Merlyn Evans was born in Cardiff and grew up in Scotland. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1927 to 1930 where he experimented with abstract art. In 1932 he was awarded a Royal Exhibition at the RCA. He then spent two years in Paris (1934–1936) where he met Mondrian and Kandinsky, and was exposed to the Surrealist movement. Evans was one of the earliest British Surrealist painters, taking part in the 1936 exhibition in London. After the war, Evans settled in London and exhibited regularly at the St George’s Gallery. Retrospective exhibitions of his work were held at Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1956 and the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967. He taught painting at the RCA from 1965 until 1973, the year he died in London.
