Kevin Sinnott, a defining figure in contemporary Welsh art, has died at his home in Pont-y-rhyl in the Garw Valley. He was 78.
Born in 1947 in Sarn near Bridgend, to Irish parents, Sinnott trained at Cardiff College of Art, Gloucestershire College of Art and Design, and the Royal College of Art in London. He graduated in 1974 and spent the 1970s and 1980s establishing his reputation in London, exhibiting at leading galleries including Anne Berthoud, Angela Flowers and Bernard Jacobson, as well as at the Chicago Art Fair and galleries in the United States. His talent was recognised early, including a prize at the John Moores Exhibition in Liverpool in 1980.
In 1993, Sinnott returned to Wales, a move that reinvigorated his work and rooted it firmly in the landscape, communities and people of the South Wales valleys. It was this year that produced Running Away with the Hairdresser, now housed in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, and widely regarded as one of the best-loved paintings in the national collection. He built his home and studio in Pont-y-rhyl and continued to work prolifically, exhibiting regularly with the Martin Tinney Gallery in Cardiff and Flowers Gallery in London and New York. He worked up until the end of his life, always endeavouring to share his work with others, such as in an upcoming exhibition at Celf Gallery in Cardiff due in September.
Sinnott’s paintings have been acquired by a number of major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the British Museum, the Royal College of Art, and the National Museum of Wales, alongside numerous private and corporate collections worldwide.
He was predeceased by his wife Susan in 2017. He is survived by his four children and 11 grandchildren.