In the literary tradition

In recent years there have been a number of exhibitions of Keith Vaughan’s work in commercial galleries, and his prices at auction have climbed steadily, but no major show in the nation’s museums. Yet interest in his life keeps pace with the revival in his art (the standard biography of Vaughan, by Malcolm Yorke, is long out of print and avidly sought after), and 2012 as the centenary of his birth will see the publication of a new monograph, a catalogue raisonné of his paintings and an annotated volume of his final journals. Vaughan was a good writer, and although selections from his journals have been published before (in 1966 and 1989), the harrowing writings from his last two years have never before been published in unabridged form (Drawing to a Close, edited by Gerard Hastings, £29.95). That they should appear now is a measure of the interest in this remarkable artist.