“The library saw the potential of this young artist,” said Morfudd Bevan, art curator at the National Library of Wales.
For the first time, paintings by Sir Kyffin Williams have been brought to life in a new immersive experience at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.
The attraction, titled Profiad Kyffin Experience, features a 360-degree centrepiece where images from Williams’s oil paintings—including hill farmers and sheepdogs—are animated. Sir Bryn Terfel narrates the artist’s life story in a bilingual presentation while original paintings are illuminated on the walls.
The institution received grants totaling £500,000 to fund the project. Library officials hope the exhibition will introduce new audiences to the work of the artist, who is considered the defining Welsh painter of the 20th century.
Born on Anglesey in 1918, Williams maintained a long relationship with the library, which holds about 2,000 pieces of his work in its collection. In 1950, the library bought its first two pieces from the young artist soon after he left the Slade School of Fine Art in London.
Bevan said that the library paid £15 for an oil painting of Cader Idris and £7.10 for an ink and wash drawing of Tre’r Ceiri on the Llŷn Peninsula.
When Williams died in September 2006, he left a substantial part of his estate to the library, including more than 1,200 works on paper, about 200 oil paintings, more than 300 original prints, and his personal archive.
Director of experience Carys Ifan described the setup of the attraction. “It’s by no means a traditional exhibition,” Ifan said.
The experience occupies three rooms that formerly served as offices. Technical design for the project was led by Focal Studios.
Dennis Outten, chief executive of Focal Studios, spoke about the project and working on it as a labour of love.
Focal Studios partnered with researchers from Liverpool John Moores University to develop high-fidelity 3D scans of the paintings for an interactive self-portrait easel. They also worked with creative company leo&hyde to animate the artworks.
The attraction was formally launched on Thursday by Heledd Fychan MS, Cabinet Minister for Culture and Sport, with funding support from the Colwinston Trust and the Welsh Government. Each session accommodates ten people, and tickets for dates from January 2027 onwards are scheduled to follow the public opening on Wednesday, November 18.