Bath, UK - Keith Vaughan (1912-77) was a leading member of the Neo-Romantic movement and one of Britain’s greatest artists of the post-war era.  His work expressed his feelings about the male body, seen in relation to the landscape.  This major retrospective of Vaughan’s work features over 60 oil paintings, gouaches, sketchbooks and journals.  His first museum exhibition for 26 years, it coincides with the 30th anniversary of his death by suicide.  On exhibit 3 February to 25 March 2007 at the Victoria Art Gallery.

The exhibits, generously lent by private collectors in Britain and France, include many of his most important figure compositions, including two of his nine Assembly paintings as well as The Return of the Prodigal Son and Reclining Nude 1950.

Vaughan's paintings depicted "Man," often naked and usually too indistinct to be regarded as portraits, in relation to his environment.  Implicit in much of his work was a sense of man as a homosexual in custom portraits to a hostile world.

Like many gay men of his generation and class, Vaughan was troubled by insecurities about his sexuality.  Much of what is known about his private life comes from his journals, which he began writing in August 1939 and continued until the morning of his death thirty-eight years later.

Despite writing freely about his sexuality, Vaughan was a product of his age.  He had grown up at a time when gay men were driven underground and made to feel guilty about their sexual custom portraits.

Despite considerable success, Vaughan became increasingly self-critical, melancholic and reclusive.  After being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 1975, and also suffering from severe kidney disease and depression, he committed suicide on 4 November 1977 by taking an overdose of drugs.

The show and its accompanying 60-page catalogue have been sponsored by Target Consulting.  The Victoria Art Gallery and Target have received an investment from Arts & Business New Partners to develop their creative partnership.  Arts & Business New Partners is funded by Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.