Press Releases

A landmark exhibition of Gwen John, one of Wales’s greatest modern artists, will go on show at National Museum Cardiff from 7 February 2026, before touring internationally. Tickets are now available to book for Gwen John: Strange Beauties which is the most comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work in 40 years. 

Amgueddfa Cymru purchased its first work by Gwen John, Girl in a Blue Dress, for £20 in 1935, just four years before the artist’s death. It now holds the largest public collection of her artworks in the world.

The exhibition brings together oil paintings from public and private collections across the UK and USA with rarely seen works on paper from the artist’s studio collection. Ranging from delicate landscape sketches to impromptu figure studies and vibrantly coloured still lifes, these lesser-known drawings and watercolours reveal the full scope of John’s artistic ambition.

More than 200 paintings, drawings, watercolours, sketchbooks, letters, and archival material will be displayed, with loans from institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Tate.

With principal funding secured from Colwinston Charitable Trust, Gwen John: Strange Beauties will provide a fresh perspective on her artistic legacy and new insights into the life of the celebrated artist whose work was never fully recognised during her lifetime.

Born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in 1876, Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Art in London and was one of the first British women to receive a formal art education. She later moved to Paris, where she became part of its vibrant artistic community, forging an independent path in a male-dominated art world. Her subtle portraits and interiors, muted tonal palette and contemplative style set her apart from her contemporaries as a quieter yet radical voice of modernism.

In her private notes, Gwen John called herself “a seer of strange beauties.” She studied the world closely, often painting and drawing the same subjects many times, each time in a new way. The exhibition reveals the depth and range of John’s practice, from her early works in Wales to her later paintings inspired by British and French modernism, religious devotion and her surroundings in Meudon, near Paris.

One hundred and fifty years after her birth, the creative influence of Gwen John continues to resonate today. Designer Jonathan Anderson is a collector, citing her palette and emotional depth as key influences on his collections. Designer Phoebe Philo’s understated aesthetic is often compared to her restrained sensibility, while painter Celia Paul has openly reflected on John’s impact in her book Letters to Gwen John. The Manic Street Preachers have drawn on her life and legacy in their music (The Secret He Had Missed), and photographer Laura Pannack cites early 20th-century female painters including John, as key influences on her palette and quiet, painterly approach to portraiture.

Key highlights of the exhibition include:

• Rarely seen drawings and watercolours from the artist’s studio collection, many exhibited for the first time, offering an intimate glimpse into her life and practice.
• Collaboration with major art institutions on a new technical research project, revealing new insight into John’s experimental approach to building her compositions.
• An exploration of John’s influences and the profound impact of the artist’s faith on her work
• Works in exceptional condition, preserved directly from John’s studio, retaining their original colours.
• Works tracing the process from initial sketches to finished paintings, offering insight into Gwen John’s distinctive way of working.
• A study into her use of colour, tracing John’s exact paint choices using a recovered historic paint chart and her personal letters and notations.
• Gallery spaces painted in tonal shades chosen specifically to echo John’s palette - in partnership with Little Greene, whose paint is made in Wales.

Lucy Wood, Senior Curator of Art at Amgueddfa Cymru and curator of Gwen John: Strange Beauties said:

“Gwen John described herself as ‘a seer of strange beauties, a teller of harmonies, a diligent worker.’ She returned repeatedly to the same subjects and motifs, seeking not only to capture the beauty of the world around her, but to find meaning amid constant change. Historically, John’s work has been evaluated primarily through the lens of her biography. Bringing together celebrated oil paintings with rarely seen works on paper from the artist’s studio collection, this exhibition foregrounds her working methods and artistic ambition. John’s practice was one rooted in close, attentive looking. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter anew the depth and rigor of John’s vision and her focused pursuit of strange beauties.”

Dr Kath Davies, Director of Collections & Research at Amgueddfa Cymru said:

“As an independent woman living and working as an artist in the early 20th century, Gwen John was a trailblazer. Many of her drawings and studio works have never been exhibited before. This major exhibition offers a rare opportunity to explore her techniques, processes and inspirations — and to rightly celebrate her as the pioneering artist she was.”

Mathew Prichard CBE, Chair, Colwinston Charitable Trust, said:

“As we celebrate our 30th year supporting organisations delivering high quality work in the Live Performing and Visual Arts, we are especially thrilled to support this momentous exhibition, and perhaps most significantly, that this retrospective of John’s magnificent work is to premier in Wales, at Amgueddfa Cymru.”

The exhibition is organised in partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland, Yale Center for British Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. and will go on to tour to partner galleries in Scotland and the USA throughout 2026 and 2027.

There will be two new publications to coincide with the exhibition. The exhibition catalogue Gwen John: Strange Beauties (hardback, £50) is published by the Yale Center for British Art in association with Amgueddfa Cymru, and is available from the exhibition opening. Edited by Lucy Wood and Rachel Stratton, it features nine original essays, bringing new scholarly attention and a feminist perspective to Gwen John’s art. Meanwhile, Unseen Gwen John, published by Amgueddfa Cymru (paperback £24.99), with a foreword by poet Gwyneth Lewis, will be available from 5 March 2026. Focusing on the unique collection at Amgueddfa Cymru, it shares new insights into Gwen John’s work and artistic processes based on the research and conservation undertaken by Amgueddfa Cymru staff in preparation for the exhibition.

The 150th anniversary celebrations continue with the broadcast in 2026 of a new BBC Cymru Wales documentary about the life and work of Gwen John, presented by BBC Radio 1 broadcaster Sian Eleri.

LISTINGS INFORMATION

Exhibition title: Gwen John: Strange Beauties
Venue: National Museum Cardiff
Dates: 7 February – 28 June, 2026
Tickets on sale from 18 November 2025 via museum.wales/GwenJohn

PRICING STRUCTURE

TOURING EXHIBITION DATES

• National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two, Edinburgh – 1 August 2026 – 4 January 2027
• Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut – 18 February – 20 June 2027
• National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC – 30 July – 28 November 2027

PRESS PREVIEW

A Press Preview will be held at National Museum Cardiff on Wednesday 4 February 2026. Further details to follow.

FUNDING SUPPORT

The exhibition is generously supported by principal funder, the Colwinston Charitable Trust, with additional support from Art Fund, The Finnis Scott Foundation, Friends of Amgueddfa Cymru, The Gibbs Trust, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Charity, International Music and Art Foundation and Michael Marks Charitable Trust; as well as individual supporters.

About Amgueddfa Cymru

Amgueddfa Cymru belongs to everyone and is here for everyone to use.

We’re a charity and a family of seven national museums located across the country. Our aim is to inspire everyone through Wales’ story, at our museums, in communities and digitally.

Our welcome is free thanks to funding from the Welsh Government and extends to people from all communities.

Follow Amgueddfa Cymru’s seven museums on Instagram and Facebook. Play your part in Wales’ story: by visiting, volunteering, by joining, by donating.

www.museum.wales

About Amgueddfa Cymru’s Gwen John collection 

Amgueddfa Cymru holds the world’s largest public collection of Gwen John’s art. The Museum purchased its first painting by the artist in 1935, receiving a handwritten note of thanks from John herself. In 1976, marking the centenary of her birth, the Museum significantly expanded its holdings, acquiring more than 900 drawings and watercolours, as well as sketchbooks and oil studies, that had been left in her studio after her death. 

Additional Quotes

Vee Pollock, Director of Collection and Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, said:

‘Strange Beauties is the first ever major retrospective of Gwen John’s work to come to Scotland, marking 150 years since her birth and celebrating her lasting legacy. Taking over the whole of National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two, visitors can look forward to immersing themselves in the subtle use of colour and sense of calm in John’s paintings. We can’t wait for everyone in Scotland to get to know this incredible Welsh artist in 2026.’

Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, Yale Center for British Art, said:

‘The Yale Center for British Art is thrilled to be part of this innovative exhibition, reframing Gwen John’s artistic practice for contemporary audiences for the first time in more than four decades. This groundbreaking retrospective presents a timely opportunity for the YCBA to share its extraordinary paintings and drawings made by John. The YCBA’s founder, Paul Mellon, was particularly drawn to Gwen John’s meditative works, assembling the largest public collection of paintings and drawings by the artist outside the UK. It is a privilege to be the first venue in the United States to host this exhibition dedicated to Gwen John as the museum commemorates its fiftieth anniversary.’

Susan Fisher Sterlin, Director, National Museum of Women in the Arts, said:

‘We are honored to collaborate with Amgueddfa Cymru in bringing Gwen John’s body of work to light. We have long admired John’s quiet brilliance and, as the first major museum in the world solely dedicated to women in the arts, we look forward to bringing her art to prominence when the exhibition travels to Washington, D.C.’