Hauntingly beautiful Welsh art icon
The hauntingly beautiful Soar-y-Mynydd print by Ogwyn Davies is a regular at our three times per year Welsh Sale. But never did we expect an appearance by an original.
The chapel of Soar y Mynydd in Ceredigion would have been a familiar landmark to the artist Ogwyn Davies (1925 – 2015). He lived less than ten miles away from it, in Tregaron. Those ten miles are however profoundly lonely and isolated, and the chapel’s remoteness seems to us today as bizarre as it is miraculous and moving.
This unique place of worship has a hold on the imagination. Its Welsh-language services, held during the summer months attract congregations from all over Wales and beyond, its location probably being more of a draw that its architecture. Like all Welsh Nonconformist chapels of the early nineteenth century, the interior is as plain as the face it presents. The only decoration are the words, “Duw cariad yw” (God is love), painted behind the pulpit.
Ogwyn Davies was drawn to such texts: he loved to paint through the medium of Welsh. He created paintings and collages from the words of the national anthem (Hen Wlad fy Nhadau), and in 1997, spelt out an unequivocal “Yes” to devolution through tiny versions of the affirmative’s Welsh-language equivalent, “Ie”.
In Soar y Mynydd, he turns again to Welsh (the language of heaven, as its speakers would insist), this time to explore and celebrate the dense relationship between place and culture and to synthesise word, image and sound. Collaged Biblical texts, hymns and their tunes add texture to the chapel’s plain façade, roll over the hills and ascend to the sky. The “Duw cariad yw” behind the pulpit, through centuries of association, gives rise to more phrases - familiar, ritualistic and defiantly monoglot – which cannot be contained within walls. These are the words which give meaning to the simple building, and which sanctify its remote location.
Ogwyn Davies was not only familiar with Soar y Mynydd, but he also understood its significance and its appeal to the Welsh psyche – he may well have attended some of its services. In this painting he has certainly captured the magic of those Sunday afternoons in the summer, when the silent and bleak landscape around Soar y Mynydd reverberates to the sounds of sermons, songs and a shared history, which continues to inspire and unite us as a community and a nation.
Soar-y-Mynydd is one of our headline lots in the November 2024 Welsh Sale. Please call to book an appointment to view this Welsh artistic icon.
