Keith Vaughan

John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), was a British painter. His work is held in the collections of the Government Art Collection, National Galleries Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, Tate and Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK.

Early life
Born at Selsey in West Sussex, Vaughan attended Christ's Hospital school.

He worked in an advertising agency until World War II, when as an intending conscientious objector he joined the St. John Ambulance; in 1941 he was conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps.

Art career
Vaughan was self-taught as an artist. His first exhibitions took place during the war. In 1942 he was stationed at Ashton Gifford near Codford in Wiltshire, and paintings from this time include The Wall at Ashton Gifford (Manchester Art Gallery).

During the war Vaughan formed friendships with the painters Graham Sutherland and John Minton, with whom after demobilisation in 1946 he shared premises. Through these contacts he formed part of the neo-romantic circle of the immediate post-war period. However, Vaughan rapidly developed an idiosyncratic style which moved him away from the Neo-Romantics. Concentrating on studies of male figures, his works became increasingly abstract.

Vaughan is also known for his journals, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989, after his death. A gay man troubled by his sexuality, he is known largely through those journals.

Educator
Vaughan worked as an art teacher at the Camberwell College of Arts, the Central School of Art and later at the Slade School.

Later life and death
He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and died by suicide in 1977 in London, recording his last moments in his diary as the drugs overdose took effect.

Art market
His auction record of £313,250 was set at Sotheby's, London, on 11 November 2009, for the oil on canvas Theseus and the Minotaur, previously in the collection of Richard Attenborough (who bought it in 1967).

Publications

 * Keith Vaughan. Journals & Drawings, 1966, published in London by Alan Ross, 219 pages.
 * Keith Vaughan: Journals 1939–1977, ed Alan Ross, 1989, published in London by John Murray, 217 pages, ISBN 0-7195-4732-6.
 * Keith Vaughan, His Life and Work, Malcolm Yorke, 1990, published in London by Constable, 288 pages, ISBN 0-09-469780-9 (Hardback)

Exhibitions

 * 1944
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London


 * 1946
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London


 * 1948
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, George Dix Gallery, New York
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Monotypes, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London


 * 1950
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Instituto de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
 * Gouaches, Redfern Gallery, London


 * 1951
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London


 * 1952
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
 * Keith Vaughan – Drawings for Rimbaud: Une Saison en Enfer, Hanover Gallery, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Durlacher Bros, New York


 * 1953
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Leicester Galleries, London


 * 1955
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Leicester Galleries, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Durlacher Bros, New York


 * 1956
 * Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, Leicester Galleries, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Show, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle


 * 1957
 * Keith Vaughan: Travelling Retrospective, (based on Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Show, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle), Arts Council
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Durlacher Bros, New York


 * 1958
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Leicester Galleries, London


 * 1959
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
 * Keith Vaughan, Leicester Galleries, London


 * 1960
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Drawings, Matthiesen Gallery, London


 * 1962
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London


 * 1963
 * Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Bienal de Sao Paulo


 * 1964
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Charcoals, Marlborough New London Gallery, London


 * 1965
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
 * Keith Vaughan: Recent Gouaches, Marlborough Fine Art, London


 * 1966
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Durlacher Bros, New York


 * 1967
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Drawings, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester


 * 1968
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Rex Evans Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
 * Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, Marlborough Fine Art, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings 1942–46, Hamet Gallery, London


 * 1969
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Exhibition, Mappin Gallery, Sheffield
 * Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester


 * 1970
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Drawings, Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings, Hamet Gallery, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, University of York, York


 * 1973
 * Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, Waddington Galleries, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings in Gouaches, Victor Waddington Gallery, London


 * 1976
 * Keith Vaughan: New Paintings and Gouaches, Waddington Galleries, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Drawings, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches and Drawings, Compass Gallery, Glasgow


 * 1977
 * Keith Vaughan: Memorial Exhibition, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield


 * 1981
 * Keith Vaughan: Images of Man: Figurative Paintings: 1946–1960, Geffrye Museum, London and Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery


 * 1985
 * Keith Vaughan: Drawings and Paintings, New Grafton Gallery, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Early Drawings and Gouaches, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London


 * 1987
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Drawings, New Grafton Gallery, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches, Watercolours and Drawings 1936–76, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, Sunninghill
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, Mercury Gallery, Edinburgh
 * Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper, Garry Anderson Gallery, Darlinghurst


 * 1989
 * Keith Vaughan, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Drawings, Notebook Sketches, Redfern Gallery, London


 * 1990
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Drawings, Gouaches, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath


 * 1991
 * Drawings of the Young Male, St Jude's, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath


 * 1994
 * Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper, Redfern Gallery, London


 * 1995
 * Keith Vaughan: Les Illuminations de Rimbaud, an Exhibition of 42 Drawings, Deka, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Drawings and Gouaches, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath


 * 1999
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath


 * 2000
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches, Drawings and Lithographs, Julian Lax, London


 * 2002
 * Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, Winter Fine Art and Antiques Fair, Olympia, London


 * 2004
 * Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath


 * 2007
 * Keith Vaughan: Figure and Landscape, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
 * Keith Vaughan: A Selection of Early Work from the Collection of Peter Adam, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath
 * Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Drawings, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London


 * 2009
 * Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Abbott and Holder, London


 * 2010
 * Drawings and Sketches for Paintings 1945–1960, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Four Decades of Drawing, Gallery 27, London


 * 2011
 * Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Drawings and Prints, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath


 * 2012
 * Keith Vaughan, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
 * Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper from the Estate of Keith Vaughan, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath
 * Keith Vaughan: Romanticism to Abstraction, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
 * Keith Vaughan, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London

Collections
Vaughan's work is held in the following permanent collections:
 * Government Art Collection, UK: 7 works (as of 19 April 2023)
 * National Galleries Scotland, UK: 5 works (as of 19 April 2023)
 * National Portrait Gallery, London: 1 work (as of 19 April 2023)
 * Tate, UK: 1 painting (as of 19 April 2023)
 * Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 32 objects (as of 19 April 2023)