Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE, HRSA, HRWA, HRSW | A Life in Colour

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

CBE, HRSA, HRWA, HRSW (1912–2004) A Life in Colour

Made over a period of over 40 years, and ranging over a broad sweep of naturalism to abstraction, these works by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham all share an origin in the close observation of the natural world, as well as very summery shades of orange, yellow and brown redolent of sunshine and sand, and heat – of what Tom Cross described as ‘painting the warmth of the sun’.

In 1985, Barns-Graham noted that she found the dividing line between making works based on what she described as ‘inward perception’ and ‘outward observation’ increasingly blurred. This group encompasses works from both ends of this spectrum, as well as the less distinct area in between which Barns-Graham identifies. The earliest work is of an olive tree near San Gimignano in Tuscany from 1954. Drawn en plein air, in front of the motif she observes, the coloured background is however totally unnaturalistic, yet conjures up a sense of the dusty heat she may have experienced at that moment.

Three works include in their title ‘Porthmeor’ – the magnificent beach in St Ives over which Barns-Graham’s various studios overlooked for 60 years. Each depicts a different time of day, with different weather, atmospheric and tidal conditions – decades of observation of this specific location meant Barns-Graham was attuned to the both subtle and dramatic changes and rich variety of conditions that could exist on the beach, and select particular moments she, in different ways, wanted to capture.

Pen and ink line drawings and relief collages within the group show Barns-Graham representing experience of the phenomenal world, particularly of water and geology, though in a more abstract form, through the filter of her ‘inner perception’. These works capture something of the quality of the sea or rock forms that so fascinated her, without them being tied to specific places or times.

International trips, inspirational journeys which punctuate Barns-Graham’s career, are represented here by two works from her last sustained group of ‘travel’ works. She visited

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Lanzarote for five consecutive and highly productive years from 1989–93 and used a wide variety of scale, media and styles to capture the extraordinary landscape of the island’s volcanic interior and the distinctive architecture of its small towns and fishing villages.

—Rob Airey, Director, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Syracuse, Sicily, 1955

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1. Olive Tree, San Gimignano, 1954 pencil and tempera, 42.5 x 54 cm

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2. White Forms on Lemon, 1971 acrylic on paper, 31.6 x 23.1 cm

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3. Wave 2, 1967–70 acrylic on board, 61 x 61 cm

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4. Line Movement 07, 1982 pen, ink and oil, 9.8 x 13 cm

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5. Confluence, 1984–87 pen, ink and oil, 15.3 x 22 cm

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6. Crail 4, 1984 acrylic on card, 12.7 x 18.1 cm

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7. Summer Day, Collage 20, 1985 oil and acrylic on card, 30 x 39.8 cm

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8. Movement in Time No. 1 Porthmeor, 1988 gouache, 58 x 75.6 cm

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9. Three Images Underwater White, Red and Yellow Drifting, 1982 pen, ink and oil, 27.2 x 19.9 cm

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10. Salt Pans No. 5 (Lanzarote), 1990 acrylic on card, 28 x 21 cm

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11. Water Movement II (Series 2D), 1990 gouache, 27.5 x 37.3 cm

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12. Maguez, 1989 acrylic and pencil on paper, 37.8 x 56.5 cm

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13. Fun Day No. 4, 1990 pen, ink and acrylic, 19 x 26 cm

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‘In my paintings I want to express the joy and importance of colour, texture, energy and vibrancy, with an awareness of space and construction. A celebration of life – taking risks so creating the unexpected.’

— Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 2001

14. Porthmeor, 1992 gouache, 57 x 76 cm

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WILHELMINA BARNS-GRAHAM CBE, HRSA, HRWA, HRSW (1912–2004)

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, known as Willie, was born in St Andrews, Fife, on 8 June 1912. Determining while at school that she wanted to be an artist, she set her sights on Edinburgh College of Art where she enrolled in 1932 and graduated with her diploma in 1937. At the suggestion of the College’s principal Hubert Wellington, she moved to St Ives in 1940. Early on she met Robert Borlase Smart, Alfred Wallis and Bernard Leach, as well as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo who were living locally at Carbis Bay. She became a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists and St Ives Society of Artists but was to leave the latter in 1949 when she became one of the founding members of the breakaway Penwith Society of Artists. She was an early exhibitor of the significant Crypt Group. Her peers in St Ives include Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton and John Wells, among others. Barns-Graham’s history is bound up with St Ives where she lived throughout her life, and it is the place where she experienced her first great successes as an artist. Following her travels to the Grindelwald Glacier, Switzerland in 1949, she embarked on a series of paintings and drawings which caught the attention of some of the most significant critics and curators of the day. In 1951, she won the Painting Prize in the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall Festival of Britain Exhibition and went on to have her first London solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1952. She was included in many of the important exhibitions on pioneering British abstract art that took place in the 1950s. Her first solo exhibition in Scotland was with The Scottish Gallery in 1956.

In 1960, Barns-Graham inherited a family home near St Andrews which initiated a new phase in her life. From this moment she divided her time between the two coastal communities, simultaneously establishing herself as much as a Scottish artist as a St Ives one. Balmungo House was to become the heart of her professional life and from where she engaged with the Scottish art world. In 1987, she established the Wilhelmina BarnsGraham Trust which works to advance awareness of her life and work, while using her legacy

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to support young people and other individuals to fulfil their potential in the visual arts. Barns-Graham exhibited consistently throughout her career, in private and public galleries. Though not short of exposure throughout the 1960s and 1970s, her next greatest successes did not come until much later in life. Important exhibitions of her work at Edinburgh City Art Centre (a touring retrospective in 1989), Tate St Ives (1999/2000 and 2005) and the publication of the first monograph on her life and work, Lynne Green’s W. Barns-Graham: a studio life (2001; 2nd updated and revised edition 2011), did much to change critical and public perceptions of her achievements and confirmed her as one of the key contributors of the St Ives School, and as a significant British modernist. She was made a CBE in 2001, and received four honorary doctorates (St Andrews 1992, Plymouth 2000, Exeter 2001 and HeriotWatt University 2003). Her work is found in major public collections throughout the UK. She died in St Andrews on 26 January 2004.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums British Council Collection City Art Centre, Edinburgh The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Glasgow Museums Government Art Collection Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries The Hepworth Wakefield Jerwood Collection, London Leeds Art Gallery The McManus, Art Gallery &

Museum, Dundee Manchester Art Gallery Pallant House Gallery, Chichester The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Scottish National Gallery of

Modern Art, Edinburgh Southampton City Art Gallery Tate Britain, London Wolverhampton Art Gallery York Art Gallery

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