Merlyn Evans

Merlyn Evans (1910–1973) was a Welsh painter and printmaker whose work moved between Surrealism, politically charged figuration and abstraction. An accomplished painter and draughtsman, he was also one of the most technically inventive British printmakers of the post-war period, particularly in etching, engraving and mezzotint.

Born in Cardiff and raised near Glasgow, Evans studied at Glasgow School of Art before continuing at the Royal College of Art in London. During the 1930s he travelled extensively in Europe, encountering the work of artists including Mondrian, Kandinsky, Giacometti and Max Ernst. In 1936 he was included in the landmark International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries in London.

From 1938 Evans lived in Durban, South Africa, where he taught at the Natal Technical College. During the Second World War he served in North Africa and Italy, experiences that had a profound impact on his work. On returning to Britain he produced a powerful group of anti-war paintings in which figures and events were transformed into angular, sometimes violent compositions combining elements of Cubism, Surrealism and Vorticism.

During the 1950s Evans increasingly explored abstraction, while printmaking became central to his practice. He developed technically complex etchings, engravings and large-scale mezzotints, often using geometric forms to create a strong sense of tension, movement and confrontation. His achievement was recognised with a major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1956.

Evans’s international reputation continued to grow. In 1967 he was artist in residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where a retrospective exhibition of his work was held. He also travelled to New York and encountered leading American artists including Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Robert Motherwell.

From 1965 until his death Evans taught painting at the Royal College of Art. His later paintings became increasingly abstract and architectural, employing sharply defined planes, strong colour contrasts and repeated geometric structures. Alongside these paintings he continued to develop his graphic work, and the Victoria and Albert Museum presented an exhibition of his prints in 1972.

The Redfern Gallery has played a part in the posthumous reassessment of Evans’s work. In 1988 Redfern and the Mayor Gallery jointly presented Merlyn Evans 1910–1973: A Retrospective Exhibition, accompanied by a substantial catalogue. His work has subsequently continued to appear in Redfern exhibitions of Modern British art, including the gallery’s Centenary Exhibition in 2023.

Interest in Evans continues internationally. His work is currently included in In the Very Bowels of Changes: Surrealism and Antifascism at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, 2026–27, reflecting renewed attention to the political and Surrealist dimensions of his early work.

Evans’s work is held in major public collections including Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Museum of Wales and the Government Art Collection.