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116 K E I T H VA U G H A N 116 K E I T H VA U G H A N 1964: Paints Seventh Assembly of Figure (Nile Assembly) and Eighth Assembly of Figures (Orange Assembly). Awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Art. Buys Harrow Hill Cottage in Essex and divides his time between weekdays in Belsize Park and weekends in the country; works in studios at each location. Makes extensive use of both drawing and photography throughout this period to provide visual information for paintings. Subjects include friends bathing in his garden swimming pond and the Essex landscape. 1965: A visit to Morocco in April significantly affects his subsequent use of colour and subject matter. Hotter, warmer hues emerged as a result. A second visit to Greece. Much of this experience finds its way into his paintings, gouaches and photography. Makes further reductions in formal qualities of his compositions, especially in his gouaches. Awarded the CBE. 1965-77: Continues to live and work in London and teach part-time at the Slade. Longer periods spent in Essex; the landscape there becomes increasingly important from about 1968 onwards. 1966: Publishes extracts from his private journals in an edition entitled, Keith Vaughan: Journals and Drawings. Makes clear his sexual orientation a year before the decriminalization of homosexuality. 1969-1970: Makes further visits to Greece and produces a series of photographs of bathers on the beaches in Corfu and Paros, extending his interest in this theme. 1974: Exhibits gouaches at Victor Waddington Gallery, London. Continues to struggle with the relative merits of figuration and abstraction, issues that had troubled and unsettled him for twenty years. 1975: Incapacitated through kidney and liver problems, which lead to cancer treatments and a colostomy operation. Suffers severe depressions and dependency on various barbiturates and alcohol (details of which he records in his journals). Unable to sustain creative activity for long periods. Continues to teach part-time at the Slade and convalesce at Harrow Hill Cottage in Essex. Begins the process of re-reading and clarifying passages in his journal. 1976: Holds his final exhibition at the Waddington Galleries and shows new oil paintings and gouaches. Paints Ninth Assembly of Figures (Eldorado Banal), the last of his Assembly series, as a statement concerning his exclusion from, and incompatibility with, many of the recent developments in British painting. The exhibition travels to Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester and Compass Gallery, Sheffield. Paints Elegiac Landscape, his final major oil painting, in response to his mother's death. Works on a series of drawings that he calls his Grafitti [sic] Drawings. 1977: Spends his final year coping with deep depressions and serious illness. Produces intermittent work on paper and also occasional pencil drawings. Over the course of the year receives counseling and assistance from his old friend and doctor, Patrick Woodcock. Decides how and when to terminate his life. Dies on November 4, in his studio while writing in the journal he had commenced in 1939. Compiled by Professor John Ball and Gerard Hastings