A Distant Isle Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Lanzarote A Distant Isle Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Lanzarote A Distant Isle Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Lanzarote The exhibition has been arranged by Belgrave St Ives in association with the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust. Exhibition: 10–29 June 2019 ISBN No. 978-1-9998524-2-9 Belgrave St Ives, 22 Fore Street St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE 01736 794888 [email protected] www.belgravestives.co.uk 3 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Lanzarote Quotes are extracts and are taken verbatim from the artist’s Plenty of subjects + v. difficult” (see La Geria, Lanzarote, page are a series of colour crayon drawings and gouaches that reflect island that features terraces of small, whitewashed houses with journals and notebooks. 33). This is a route to Timanfaya, the area of Montagna del “amazing strata bands of grey, red, darkish brown and some... bright green or blue doors and window frames typical of the Fuego (mountain of fire); she notes “…on right hand side the of blue grey” (see Untitled – Lava Study, Lanzarote, page 8). island. These flashes of colour create a rhythm against the white The exhibition marks the thirtieth anniversary of Wilhelmina lonely black mountain with red pink abstract lines and shapes…” walls which clearly caught Willie’s eye – her depictions of them (Willie) Barns-Graham’s first visit to the island of Lanzarote, (see Timanfaya Mt Fuego, page 7). On her third trip she writes Willie’s extensive study of Lanzarote’s lava fields is further remind one of her Orkney collages from a few years before in in February 1989. She had been invited by a friend with whom “we set off for La Geria where I meant to look out some fields illustration, if it were needed, of her interest in geological forms which spots of colour are arranged against a one-colour she stayed, the villa situated on the east coast north of Arrecife, always inspired me for abstract but light was wrong + began that underly the structure of a landscape. Since her move to background. She made several drawings using colour crayons Lanzarote’s main town. Willie needed the break; she was pencil drawing on white paper of hill + some volcanic shelf Cornwall in 1940 her drawings constantly reflect the patterns, on black paper (see Orzola Slipway, page 15) as well as small exhausted. During the latter months of 1988 she had been shapes foreground”. Her only complaint of La Geria was the natural and man-made, of a place, be it of the Scilly Isles, acrylics on board, the latter made when back at her home studios. working on an exhibition of new paintings for the Scottish wind; “wind awful”– “always windy” which could make it Switzerland’s Grindelwald Glacier (1949), the quarries and ravines How did Lanzarote contribute to her work in the UK? One can Gallery in London, and on a major retrospective that was to open difficult to work, on occasion further complicated by the of Tuscany/Sicily (1953–1955) or the rocky edge of the Balearics see new developments in a small number of paintings in which at Newlyn Art Gallery in June. It was thought she would benefit intense heat and brightness. (1958). That she made five trips to Lanzarote in as many years elements of the landscape have become simplified, moving from the warmer, drier climate, on which she concurred, noting indicates strongly that she found the lava landscape inspiring, Willie’s fourth trip to Lanzarote (1992) was “confined to lava away from what she described as being “fairly traditional but in her diary that Lanzarote was “very health giving – no aches with the added benefit of the climate being good for her health. movement + mostly from one place”, close by San Bartolomé. interesting volcano shapes” into ever increasing abstraction and pains worth mentioning”. The visit was a huge success, There she saw “excellent examples of molten lava, merging + Willie’s Lanzarote visits were made in February and March, (see La Geria Road II, page 19 and Red Chasm, page 47). Furthest leading to her making four further visits, the last in 1993. spiral shapes” (see Lava, Lanzarote Series, page 37). She ”got during months when the island receives its highest rainfall, removed from the direct experience is a series of very gestural, Anyone who has been to Lanzarote appreciates what an to the congealed lava by Manrique house...very complicated bringing the landscape into bloom. “…lots of yellow white + almost minimalist paintings where the influence is purely one extraordinary place it is. The island is dominated by the rhythms...had a struggle with this detailed subject…trying purple flowers, specially so this year after extra rainfall…motored of palette – the reds, blacks and ochres she mentions in her substantial volcanic activity, the last eruptions being very recent to get weight and rhythm”. She returns time and time again around… Musdache (sic) + on return quick pencil note of field diaries – and where the splashes of black can be interpreted in geological terms. Well-documented eruptions took place to this lava site, describes it as “very difficult… I improved a abstract pattern greens + browns on hillside” (see Maquez, page 9). as a final evocation of the lava fields (see Untitled, page 39). in the Timanfaya area between 1730 and 1736, when lava and drawing in part + maybe overdid on other parts but anxious A special feature of the Lanzarote landscape is the man-made pits, The Lanzarote collection is a remarkable and significant body ash covered around two-thirds of the island and buried many to study the movement of the congealed lava”. filled with volcanic cinder and protected by curved walls, in which of work from Willie’s later career, the extent of which is still to villages and fertile agricultural land in the process. It is thought vines and vegetables are farmed. They pepper the lower slopes of In much of La Geria the lava is still raw and sharp, as yet be fully assessed. This exhibition sets out some of the island’s that over thirty volcanoes spewed forth at this time. A century the hills throughout La Geria and beyond, clearly seen in Willie’s unaffected by erosion. It is not easy to walk amongst it, which influences and encompasses the breadth of what she achieved. later, in 1824, there was a further eruption in the same area. images, and provide much of the greenery (see La Geria Study is why she often draws on the roadside (see Untitled – Black Volcanic Rock, page 18). Geoffrey Bertram Willie marvelled at the black rock formations and strange conic Mountain, Lanzarote, page 23). In these images the smooth April 2019 hills. One of the main roads wends its way up the centre of the conical shapes of the volcanoes are set off against the chaotic One Lanzarote series that is not on a volcanic theme is that of island curving through the La Geria region, “…magnificent. patterning of the lava. Most are done with pencil though there the salt pans of Orzola, a small community on the top of the 4 5 W. BARNS-GRAHAm 1912–2004 Timanfaya Lanzarote (Tabayesco) / 1989 mt. Fuego / 1989 Pencil on paper Acrylic on paper 57 x 75 cm 36 x 49.5 cm 6 7 [Untitled – Lava Study maquez / 1989 Lanzarote] / 1989 Acrylic on paper mixed media on paper 38 x 56.5 cm 36 x 50 cm 8 9 Timanfaya National Park, La Geria (Vineyard) / 1989 Lanzarote Acrylic on paper Photographer unknown 56.5 x 75.5 cm 10 11 [Church, masdache, Gautiza Evening Lanzarote] / c1989 Lanzarote / 1989 Oil pastel on paper Acrylic on paper 57 x 77 cm 40 x 57.5 cm 12 13 Orzola Houses Orzola Slipway, Lanzarote / 1990 Photo: Geoffrey Bertram Pastel on paper 49 x 68 cm 14 15 Salt Pans No.4 / 1990 Acrylic on card Salt Pans No.5 / 1990 Salt Pans No.7 / 1990 20 x 28 cm Acrylic on card Acrylic on card 28 x 21 cm 27 x 20 cm 16 17 La Geria Study La Geria Road II / 1990 Volcanic Rock / 1990 Gouache on paper Pastel on paper 55.5 x 77 cm 49 x 70 cm 18 19 La Geria Fields La Geria / 1990 Photo: Geoffrey Bertram Gouache on paper 56 x 76.5 cm 20 21 montana Negra [Untitled – Black mountain, Lanzarote] / 1990 Photo: Geoffrey Bertram mixed media on paper 38.5 x 56.5 cm 22 23 maguez / 1990 Lanzarote [Timanfaya] / 1991 Pencil on paper Gouache on paper 57 x 76.5 cm 56 x 75 cm 24 25 The artist, La Geria, looking Lanzarote, nr. Tias / 1991 towards montana Testeyna Pastel on paper Photographer unknown 49 x 69 cm 26 27 Black Volcano, La Geria / 1991 Lanzarote / 1991 Pastel on paper Pencil on paper 49.5 x 70 cm 21 x 30 cm 28 29 Nr. Yaiza Lanzarote / 1991 Nr. Gautiza, march ‘91 / 1991 Pen and ink on paper Pen and ink on paper 29 x 40 cm 29 x 40 cm 30 31 La Geria / 1991 La Geria, Lanzarote / 1991 Pen and ink on paper Pencil on paper 29 x 49.5 cm 56.5 x 75.5 cm 32 33 Lava muerte, Lanzarote Volcanic Formations / 1992 Photographer unknown Gouache on paper 25 x 35 cm 34 35 [Untitled – Lava Series, [Lava Lanzarote Series] / 1992 Lanzarote] / 1992 Pencil on paper Pencil on paper 28.5 x 40 cm 57 x 76 cm 36 37 Lanzarote Series / 1991 Untitled / 1992 Gouache on paper Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 56 x 76.5 cm 38 39 Lava at manrique Foundation [Lava Series, Lanzarote] / 1993 nr.