painter of figure compositions that attempted to balance male nudes with abstract environments.He taught in London at Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and was a visiting teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art (1959-77). His remarkable journal, inspired by André Gide, reveals the tension in his life and work between intellectual Puritanism and unrepressed sensuality. His work can be regarded as an expression of his feelings about the male body.