A landmark exhibition celebrating the life and work of Gwen John, one of Wales' most acclaimed modern artists, will open at the National Museum Cardiff next year to commemorate the 150th anniversary of her birth. The comprehensive retrospective, titled "Gwen John: Strange Beauties," represents the most extensive exhibition of her work in four decades and will run from February 7 through June 28, 2026.
Tickets are now on sale for this groundbreaking show, which will bring together more than 200 works including paintings, drawings, watercolors, sketchbooks, letters, and archival materials sourced from collections across the United Kingdom and the United States. Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, which purchased its first Gwen John painting "Girl in a Blue Dress" in 1935 for just £20, now holds the world's largest public collection of her work and will host the exhibition before it travels to Scotland and the United States.
The retrospective will reunite some of John's most important oil paintings with rarely seen works on paper that were preserved directly from her studio. These include delicate landscape sketches, intimate figure studies, and vivid still life paintings that reveal the full breadth of her artistic experimentation. Major international institutions have contributed loans to the exhibition, including the Tate, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Yale Center for British Art.
Born in Haverfordwest in 1876, Gwen John was among the first British women to receive formal art education when she trained at the prestigious Slade School of Art. She later relocated to Paris, where she established herself within the city's vibrant artistic community. Though she was often overshadowed during her lifetime, John forged a distinct artistic identity characterized by muted color palettes, quiet interior scenes, and an introspective, modern sensibility that set her apart from her contemporaries.
The exhibition title draws inspiration from John's own words, as she once described herself as "a seer of strange beauties," a sentiment that is reflected throughout her meticulous attention to atmosphere, color, and harmony. Visitors will have the opportunity to see how John repeatedly returned to the same subjects, continually reshaping them through subtle changes in mood, technique, and meaning. This approach demonstrates her commitment to exploring the deeper emotional and spiritual dimensions of her chosen themes.
Among the exhibition highlights are several groundbreaking research components, including a major new technical research project that examines her experimental approach to building compositions. The show will also feature a comprehensive study of her color usage based on a recovered historic paint chart, as well as a survey of works that illustrate her creative process from early preliminary sketches to fully realized finished paintings. To enhance the visitor experience, gallery spaces will be painted in carefully selected tonal shades inspired by John's own palette, created in partnership with Welsh paint company Little Greene.
Gwen John's artistic influence continues to resonate strongly across contemporary culture, with her restrained aesthetic serving as inspiration for renowned designers Jonathan Anderson and Phoebe Philo. Additionally, contemporary painter Celia Paul and influential musicians such as the Manic Street Preachers have acknowledged her significant impact on their own creative work, demonstrating the enduring relevance of her artistic vision.
Lucy Wood, Senior Curator of Art at Amgueddfa Cymru, emphasized that the exhibition aims to foreground John's artistic ambition rather than focusing primarily on biographical details. "This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to encounter anew the depth and rigor of John's vision and her focused pursuit of strange beauties," Wood explained. Dr. Kath Davies, Director of Collections & Research, described John as a trailblazer and noted that many works featured in the exhibition have never before been displayed to the public.
The retrospective is supported principally by the Colwinston Charitable Trust and will be accompanied by two new scholarly publications that will provide additional context and analysis of John's work. A BBC Cymru Wales documentary exploring her life and artistic legacy is also planned for broadcast in 2026, coinciding with the exhibition's run and further expanding public awareness of this remarkable Welsh artist's contributions to modern art.
