Ceri Richards: Windows, tabernacle and reredos
Title: Windows, tabernacle and reredos
Artist: Ceri Richards (1903–1971, Welsh)
Location: Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (RC)
Date: 1966
Ceri Richards’s reredos and stained glass were conceived as a single triptych, abstractly flowing one into another. The tabernacle has more obvious imagery: the heavens, the chalice and the cross. In response to his work, Richards said, ‘Temperamentally I feel attuned to the movement and dynamism that lie in nature and events’.
Ceri Richards (1903–1971, Welsh) grew up in a household where music and poetry played a central role. This early experience was to influence his work throughout his career. He created bodies of work inspired by the poetry of Dylan Thomas as well as later in life a series of paintings of sunken cathedrals based upon the compositions of Debussy. His style evolved with the times, and he experimented with Surrealism, Cubism and abstraction. Richards was a prizewinner at the 1962 Venice Biennale.
Further information
Medium: Gilt metal, glass, enamel
Permanent display
See Richard’s Windows, tabernacle and reredos on the Ecclesiart map here.
Other artworks in churches by Ceri Richards: Stained glass windows (1964), Derby Cathedral; The Deposition, 1958, at St Mary’s Swansea
Other modern/contemporary works of art in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral: Still point by Susanna Heron; Risen Christ sculpture by Arthur Dooley; floor and bronze gates by David Atkins; Christ figure by Elisabeth Frink; eagle lectern, Abraham statue, ambo and stations of the cross by Sean Ricee; Paschal Candle and embroidered panel by Robin McGhie; Prophet and Angel sculptures by Ernst Blensdorf; hanging panels by Sister Anthony SND and Pat Boulton; mosaic panel of Pentecost by George Mayer-Marton; Lady Chapel windows by Margaret Traherne; Madonna and Child sculpture by Robert Brumby; Lady Chapel altar by Sister Anthony SND; Chapel of St Joseph panels, Children’s Chapel Christ with the children sculpture and Reconciliation Chapel Christ on the Cross sculpture by Stephen Foster; Amnesty Chapel sculpture of Christ before Pilate by Peter Ball; candlestick by Edwin Lutyens; stonework façade and bronze door sculptures by William Mitchell.