Swansea University Art Collection

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower by Ceri Richards

Ceri Richards was born in Dunvant, near Swansea in 1903, he represented Britain in many international exhibitions.

The poetry of Dylan Thomas was a recurring theme in his work, and he met the writer just weeks before his untimely death in 1953. Thomas' Collected Poems inspired the 1965 series of lithographs entitled Twelve Lithographs for Six Poems by Dylan Thomas, regarded as one of the great works of printmaking in post-war Britain.

Dark and apocolyptic, they show the brutality and force of nature. Metaphors for the cyclical nature of life and death, roses, skulls and birds are recurring images, creating beautiful and haunting depictions of some of Dylan Thomas' most bleak but stunning poems.