Wilhelmina Barn s- Graham

P AINTINGS

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and Art First in sponsoring this catalogue and wish them both every success with the exhibition. The company's involvement is a re-affirmation

of its commitment to supporting the pursuit of excellence in the Arts. I NGLIS A LLEN

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to providing the highest standards of innovation, service and quality. Rock forms, St Ives Wilhelmina Barns-G raham

PAINTINGS

30th October – 22nd November, 2001

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E - MAIL Artfirstnyc @aol.com www.artfirst.co.uk Wilhelmina Barns-G raham

A lady in her nineties , who visited the exhibition W. Barns-Graham: Painting as a Celebration at the Crawford Arts Centre in St Andrews this autumn, cautiously ventured that ‘it was all very modern’. Diana Sykes, the Crawford’s Director, had the pleasure of telling her that most of the paintings had been done recently by a lady in her 90th year. It is the youthfulness, the vitality, of Barns-Graham’s art which delights and astonishes her many admirers.

When I interviewed her earlier this year after she had received the CBE, she began by reading out some notes she had prepared about her art and what particularly mattered to her: ‘Now I am at the stage of urgency. My theme is celebration of life, joy, the importance of colour, form, space and texture. Brushstrokes that can be happy, risky, thin, fat, fluid and textured. Having a positive mind and constantly being aware and hopefully being allowed to live longer to increase this celebration’.

7 Colour and brushstroke are the special concern and distinction of her recent work – their

inseparability driven to increasing extremes of simplicity. Simplicity that comes from technical

mastery and a lifetime’s contemplation; an art honed by practice and experience.

Barns-Graham could not work in closer proximity to nature. At St Ives, where she usually spends

the sunnier months, she has worked for over 60 years in one or other of the purpose-built modern

studios on the edge of Porthmeor Beach. There, her picture window is a perpetual drama of sea

and light. Whereas at Balmungo near St Andrews, her winter home, she lives in a warren of

a house, hemmed in by rhododendrons and overshadowed by high trees.

8 At Balmungo, too, the coast is near and the air is unpolluted. At night the heavens retain a majesty those of us who live in cities never see. Visitors are often as awe-struck as cavemen when they witness such marvels as meteor showers or the Milky Way shimmering with colour.

Barns-Graham watched the solar eclipse at Balmungo, a primordial experience even in its partial northern state; and she has seen several, even more ethereal, lunar eclipses – one turning the Moon a smouldering red, with a lick of orange at the base, black at the top, and a halo of spectral light, from pale yellow to midnight blue, extending into the empyrean. The northern lights, the night sky suddenly shot the colour of a pigeon’s neck, are sometimes seen. Natural wonders like these hint at temporal enormities beside which the history of Man is but a second’s worth.

A brushstroke is a measure of time; and the urgency and risk, the striving for the essential, which characterise these new paintings, is time driven. There is a sense of enormity in the meditative

August 2000 , the flashes of blue and crimson suggesting this apparently spinning circle is not an orb but a window to the beyond.

Barns-Graham usually has several paintings in progress. She studies them and then selects one or two which she will work on – adding the colour layer upon layer, perhaps no more than

9 a brushstroke or a crucial but insignificant line drawn with a dribble, as in May 3, 2001 . She has

that essential gift of knowing precisely when to stop.

The paintings selected for this exhibition fall into series where a colour, usually the ground,

predominates: grey, green, blue, burnt red, black. Barns-Graham is at ease with colour. Moods and

seasons play their part. Some of her paintings are happy, some sombre; some are quick, some slow;

some dance, some are stately as a march.

It is interesting to learn that the fresh and breezy February was done in February and the lush

Balmungo, June 1999 in June, when floral colours blaze against the green. But one should beware

of literal association. The burnt-red paintings were indeed done in autumn – yet not at Balmungo,

with its gold and russet beeches, but treeless St Ives. Barns-Graham’s colour evokes but does not

depict. Nor does it decorate. The colour abuts, over-rides, interweaves, bolsters or stands –

a matter of weights and measures, tempos and rhythms, space and time. The palette is as honest

as the method is direct.

Art is a language and hence, unavoidably, art is enabled by art. Barns-Graham is easily placed in

a modern Scottish tradition of celebratory colourists, which includes her art-school contemporary

10 and fellow man of Fife, William Gear; but, like Gear and in the best Scottish tradition, she is an internationalist.

David Brown recalls her enthusiasm for a show by Agnes Martin that he curated at the Scottish

National Gallery of Modern Art; and the highpoint of a visit to St Ives with eight young Japanese curators, when everyone ended sitting on the floor of her studio ‘the Japanese demonstrating calligraphy and writing ideograms and Willie making her own versions of such writing’. Artists take, but they also give. was an inspiration to Barns-Graham when she arrived in St Ives but he also acknowledged his debt to her in a title to one of his works.

She has sometimes been criticised for producing representational and abstract work in parallel, on the grounds that she should have confined herself to one or the other. What this fails to appreciate is that she has never deviated, whatever superficial appearance to the contrary, from

‘the importance of colour, form, space and texture’ and the celebration of the wonder of the world

– the world we inherited and are in danger of exchanging for a virtual reality.

John McEwen

Art Critic, The Sunday Telegraph

11 Yellow & Blue, 2000, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152.5cm

Untitled, 38/99 , 1999. acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm

February , 2000, acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm

Gaia (May) , 2000, acrylic on Arches paper, 57.8 x 77cm

Vision Series No.4 , 2001, acrylic on Arches paper, 77 x 57cm

Happening 2 (Outburst) , 2000, acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm

Porthmeor Beach, St Ives Wilhelmina Barns-G raham An Appreciation

This has been an exceptional year for Wilhelmina (Willie to her friends) Barns-Graham.

She is awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List; she is a principal exhibitor at the Carlow

Arts Festival in Ireland; she is awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Exeter

(to go alongside the ones from St. Andrews University and University of Plymouth); an exhibition

W. Barns-Graham: Painting as a Celebration has begun its tour at the Crawford Art Centre,

St. Andrews; the book on her life and work W. Barns-Graham: A Studio Life , written by Lynne

Green, is published by Lund Humphries; and she has her new paintings on show in London now.

Not bad for an artist who, at 89, continues to make waves.

This is a good time to be seeing Willie’s paintings. She is making some of the best work of her life. She paints with an energy and bravura which belies her years and yet results from her being mindful of her age. These late paintings are the product of someone who is aware of life, the

25 W. Barns-Graham working in her studio, St Ives enjoyment of being alive and the shortness of life. Time is important. Time indeed is the title

of a series of screenprints which she began in 1999 – Another Time , Just in Time , Quiet Time ,

Walkabout Time , Vision in Time .

Willie’s recent popularity has been a long time in coming, but the rise has been meteoric in the

past five years. Long overshadowed by her peers she has at last burst forth as more and more

people have discovered her. Instead of being a self publicist she has kept her head down in the

studio while others have made the headlines. No more! Things have changed entirely as a new

generation of curators, critics and collectors have begun to appreciate her work.

Born in St. Andrews in 1912 Willie studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art. At the

suggestion of the Principal at the College, Hubert Wellington, she moved to St. Ives, ,

arriving in 1940. Willie quickly connected herself with the growing artists community and it was

through her that Ben Nicholson and , living at that time further down the coast

at Carbis Bay, came to be introduced to St. Ives. Apart from a short period in the late 1950s she

has lived there ever since, which makes her currently the most senior living member of what

is referred to as the St. Ives School.

26 Talking to Willie it is clear that life at the time was tough. It was hard selling paintings and money was in short supply. Nonetheless it was a stimulating period, full of busy studios and lively discussion. Willie’s work began to move from the representational to the abstract, a change which resulted directly from her new interest in, and exploration of, forms and space, and for which conventional imagery could not supply the pictorial solutions she needed. These were similar to the aims of the sculptors, Hepworth and Naum Gabo, and it is of great interest to view many of her paintings of the period in this light.

For many years Willie has been associated with the older generation of St Ives artists, with the perceived golden years of the 1940s and 1950s rather than within the context of contemporary art. Today we see her alongside Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, , et al , who were all responsible for helping to create new visual languages for artists who come later. It is now being realised what contribution Willie herself made.

During the 1950s Willie’s paintings moved from being formal – the rock forms and glacier themes

– to the fluid and expressionist Balearic Series. In 1963 she reverted back to basics, and by using only the square and pure colour she began to re-invent herself. The images from this time are surprisingly lively and animated, and reveal what she could do within a self imposed restricted

27 exercise. This continued in wide variety, including circles and wave forms, for some time, and

is still a part of the work. Willie continues to explore space and movement through form and

colour. Indeed the freedom and energy of her mark-making of today echoes the Balearic Series

from all those years ago.

When viewing Willie’s work over the past 50 years it is evident that Willie has been absolutely

consistent in the challenges she has set herself, and that the principal questions she asks of herself

and her art have remained the same. There is an underlying logic to the patterns seen in the

various bodies of work. On occasion this can lead to a sense of déjà vu , of seeing an image that

echoes something done long before. But when you track it down you find that it is not the same,

that what you thought was repeated has been transformed into something new, something better.

Willie is not afraid to revisit a painting or rework a theme. It is this very willingness to reinvent

ideas, adding new aspects to them, which continues to make her work fresh and exciting. She is

not ready to throw in the towel and say that she is finished with an idea irrevocably. ‘Finished’

is not part of her vocabulary.

At the core of Willie’s work is her exploration of nature and the world around her. The abstract

paintings come out of close studies of the landscape and its component parts. A mushroom is as

28 likely to lead to a series as a mussel on a rock, a collection of fields, the ridges of a lava flow or beach towels on the sand outside her studio window. Initial observations are pared down and are the starting points for different journeys leading to a final image.

For those spectators who are discovering Willie for the first time you are embarking on your own voyage of discovery. Enjoy the journey.

Geoffrey Bertram

Art First, London October 2001

The painting studio, St Ives, overlooking Portmeor Beach

29 May 3 , 2001, acrylic on Arches paper, 57 x 77cm

June 2 , 1999, acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm

Nectarine 1 , 2000, acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm

Two White Forms on Black , 2001, acrylic on Arches paper, 57.7 x 76.8cm

Vertical Movement (Easter Series) No.4 , 2001, acrylic on Arches paper, 77 x 56.8cm

Black & White, Green & Red on Ultramarine , 2001, acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm

Untitled (August) , 2000, acrylic on Arches paper, 56 x 77cm

Wilhelmina Barns-G raham CBE HRSA HRSW

1912 Born St Andrews, Fife 1924 Family moved to Stirlingshire 1930 Visited Paris and Rouen 1932 Edinburgh College of Art, Diploma course (Painting) DAE 1933–34 Studio at St Andrews, while recovering from illness 1934–37 Continued at Edinburgh College of Art 1936–40 Studio at 5 Alva Street, Edinburgh 1939 Worked in Scotland (Aviemore and Rothiemurchus) 1940 Went to Cornwall with award as recommended by Hubert Wellington. Met Adrian Stokes, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum and Miriam Gabo, Herbert Read, Borlase Smart, John and Elizabeth Summerson, Margaret Gardiner, Bernard Leach and Alfred Wallis. Moved into No. 3 Porthmeor Studios 1942 Became member of Newlyn Society of Artists and St Ives Society of Artists. Met John Wells and Bryan Winter 1943 Introduced Borlase Smart to Nicholson and Hepworth 1945 Private teaching (1945–47) Moved to No. 1 Porthmeor Studios First met David Haughton and Guido Morris 1946 First meetings of Crypt Group in her studio 1947–48 Crypt Group second and third exhibitions Met David Lewis (married 1949) 1948 Worked on glacier drawings and gouaches in Switzerland 1949 Worked in Paris Founder member of the Penwith Society of Artists Resigned from the St Ives Society of Artists with 16 others 1951 Worked in Italy and Scilly Isles 1954 Travelled to Paris with David Lewis and Roger Hilton With Nicholson, visited the director of Aujourd’hui at his glass-wall house Visited Veira de Silva Travelled to Venice, met Peggy Guggenheim Worked in Tuscany 1955 Worked in Tuscany, Calabria and Sicily Met Poliakoff, Istrati and Michel Seuphor, visited studios of Brancusi, Arp, Giacometti and Pevsner 1956–57 On staff of Leeds School of Art 1958 Worked in Spain, France and the Balearics 1960 Inherited a house, near St Andrews 1960-63 Studio in London 1963 Returned to St Ives 1963–65 Worked in Scotland and St Ives 1966 Visit to Amsterdam and Rotterdam 1967 Visit to America 1973 Working in St Ives and St Andrews 1984–85 Working in Orkney 1989–90 Working in Lanzarote 1991 Visit to Barcelona 1991–92 Working in Lanzarote 1992 Received Honorary Doctorate, University of St.Andrews and Honorary Member Penwrith Society and Newlyn Society 1999 Honorary Member RSA and RSW and Scottish Arts Club 2000 Received Honorary Doctorate, University of Plymouth 2001 Awarded CBE Awarded Honorary Doctorate, University of Exeter 1987 to present Working in St. Ives and St. Andrews

W. Barns-Graham with Professor Martin Kemp, on receiving her Honorary Doctorate from St Andrews University, 1992 Solo Exhibitions

1947/49/54 Downing Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall 1949/52 Redfern Gallery, London 1951 St Ives Festival 1954 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London 1956/59/60/81 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1957–93 City Art Gallery, Wakefield 1968 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh The Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford 1970 Sheviock Gallery, Cornwall Park Square Gallery, Leeds 1971 Marjorie Parr Gallery, London 1976 Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives 1978 The New Art Centre, London 1981 LYC Museum and Art Gallery, Cumbria The Byre Theatre, St Andrews 1982 The Crawford Centre, St Andrews Henry Rothschild Exhibition, Germany 1984 The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney 1987 Gillian Jason Gallery, London 1988/90 Ancrum Gallery, Roxburghshire 1989 Barbizon Gallery, Glasgow Scottish Gallery, London 1989-90 Retrospective exhibition, touring: Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance; City Art Centre, Edinburgh; Perth Museum and Art Gallery; Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews; Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr 1992 Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews The 1992–93 W. Barns-Graham at 80 , William Jackson Gallery, London and touring to Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie; Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal; Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; Dundee Art Galleries & Museum, Dundee; Wakefield Art Gallery, Wakefield 1994 Drawings 1945–1960 , Art First, London The Wolf at the Door, Penzance 1995 Art First, London 1996 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1996-97 The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh 1997 Art First, London The New Millennium Gallery, St. Ives 1999 The McGeary Gallery, Brussels Art First, London 1999-2000 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: An Enduring Image, Tate Gallery St. Ives 2001 W. Barns-Graham: Painting as Celebration , Crawford Art Centre, St. Andrews and tour W. Barns-Graham Prints , Exeter University Art First, London Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Selected Group Exhibitions

1935–43* Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh 1941/44/86/88 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 1942–2001* Newlyn Society of Artists 1942–49* St Ives Society of Artists 1945 The Moderns , Castle Inn, St Ives 1945–46 St Ives Society of Artists, travelling exhibition in UK and South Africa 1945–47* Modern Artists , Downings Gallery, St Ives 1946 Redfern Gallery, London, summer exhibition Living Artists , National Gallery of Scotland 1947 –48 Crypt Group, St Ives 1949–2001* , St Ives 1951 Fifteen Artists (St Ives) , Heals, London British Abstract Art , Gimpel Fils, London

*Indicates consecutive annual exhibitions. Abstract Art , AIA, London Danish, British and American Abstract Artists , Riverside Museum, New York St Ives Festival Exhibition , Penwith Society The Mirror and the Square , New Burlington Galleries, London 1952 WIAC Exhibition , RBA Galleries, London (invited artist) Contemporary Artists , Chapel House, Penzance 1953 International watercolour exhibition , Brooklyn Museum, New York Artists of Fame and Promise , Leicester Galleries, London 1954 British Painting and Sculpture , Whitechapel Art Gallery, London Art from the South West , Arts Council touring exhibition 1955 Seven Scottish Artists , Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition Annual Exhibition , City Art Gallery, Bradford Abstract Art 2 , Milan (invited artist) Summer Exhibition , AIA Gallery, London 1958–60* Waddington Gallery, London, 1st house exhibition 1960 Painters from Cornwall , Plymouth City Art Gallery Tenth Anniversary of the Penwith Society of Art , Arts Council touring exhibition Contemporary Scottish Artists , Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition in Canada International exhibition of works in gouache, New York British Watercolours , Waddington Gallery, London (tour to Sweden) 1963 Summer Exhibition , Waddington Gallery, London 1964 Pictures for Schools, Royal College of Art Gallery, London 1966 Five Artists , Peterloo Gallery, Manchester WIAC Exhibition , Whitechapel Art Gallery (invited artist) Summer Exhibition , Axiom Gallery, London 1968 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford 1969 Paintings 1940–1949 , Scottish Arts Council touring Edinburgh 1971 Helen Sutherland Collection , Arts Council touring exhibition 1972 Annual Exhibition , Plymouth Society of Art, (invited artist) 1973–99* Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives 1973–76* Artists' Market, Covent Garden, London 1977 British Artists of the 60s , The Tate Gallery, London Artists from South West Regions , Artists' Market, London Cornwall 1940–55 , New Art Centre, London 1978 Scottish Paintings and Watercolours , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Painters in Parallel , Scottish Arts Council (festival exhibition) 1979 Westward TV Open Art (touring exhibition) 1979–2001* New Craftsmen Gallery, St Ives 1980 Contemporary Art Society Exhibition , Sotheby’s, Edinburgh (festival) St. Ives Summer Festival Exhibition , Penwith Galleries, St. Ives 1981 Newlyn Society of Artists , Galerie Artica, Cuxhaven, Germany 1981–83 Contemporary Art from Scotland , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (SAC tour) 1982 Scottish Artists , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Art from Cornwall , Galerie Artica, Cuxhaven 1984 Homage to Herbert Read , University of Kent, Canterbury 1985 St Ives 1939–64 , The Tate Gallery, London St Ives , Michael Parkin Gallery, London 1986 Forty Years of Modern Art , The Tate Gallery, London 1987 Aspects of Landscape , Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition The Modern Spirit , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Looking West , Newlyn Art Gallery & The Royal College of Art, London 1988 The Experience of Landscape , Arts Council touring exhibition The Scottish Painters Abroad , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Post War British Abstract Art , Austin/Desmond, London 1988/89 Freeing the Spirit, Contemporary Scottish Abstraction , Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews Some of the Moderns , Belgrave Gallery, London 1989 Post-War British Art , Austin Desmond Fine Art, London A Century of Art in Cornwall 1889–1989 , The County Museum and Art Gallery, , Cornwall Song of the Sea , Dundee Museum and Art Gallery 20th Century Scottish Paintings , The Scottish Gallery, London 40 Years at the Penwith , Penwith Society, St. Ives

*Indicates consecutive annual exhibitions. St Ives , Beaux Arts, Bath Festival 1989/90 Scottish Art since 1900 , Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and tour to Barbican Art Gallery, London 1990 Scottish Art 1900–1990 , The Scottish Gallery, London Festival of Fifty-One , Arts Council Collection, touring exhibition Three Generations of Scottish Painters , Beaux Arts, Bath Festival Some of the Moderns , Belgrave Gallery, London Scottish Drawing , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1991 St Ives , Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London Directions Near and Far , William Jackson Gallery, London The Winter Seen , William Jackson Gallery, London 1992 Contemporary Painters and Sculptors from Cornwall , Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 150 Years Festival Exhibition , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh New Beginnings , Postwar British Art, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 1993 Tate St. Ives, Collection St. Ives, Montpelier Studio 1994 Art ’94 , London, Art First British Abstract Paintings , Flowers East, London Painters Prints , Curwen Gallery, London New Academy Gallery Contemporary Prints , Coach House Gallery, Guernsey Cornwall , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1995 Tate St. Ives; Collection Porthmeor Beach: A Century of Images , 100 Years Context & Continuity , Newlyn Art Gallery A Cornish Midsummer , Royal West of England Academy; in collaboration with the Penwith Society, Cornwall New Academy Gallery, London Strongly Recommended , Art First, London William Gear Friends Past & Present , Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Summer Exhibition , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Christmas Exhibition , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1996 Art Miami, International Art Fair , with Art First, London Art ’96, Contemporary Art Fair , London, with Art First Tate St. Ives, Collection 1997 Art '97, Contemporary Art Fair , London, with Art First Three Years On! , Art First, London The 50s Works , British Council Collection touring Cyprus and France Tate St. Ives, Collection Summer Exhibition , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Critics’ Choice , RSW, Edinburgh 1998 Art ’98, Contemporary Art Fair , with Art First, London Henley Festival of Arts , Henley-on-Thames, with Art First Displays 1997-8 , Tate, St. Ives Curwen Print Makers , Curwen Gallery, London 20th Century British Art Fair , London, with Art First 1998–2001* Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 1999 Art ’99, Contemporary Art Fair , with Art First, London Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London Liberation and Tradition – Scottish Art 1963–1975, Aberdeen Art Gallery and McManus Gallery, Dundee Starting a Collection I , Art First, London 20th Century British Art Fair , London, with Art First 2000 Art 2000, Contemporary Art Fair , with Art First, London Starting a Collection II , Art First, London Art 20/21, Art Fair London , with Art First 2001 Art First in Print , Art First, London New Work from Scotland , Bohun Gallery, Henley on Thames Éigse, Carlow Arts Festival , Ireland Art First at 10 , Art First, London St. Ives in the 60s , Tate St. Ives 20/21 British Art Fair , London, with Art First The Colourist Connection , McManus Gallery, Dundee Awards and Prizes

1934 Vacation Scholarship (Andrew Grant bequest) for study in London 1935 Maintenance award, Edinburgh College of Art, extended for a second year on merit 1936 Vacation award for one month study in Paris 1937 Edinburgh College of Art award for maintenance of studio and evening class fees Post-graduate travelling award 1940 Maintenance award to work in Cornwall 1945 St Austell Brewery prize for landscape 1951 St Ives Festival prize for painting 1955 Italian Government travelling award

The painting sudio overlooking Porthmeor Beach, St Ives Works in Public Collections

Aberdeen Art Gallery Arts Council of Great Britain, London Bank of Scotland Collection, London Baring Brothers & Co. Baring Asset Management Ltd., London Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery British Council, London British Museum, London Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London Contemporary Art Society, London Cornwall Education Committee Cornwall, Truro School Collection Department of the Environment, London Deutsche Bank AG Diamond Trading Co. Dundee Museum and Art Gallery Edinburgh City Art Centre Ferens Art Gallery, Hull Government Art Collection Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries Hawick Museum Hertfordshire Education Authority Highland Regional Council Hocken Library, University of Otago, New Zealand Hove Museum and Art Gallery Isle of Man Arts Council Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museums, Glasgow King’s College, Cambridge Works in Public Collections (continued)

Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge Kirkcaldy Art Gallery Leeds City Art Gallery Leeds Education Authority Lillie Art Gallery, Milngavie Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr Manchester City Art Gallery Michigan University Museum, USA National Westminster Bank, London Installing Painting as Celebration at the Crawford Arts Centre, August 2001 Newhall College, Cambridge New South Wales Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia Nuffield College, Oxford Paintings in Hospitals, Edinburgh Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University Plymouth City Art Gallery Portsmouth City Art Gallery Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Scottish Arts Club Sheffield Art Gallery St Ives Borough, Cornwall Tate Gallery, London The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Truro School Collection, Cornwall University of Edinburgh Victoria and Albert Museum, London West Riding Education Authority (the former) Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester Wolverhampton City Art Gallery Selected Bibliography

Auty, Giles Introduction to catalogue, W. Barns-Graham, Paintings and Drawings , Gillian Jason Gallery, London, 1987 Architectural Design , (London) October 1954 Art Since 1945 , Thames and Hudson Art News and Reviews , Volume IX, No. 22, 1957 Axten, Janet Gasworks to Gallery , Colin Orchard,1995 Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue, W. Barns-Graham, Paintings and Drawings , LYC Gallery and Museum Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue, Homage to Herbert Read , 1984, Canterbury College of Art Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue, Moving the Spirit , Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews Barns-Graham, W Contemporary Art from Scotland, 1981-1982 , The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Barns-Graham, W Statement in catalogue, Collected Thoughts, W. Barns-Graham Retrospective 1940-89 , City of Edinburgh Museums & Art Gallery, 1989 Barns-Graham, W Statement in catalogue, Some Thoughts on Drawing , Crawford Art Centre, 1992 Berlin, Sven ‘An Aspect of Creative Art in Cornwall’, Facet , Vol. 3, No. 1, 1948–1949 Bennett, Oliver ‘The Original’, The Times Weekend Magazine , October 1999 Bindman, David Encylopedia of British Art , Thames and Hudson, 1985 Bowness, Alan Introduction to exhibition catalogue, W. Barns-Graham recent Gouaches and Spanish Drawings , 1960, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Brown, David Introduction to exhibition catalogue, Cornwall 1945–1955 , New Art Centre, 1977 Brown, David Introduction to exhibition catalogue, A Sense of Place, A Sense of Light , Cornwall, Michael Parkin Gallery, London, 1985 Brown, David Introduction to exhibition catalogue, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham , Art First, London 1997 Brown, David Essay, Some Aspects of Art in St. Ives , Tate St. Ives Friends, 1993 Brion, Marcel Art Abstract , Paris, 1956 Cross, Tom Painting the Warmth of the Sun , St Ives Artists 1939-1975, Alison Hodge/Lutterworth Press, 1984 Davies, Peter ‘Some Notes on the ', Art Monthly , 1981 Davies, Peter The St Ives Years, essays on the growth of an artistic phenomenon, The Wimborne Bookshop, 1984 Davies, Peter St. Ives Revisited , Old Bakehouse Publications, 1994 Selected Bibliography (continued)

Gage, Edward The Eye in the Wind , Collins, 1977 Garlake, Margaret Introduction exhibition catalogue, Post-War British Art , Austin/Desmond, London, 1989 Green, Lynne Introduction to exhibition catalogue, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham , Art First, London 1997 Green, Lynne Wilhelmina Barns-Graham – An Enduring Image , Tate Gallery, St. Ives, 1999 Green, Lynne Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Painting as Celebration , Crawford Arts Centre, St Andrews, 2001 Green, Lynne Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: a Studio Life , Lund Humphries, 2001 Hall, Douglas Introduction to exhibition catalogue, W. Barns-Graham Retrospective 1940–1989 , Edinburgh City Art Centre, 1989 Hall, Douglas Introduction to exhibition catalogue, W. Barns-Graham, New Paintings , The Scottish Gallery, London 1989 Hall, Douglas Introduction to exhibition catalogue, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham , Art First, London 1997 Hardie, Dr. Melissa 100 Years in Newlyn (Diary of a Gallery) , The Patten Press, 1995 Hardie, William Scottish Painting 1837 –Present , Studio Vista, 1990 Hartley, Keith Scottish Art since 1900 , National Galleries of Scotland, 1990 Harris, Paul & Halsby, Julian The Dictionary of Scottish Art, 1600–1960 , Cannongate Publisher and Phaidon Press, 1990 Heron, Patrick The Changing Forms of Art Hodin, J. P. Arts News Review , Volume IV, No. 2, 1952 Hodin, J. P. Quadrum Five Hodin, J. P. Cornish Renaissance , New Writing, Penguin No. 39, 1950 Jackson, William Introduction to catalogue, W. Barns-Graham Paintings and Drawings , Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews, Kunstrevy (Stockholm) Kemp, Prof. Martin Introduction to exhibition catalogue, W. Barns-Graham Drawings , Crawford Art Centre, St. Andrews, 1992 Kemp, Prof. Martin Introduction to exhibition catalogue, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham , Art First 1999 Lewis, David Introduction to catalogue, St Ives 1939–64 , The Tate Gallery, London 1985 Loppert, Susan Introduction to catalogue W. Barns-Graham New Paintings , Art First, London, 1995 Loppert, Susan ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Conversation’, Contemporary Art , Spring 1996, Vol. 3, No. 2 Oliver, Cordelia Painters in Parallel , Scottish Arts Council, 1978 Packer, William ‘Abstracted Romantics’, Financial Times , 27 November 1999 Ray, Roy Art About St Ives , St Ives Painting & Pub. Co. Read, Herbert Contemporary British Art , Penguin Books 1951 Read, Herbert Modern Movement in Art , Penguin Books Saunders, Linda ‘W. Barns-Graham’, Modern Painters , Vol. 2, No. 3, Autumn 1989 Seuphor, Michel Dictionary of Abstract Art , London, Methuen & Co Ltd, 1958 Spalding Frances British Art Since 1900 , Thames & Hudson, 1986 Spalding Frances 20th Century Painters and Sculptors , Antique Collectors Club, 1990 Taylor, John Russell Introduction to catalogue, W. Barns-Graham at 80: a New View , William Jackson Gallery, London, 1992 Tooby, Michael An Illustrated Companion , Tate Gallery Publications, 1993 Val Baker, Denys The Cornish Library Val Baker, Denys The Cornish Review , No. 1, 1949 Val Baker, Denys Art Colony by the Sea Val Baker, Denys Paintings from Cornwall Whybrow, Marion St. Ives 1983–1993, Portrait of an Art Colony , Antique Collectors Club, 1994 Wilenski, R. H. The Modern Movement in Art , Faber & Faber, 1952 Williams, Michael ‘Art in Cornwall’, Cornish Magazine , Volume 4, No. 10, 1962 Windsor, Allan Handbook of Modern British painting 1900–1980 , Scolar Press, 1992 Yakir, Nedira Introduction to Exhibition Catalogue, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham New Paintings , The New Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, 1997 Yakir, Nedira Women Artists and Modernism edited by Katy Deepwell, Manchester University Press, 1998 List of Works

1 Untitled, 04/90 , 1998–99 11 Untitled (August) , 2000 acrylic on Arches paper, 57.8 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 56 x 77 cm

2 Balmungo, June , 1999 12 Yellow & Blue , 2000 acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm acrylic on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm

3 June 2 1999 , 1999 13 May 3 , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm

4 Seed , 1999 14 Two White Forms on Black , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 57 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 57.7 x 76.8 cm

5 Untitled, 38/99 , 1999 15 Ocean Series 1 , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 56.8 x 77 cm

6 Just Arrived , 2000 16 Vertical Movement (Easter Series) No.4 , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 58.2 x 76.6 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 77 x 56.8 cm

7 February , 2000 17 White on Black (Easter Series) No.5 , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 77 x 56.8 cm

8 Gaia (May) , 2000 18 Vertical Movement (Easter Series) No.7 , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 57.8 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 77 x 56.8 cm

9 Happening 2 (Outburst) , 2000 19 Black & White, Green & Red on Ultramarine , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm

10 Nectarine 1 , 2000 20 Vision Series No.4 , 2001 acrylic on Arches paper, 58 x 77 cm acrylic on Arches paper, 77 x 57 cm

Acknowledgements

The Directors of Art First would like to thank Willie Barns-Graham for making such a wonderful exhibition, and for her guidance in the selection of the works. Rowan James for her unstinting support and inspiration in helping to make things happen. John McEwen for his insight into Willie's work

Kay Newman of Articulate for helping to spread the word.

A special thanks to Inglis Allen for their kind and generous sponsorship in the making of this catalogue.

The Directors would also like to take this opportunity to thank Bill Mackintosh of Inglis Allen for his constant enthusiasm, warmth and help in not only the production of this publication but of all the catalogues that Art First has ever published.

Introduction © John McEwen. Photography by: David Roche (paintings); Peter Adams (p45); Geoffrey Bertram (p29 and p54); (Oona Campbell p2 and 59); David Crane (p24); Rowan James (p8 and p51). Design by Strule Steele. Printing by Inglis Allen, Kirkcaldy. Published by Art First Ltd, London, Geoffrey Bertram, Clare Stracey. © Art First, London.

ISBN 1 901993 25 6