The Raising of Lazarus, 1964
Euryl Stevens (b. 1939)
Oil on board,125 x 100 cm. Methodist Modern Art Collection, MCMAC: 047
Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208
Biblical commentary
John 11: 41–44
Lazarus is in his tomb at the bottom of this painting then, in four images from right to left above that, in progressive stages of resurrection. In the third stage, he rises in a sequence of white-clad figures, before reaching ground level in a bright pink robe. The painting divides into two, with the bright colours of earth contrasting with the darkness of death. Jesus’s arms embrace the scene as if from the position of the viewer. Stevens gives Lazarus the face of her late father. The miracle is witnessed by a great crowd held back by policemen and clergymen. Amongst them stand Mary and Martha who, like the figures of Lazarus and Jesus, are painted to a larger scale. The crowd includes animal-headed figures. Stevens says these represent people with no need for religion.
Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.
Artist biography
Born: Tonypandy, Glamorgan, Wales, 1939
Early life
Stevens grew up in in the Rhondda Valley but moved to Birmingham with her mother at the age of 13 when her father died.
Education
Stevens studied at Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts from 1957 to 1961 and at the Royal Academy Schools from 1961 to 1964. The work in the Methodist Modern Art Collection was acquired directly from the artist from the Royal Academy Schools in 1964. She won the main award of the Cinzano Art Foundation Competition which included a six-month period of study in Rome. On her return, she spent a year as a lecturer at Rochdale College of Art.
Life and career
Whilst at the Birmingham College of Art, Stevens met and developed a long friendship with LS Lowry. It may be possible to detect something of Lowry’s influence in her paintings of industrial landscapes and in the slightly exaggerated realist figurative style of many of her paintings.
Her work in the mid-1960s could be seen as an early manifestation of ‘magic realism.’ To some extent it recalls the work of both Paula Rego and Beryl Cook.
Stevens stopped painting to bring up three children but started again in 1979 and exhibited regularly in the Midlands. When her mother died in the 1980s, she again stopped painting but resumed her career after a two-year gap.
The Rhondda Valley has remained close to Stevens’ heart, as demonstrated in her 2016 retrospective exhibition in Oswestry. Her work in that exhibition, influenced by contemporary life in the Rhondda Valley, depicted lively characters. They are mainly women on a night out in colourful costumes, created in bold lines of stitchwork and a mixture of wool and paint.
Stevens says that she has never been a believer. She says that creating is the nearest thing she ever gets to religion, and she finds stimulation in the way painters express their emotions and reactions to life in the world. She does not find conventional religious subjects interesting but says that one can find “a celebration of life” in the most unexpected work.
Exhibitions and collections
Stevens’ solo exhibitions include Ellesmere Arts Centre (1982); Walsall Art Museum and Art Gallery (1982); Dudley Art Gallery and Museum (1983); Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Museum (1983); Stafford Art Gallery (1984); Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury (1984); and a retrospective exhibition, You Can Take The Girl Out of the Valley… at the Qube Gallery in Oswestry (2016).
Her many group exhibitions include the Royal Academy Schools’ student show, Royal Academy, London (1962 and 1963); the Television West and Wales award exhibition in the Howard Roberts Gallery, Cardiff (1964); Shropshire open exhibition, Gateway Galleries, Shrewsbury (I984-92); and The alphabet project in the Gateway Galleries, Shrewsbury (1993).
Her commissions include work for the Habit (bar, restaurant), Bridgenorth, Shropshire (1999); and the Malthouse Jazz Bar, Ironbridge, Shropshire, (1999).
Her work is held in collections including the Worcester Art Gallery and Museum.
Sources and further reading
D Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945: Volume 2 M to Z. Vol. 2 of 2 volumes, (Bristol, Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006), p. 1511
Seeing the Spiritual: A Guide to the Methodist Modern Art Collection, (Oxford, Methodist Modern Art Collection, 2018), p. 102-103
Jessica Flynn, ‘“Her characters are full of warmth and humour” These are Valley girls as you've never seen them before: Comical characters feature in an exhibition by Rhondda artist Euryl Stevens,’ Wales Online. 12 March 2016.
www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/her-characters-full-warmth-humour-11024263 (viewed on September 2024)
Roger Wollen, Catalogue of the Methodist Church Collection of Modern Christian Art with an Account of the Collection’s History, (Oxford, The Trustees of the Methodist Collection of Modern Christian Art, 2003), p. 136-138