David Jones

Key facts

Lived

1895–1974, British

Works held in

13 museums^[1]

Plan your visit to see David Jones →

• What is David Jones's most famous work?+

  David Jones is best known for his long poem, *In Parenthesis*, published in 1937. The work is a modernist epic poem about his experiences as a private soldier in the First World War. Jones served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the Western Front, including at the Battle of the Somme. *In Parenthesis* combines Jones's war experiences with Arthurian legend, Catholic theology, and Welsh mythology. The poem uses a mix of prose and verse, with shifting linguistic registers. Critics often note its experimental style and complex symbolism. T. S. Eliot, a major figure in modernist poetry, praised the work and assisted in its publication by Faber and Faber. Jones also produced visual art, including paintings and engravings. However, *In Parenthesis* remains his most significant and widely recognised achievement. It is considered an important work of First World War literature and a major contribution to modernist writing.
• What should I know about David Jones's prints?+

  David Jones (1895-1974) was a painter, printmaker, and poet associated with both the Vorticist movement and the Roman Catholic modernists. Prints are often produced in limited editions, a decision made by the artist. The exact method of marking each print follows conventions, such as numbering the print and edition on the bottom left, titling the print in the centre, and signing on the bottom right, all in pencil. The Professional Art Dealers Association of Canada defines an original print as an image conceived and executed solely as a print, usually in a numbered edition and signed by the artist. Each print is individually inked and pulled, making it a "multi-original". A reproduction, however, is a copy of artwork originally created in another medium, often made using photomechanical means.
• What style or movement did David Jones belong to?+

  David Jones (1895-1974) is difficult to categorise within a single artistic movement. He worked across several styles, including expressionism, cubism, and surrealism, often blending them in unique ways. Initially, Jones was associated with the group of artists around Eric Gill at Ditchling, Sussex, and later at Pigotts, near High Wycombe. These artists combined religious conviction with a belief in the importance of craftsmanship. Jones converted to Catholicism in 1921, and his faith was a constant source of inspiration. During the 1920s and 1930s, Jones developed a highly personal style. His paintings and engravings often combined Welsh mythology, Catholic symbolism, and his experiences as a soldier in the First World War. His work is characterised by its dense layering of images and meanings, and by a sense of mystical intensity. Although he exhibited with groups associated with modernism, such as the Seven and Five Society, his art remained deeply individual and resistant to easy classification. He is often seen as a significant, but somewhat isolated, figure in 20th-century British art.
• What techniques or materials did David Jones use?+

  David Jones was a painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, who used a variety of techniques and materials. In the early 1960s, Jones's work, while largely figurative, did not attempt a consistent illusion of reality. He used a wide variety of technical and stylistic devices, expressionistic in quality, to bring the viewer's attention to the painting. Jones gathered subject matter from his own life, borrowing eclectic styles from traditional art sources. In the mid-1960s, he renewed his interest in literal representation and began working increasingly from life. As well, he changed from oil paints to acrylics, which better suited the type of painting he wished to achieve. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, portraiture occupied an increasingly important place in Jones's work. These portraits, generally of friends in their normal, everyday environments, were carefully planned and organised. Jones exploited his use of the acrylic medium to its limit, combining a concern for formality with an increasing interest in representational art and depicting natural space and colour. Many preliminary drawings and paintings, from photographs and real life, were made before work on the final painting began; as many as a dozen studies of a particular part of the painting might be made.
• What was David Jones known for?+

  David Hockney, born in 1937, is a British artist known for his constant experimentation with different subjects and materials. He attended Bradford School of Art and later the Royal College of Art in London. Hockney gained attention early in his career, exhibiting at the Young Contemporaries exhibition while still a student. He was initially celebrated as a Pop artist, although he disputed this label. His art seeks direct communication with the viewer, prioritising a clear message over conventional beauty. Some of Hockney's early works show the influence of Walter Sickert, with affectionate portrayals of ordinary subjects. Hockney's family background, marked by strong opinions and limited means, shaped his artistic perspective. An early etching, Myself and My Heroes (1961), reveals his interest in pacifism and free expression, referencing Mahatma Gandhi and Walt Whitman. Hockney's art undergoes periodic changes as he explores new techniques. He moves away from methods once they become too easy, seeking constant challenges in his work.
• Where can I see David Jones's work?+

  David Jones's artworks are held in numerous public collections. The Tate holds a significant number of his pieces; their catalogue includes watercolours, drawings, and painted inscriptions. The National Museum of Wales also has a collection of Jones's work, reflecting his Welsh heritage and subject matter. Examples of his work can be found in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery; their holdings include portraits and self-portraits. The British Museum possesses a selection of his prints and drawings. Smaller regional galleries and museums across the United Kingdom may also have works by Jones on display or in storage. These include institutions such as the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. University collections, such as that of Cambridge, sometimes hold prints or drawings. Checking the online catalogues of these institutions is advisable before planning a visit.
• Where was David Jones from?+

  David Jones was born in 1937 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He is considered one of the most important figures in English Pop Art during the 1960s. Jones received a national diploma of design from the Bradford School of Art at the age of seventeen. In 1959, he began his studies at the Royal College of Art in London. Later, in 1964, he travelled to Southern California. He taught at the University of Iowa, the University of Colorado, and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1968, Jones returned to London. He lived briefly in Malibu in 1973, and in Paris until 1975. By 1976, he had moved back to Southern California, where he currently resides. Jones works include paintings, drawings, prints, photography, and designs for operas.
• Who did David Jones influence?+

  David Jones's work had an impact on a range of artists and writers, although his influence is often subtle and indirect. His synthesis of modernism, Catholicism, and Welsh cultural themes appealed to figures interested in similar subjects. The poet and critic T.S. Eliot admired Jones's long poem *In Parenthesis*, published in 1937, and its fragmented style. Eliot's own poetry, such as *The Waste Land*, shared some of Jones's concerns with cultural fragmentation and the aftermath of the First World War. Writers such as W.H. Auden also engaged with Jones's ideas about the relationship between art, religion, and national identity. Auden's poetry sometimes explored similar themes of spiritual and cultural loss in the modern world. Among artists, Jones's calligraphic style and use of lettering influenced some practitioners of concrete poetry and visual art that incorporated text. His emphasis on the sacramental nature of art also resonated with artists interested in religious symbolism and spirituality. However, Jones remains a somewhat singular figure, and his impact is more discernible as a source of inspiration than as the founder of a particular school or movement.
• Who influenced David Jones?+

  David Jones's aesthetic influences are diverse, reflecting his interests as a painter, printmaker, and writer. Jones was a student of A. S. Hartrick at the Westminster School of Art from 1909 to 1912; he then studied under Walter Sickert. Sickert's emphasis on tonal painting and urban subject matter had an initial effect. Jones converted to Roman Catholicism in 1921, and his religious beliefs became central to his artistic vision. He was interested in the medieval art of illuminated manuscripts and the writings of theologians such as St. John of the Cross. His involvement with Eric Gill and the Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic at Ditchling Common from 1921 exposed him to Gill's theories about the relationship between art, craft, and religion. Jones's admiration for Gill's lettering and wood engraving is clear in his own work as a calligrapher and printmaker. He was also influenced by the art and ideas of close friends such as the poet T. S. Eliot and the sculptor Jim Ede. Jones's time serving in World War I also had a great effect on his art.
• Who was David Jones?+

  There are multiple artists named David Jones. David Nash, born in Esher, Surrey, in 1945, studied at Kingston College of Art and Chelsea School of Art. In 1967, he moved to Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales, and in 1969, he bought the chapel he still occupies. Nash initially worked with milled wood, interested in applying colour. He later used the wood's natural colour, inspired by nature. Nash uses only fallen trees, creating shapes from their inherent characteristics. Another artist, David Hare, was born in New York in 1917. He studied biology and chemistry at Bard College from 1936 to 1937. In the late 1930s, he experimented with colour photography. During the early 1940s, Hare connected with Surrealist émigrés in New York and began making sculpture in 1942. He co-founded the Surrealist magazine VVV with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst. He moved to Paris in 1948, then returned to New York in 1953. Hare began to focus on painting in the 1960s and created his Cronus series in the late 1960s, encompassing drawings, paintings, and sculpture.
• Why are David Jones's works important today?+

  David Jones (1895-1974) was a British artist and poet whose work is important for its synthesis of modernism, Catholicism, and Welsh cultural identity. Jones served as a private in the First World War, an experience which profoundly affected his artistic vision. His paintings and engravings often combine religious symbolism with imagery drawn from his wartime experiences and his Welsh heritage. Jones's style is characterised by its layering of images and texts, creating complex, allusive compositions. He worked across media, including watercolour, drawing, and printmaking. Jones's literary work, most notably *In Parenthesis*, an epic poem about his time in the trenches, is considered a significant contribution to war literature. His writing, like his visual art, explores themes of sacrifice, memory, and the search for meaning in a fragmented world. Interest in Jones’s work has grown since his death, with exhibitions and publications exploring the multifaceted nature of his output. His unique perspective on war, religion, and national identity continues to resonate with contemporary audiences.
• What is David Jones known for?+

  Jones is known for his literary work In Parenthesis, which is considered a major work of British literary modernism. He is also known for his delicate and highly detailed watercolour paintings.