Biography

Born in Cardiff, Wales, Evans grew up in Rutherglen from the age of 3. He studied at Glasgow School of Art (1927-31), before attending the Royal College of Art, London (1932-34), which included study visits to Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen and Italy. He travelled extensively throughout the 1930s and 1940s, meeting Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Max Ernst and others, before settling in London where he exhibited in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition. Between 1938-42 he lived in Durban, South Africa and served in the South African Army, then the British Army, during World War II. These experiences strongly influenced his artistic style and output; upon his return to London in the late 1940s he painted anti-war allegories, culminating in a largescale exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1949. Evans taught painting at the Royal College of Art (1965-73) and was awarded the Gold Medal for Fine Art at the 1966 National Eisteddfod of Wales.