An Image for the Ages

‘Running Away with the Hairdresser’ comes to November's Welsh Sale

Our catalogue cover image for November's Welsh Sale is an image of two figures sprinting away from South Wales terraces. It is a painting by Kevin Sinnott and is likely the most famous of Welsh art images from the last thirty years.

The partner of this painting is permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Wales, and it has over the years proved to be one of the museum’s favourite acquisitions.

In interviews, Kevin Sinnott said that he could not pinpoint the inspiration for the image, or provide a solid narrative behind the scene. But he has related the two figures to an age of aspiration when many young Welsh people endeavour to escape from their birthplaces. The artist himself left for London for the Royal College of Art and thence became hugely successful in the 1970s and 1980s with sell-out exhibitions at leading London galleries such as Anne Berthoud and Bernard Jacobson, as well as internationally at Jan Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, Roger Ramsey Gallery, Chicago and Bernard Jacobson in New York. Along the way, Sinnott's paintings were acquired by major collections including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the British Council, the Royal College of Art London, the British Museum and of course the National Museum of Wales.

But like many of us, Kevin Sinnott returned to Wales where he is now held as the preeminent Welsh male artist still working today.