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David TinkerCharlton 1924 – 2000Head of Art and Keeper of Collections 1962–86 David Tinker's contribution to the visual arts in Wales during the second half of the twentieth century, as artist and teacher, was immeasurable. One of the most eminent abstract painters working in Wales, he was a founder member of the 56 Group, a co-operative association formed by young exhibiting artists in Wales who were both advocates of modernism and allied to the international avant garde. As a painter, sculptor, stage designer and teacher, Tinker championed a multiplicity of causes on behalf of the visual arts in Wales, and he was also an energetic campaigner for a museum of modern and contemporary art in Wales.  David Tinker at work. David Tinker staged over twenty solo exhibitions and contributed to numerous group shows; with the 56 Group he exhibited in France, Germany, Holland and the USA. He was also a sculptor and stage designer, undertaking sculpted murals for public places (the largest was his cast aluminium mural for the University’s new arts centre at Aberystwyth), portrait busts, and stage designs for the Welsh National Opera and plays by Saunders Lewis. David Tinker was born in Charlton, south London, trained at Winchester and Bath Colleges of Art then in 1946, after four years in the Navy during the war, at the Slade School of Art. He first came to Wales in 1949 to take up a Lectureship in Sculpture at Cardiff College of Art. Tinker came to Aberystwyth to teach at the University of Wales in 1962. He was promoted to Director of the Visual Art Department (now the School of Art) in 1973, a position he held until his retirement in 1986. As a result of his dedication and enthusiasm, the art department grew from a sub-department within Education to the autonomous Department of Visual Art offering Single, Joint and Masters degree programmes in art and art history.  David Tinker with his sculpture at Aberystwyth Arts Centre |
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