16 Facts About Keith New

Keith New was a stained glass artist and craftsman during his early career and a well-regarded teacher and landscape painter in later life.

In 1965 Keith New became a Brother of the Art Workers Guild.

Keith New is considered a pioneering British modernist in the art of stained glass and is associated with major architectural projects of the 1950s and 1960s.

Keith New worked on a design team for Sir Basil Spence's Coventry Cathedral with Lawrence Lee and Geoffrey Clarke in which he designed three nave windows for the cathedral.

Keith New explored new techniques for working with leaded and painted glass, including glass applique using epoxy resins, and glass mosaic.

In Norwich Cathedral, in a Millennium scheme for the north transept in 2000 by John Hayward but incorporating surviving pieces of Keith New's work, removed from St Stephen Walbrook Church, City of London.

Keith New gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art but deferred entry until 1948 after completion of his National Service with the Royal Air Force, during which he used his free time to develop his love of landscape drawing and painting.

Keith New started in Graphic Design at the RCA, but at the end of one term switched to stained glass, run by Lawrence Lee from 1948.

Keith New's dynamism brought him to the attention of John Betjeman, Basil Spence and John Piper.

In 1951 one of Keith New's designs was included in a show at South Bank, London as part of the Festival of Britain, gathering considerable attention.

Keith New supplemented his work on this significant commission with part-time teaching at the College and developing a growing portfolio of other projects, including two panels for Buckler's Mead School in Yeovil and a nave window for Holy Trinity Church in Coleford.

In 1958 Keith New took up a fellowship at Digswell House in Hertfordshire, an exciting initiative created by the educator Henry Morris, which brought together artists and craftsmen, typically at the beginning of their careers.

Between 1958 and 1963 alongside the experimental projects, Keith New worked on several important painted and stained leaded glass designs, including the clerestory windows at St Mary's Church in South Ruislip, Bethnal Green, St Nicolas Cole Abbey and St John the Baptist in Ermine.

South Ruislip continues the heavy symbolism Keith New employed in his Coventry designs, while Bethnal Green and Ermine are abstract.

In 1963, Keith New moved into his own home in Wimbledon, designed for him and his family by Sam Scorer.

For larger windows, such as Bristol Cathedral, Keith New required a bigger studio, so he rented space at The Glass House, the Fulham base of Lowndes and Drury.