Keith Vaughan: On Pagham Beach, Photographs and Collages From the 1930s (2017)

Austin/Desmond Fine Art presents an exhibition of rare vintage photographs and collages by the British artist Keith Vaughan (1912-1977). Dating from the 1930s, the majority of these images have never previously been seen or exhibited.

Recording the visits made by the artist and a close coterie of male friends to Pagham Beach (located near Bognor Regis in West Sussex), these works were known to have existed and were often alluded to in published studies on the artist but their whereabouts have always remained a mystery. The re-emergence of this remarkable collection will confirm the central role that photography played in Vaughan’s artistic development. As a self-taught painter and photographer, many of these vintage photographs are the source material Vaughan used for drawings, gouaches and oils created after the Second World War. In every way they are the foundation that led to the artistic evolution of one of Britain’s most renowned 20th Century figurative painters.