KEITH VAUGHAN

John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), generally known as Keith Vaughan, was a British painter.

Born in Selsey, Vaughan attended Christ’s Hospital school. He worked in an advertising agency until the war. When as an intending conscientious objector he joined the St John Ambulance. In 1941 he was conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps. 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).

Also during the war Vaughan formed friendships with the painters Graham Sutherland and John Minton. With whom after demobilization 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.