From Tenby and the works of Augustus and Gwen John, through a sense of nationalist revival in the proud work of Maesteg-born Christopher Williams, ending with the trenches of World War I and the moving sketches of David Jones, this is the story of how art in Wales began to create its own identity.
In this programme he finds out how the aftermath of the First World War drove artists like David Jones to produce more reflective art, and how the industrial heartland of South Wales was also inspiring a new generation of artists, many of them working class students at Swansea School of Art, and in their midst, one of the UK's leading experimental artists, Dunvant-born Ceri Richards.
Kim Howells on extraordinary story of Welsh art in the 1940s. The Second World War had a lasting effect on art in Wales through émigré artists like Josef Herman and Heinz Koppel. Ceri Richards was still a huge influence, as was the Cardiff School of Art and the Rhondda group. All over Wales artists such as Kyffin Williams, John Elwyn and Brenda Chamberlain were finding new ways of capturing their Wales.
In this final part of his exploration of Welsh art in the 20th century, Kim Howells turns to the 1960s when the old rules of art were thrown out of the window. Ifor Davies was at the forefront of this revolution, attaching explosives to his paintings before blowing them up. Terry Setch was another artist who criticised consumer society - his large paintings inspired by the shoreline near Penarth were an early warning of our reliance on oil. Welsh identity and nationhood was another theme and is seen in different ways in the art of Iwan Bala and Tim Davies. Mary Lloyd Jones, Shani Rhys James and Sue Williams all made original, compelling work, proving that Welsh art is the equal of any in the world.