Frances Richards

Description

This file contains 2 letters to Herbert Read from Frances Richards (the wife of Ceri Richards) and 1 carbon copy of a response from Read.


Richards writes to Read initially to thank him for the quality of reproduction of an image of Ceri Richards' work used in Read's book Art Since 1945. She has been considering collating material for a book on Richard's work and discusses its reception while he was alive. She notes a slight influence of Kandinsky in Richards' Trafalgar Square paintings, and highlights that Richards was one of the few artists, along with Ben Nicholson and John Piper who were working in relief constructions in the early 1930s.


Richards, she writes was influenced by Ernst and Picasso, and she recalls that Roland Penrose referred to one of the largest of the constructions, 'Two figures' as 'the most important thing to be done in this country.'


In her letter of 1964, Richards writes to invite Read to a small exhibition of her own work. She relates Richard Rees' opinion that the works are the 'equivalent in paint of Simone Weill.' She ends her letter: 'I have had very little time for creative work, having devoted most of my time to helping my husband and children. If I had given more time to it the form would have had a better chance to develop. But who can say if one year, two years, or fifty years are necessary, except in terms of quantity.'

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