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. San Bartolomé Chalk on black paper Photo: Geoffrey Bertram 28.5 x 41 cm

40 41 [Untitled – Lava movement, Lava movement, Lanzarote] / 1993 Punta mujeres / 1993 Pencil, chalk and wash on paper Pencil and acrylic on paper 29 x 40.5 cm 57 x 76 cm

42 43 [Untitled – Lava movement, Volcanic Formation No.2 / 1993 Lanzarote] / 1993 Gouache on paper Pencil and wash on paper 25 x 35 cm 21 x 29 cm

44 45 Eye of the Storm Series No.4 / 1992 [Red Chasm] / 1994 Gouache on paper Gouache on paper 26 x 18 cm 56 x 75.5 cm

46 47 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE HRSA HRWA HRSW In 1960 Barns-Graham inherited a family home near St Andrews Selected Biography Awards and Prizes which initiated a new phase in her life. From this moment 1912 Born 8 June, St Andrews, 1951 St Ives Festival prize for painting Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, known as Willie, was born in she divided her time between the two coastal communities, 1932–1937 College of Art, Diploma course (Painting) DAE 1955 Italian Government travelling award St Andrews, Fife, on 8 June 1912. Determining while at school simultaneously establishing herself as much as a Scottish artist 1940 moved to Cornwall. Rented No. 3 Porthmeor Studios that she wanted to be an artist she set her sights on Edinburgh as a St Ives one. Balmungo House was to become the heart of 1942 Became member of Newlyn Society of Artists Solo Exhibitions (in her lifetime) College of Art where she enrolled in 1932 and graduated with her professional life. In 1987 she established the Wilhelmina and St Ives Society of Artists. 1947/49/54 Downing Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall her diploma in 1937. Barns-Graham Trust which works to advance awareness of her 1945 moved into No. 1 Porthmeor Studios 1949/52 Redfern Gallery, London 1946 First meetings of Crypt Group in her studio life and work, while using her legacy to support young people 1951 St Ives Festival At the suggestion of the College’s principal Hubert Wellington, 1949 Worked on glacier drawings and gouaches and other individuals to fulfil their potential in the visual arts. 1954 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London she moved to St Ives in 1940. Early on she met Borlase Smart, in Switzerland 1956/59/60/81 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Alfred Wallis and Bernard Leach, as well as Ben Nicholson, Barns-Graham exhibited consistently throughout her career, Founder member of the Penwith Society of Arts 1957 City Art Gallery, Wakefield Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo who were living locally at in private and public galleries. Though not short of exposure Resigned from the St Ives Society of Artists 1968 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh 1951 Worked in Italy and Scilly Isles Carbis Bay. She became a member of the Newlyn Society of throughout the 1960s and 1970s, her next greatest successes 1971 marjorie Parr Gallery, London 1954 Worked in Tuscany Artists and St Ives Society of Artists but was to leave the latter did not come until the 1990s. Important exhibitions of her 1976 Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives 1955 Worked in Tuscany, Calabria and Sicily in 1949 when she became one of the founding members of the work at the Tate St Ives in 1999/2000 and 2005 and the 1978 The New Art Centre, London Visited Paris – met Poliakoff, Istrati and michel Seuphor, breakaway Penwith Society of Artists. She was an early exhibitor publication of the first monograph on her life and work, 1982 The Crawford Centre, St Andrews visited studios of Brancusi, Arp, Giacometti and Pevsner of the significant Crypt Group. Her peers in St Ives include Patrick Lynne Green’s W. Barns-Graham: a studio life (2001; 2nd 1984 The , Orkney 1956–57 On staff of Leeds School of Art Heron, , Roger Hilton and John Wells, among others. updated and revised edition 2011), did much to change critical 1989 Scottish Gallery, London 1958 Worked in France, Spain and the Balearics and public perceptions of her achievements and confirmed 1989–90 W. Barns-Graham Retrospective 1940–1989, touring: Barns-Graham’s history is bound up with St Ives where she 1960 Inherited Balmungo estate, near St Andrews her as one of the key contributors of the St Ives School, and Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance; City Art Centre, Edinburgh; lived throughout her life, and it is the place where she 1966 Visit to Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam as a significant British modernist. She was made a CBE in Perth museum and Art Gallery; Crawford Art Centre, 1984–85 Working in Orkney experienced her first great successes as an artist. Following St Andrews; maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr 2001, and received four honorary doctorates (St Andrews 1992, 1989–90 Working in Lanzarote her travels to the Grindelwald Glacier, Switzerland in 1949 1992 W. Barns-Graham Drawings. Crawford Art Centre, Plymouth 2000, Exeter 2001 and Heriot Watt Universities 2003). 1991–92 Working in Lanzarote she embarked on a series of paintings and drawings which St Andrews and The Royal Cornwall museum, Truro Her work is found in all major public collections throughout 1992 Received Honorary Doctorate, University of St. Andrews caught the attention of some of the most significant critics 1992–93 W. Barns-Graham at 80, William Jackson Gallery, London the UK. She died in St Andrews on 26 January 2004. 1987 Establishes Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and curators of the day. In 1951 she won the Painting Prize touring to Lillie Art Gallery, milngavie; Abbot Hall Art Elected Honorary member RSA and RSW l Gallery, Kendal; Royal Albert memorial museum, Exeter; in the Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall Festival of Britain Received Honorary Doctorate, University of Plymouth l Dundee Art Gallery and museum; Wakefield Art Gallery Exhibition and went on to have her first London solo exhibition Awarded CBE l 1995/97/99/02 Art First, London at the Redfern Gallery in 1952. She was included in many of For further information visit www.barns-grahamtrust.org.uk Awarded Honorary Doctorate, University of Exeter 1996–97 The Scottish National Gallery of modern Art, Edinburgh the important exhibitions on pioneering British abstract art 2003 Awarded Honorary Doctorate, Heriot Watt University, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: An Enduring Image, that took place in the 1950s. Edinburgh Tate Gallery St. Ives 2004 Died 26 January, St Andrews 48 2001 Scottish National Gallery of modern Art 49 2002–2004 W. Barns-Graham: Painting as Celebration, 2016–17 A Different Way of Working: The Prints of Wilhelmina 1977 British Artists of the 60s, The Tate Gallery, London Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries Crawford Art Centre, St. Andrews, travelling to Barns-Graham, Beverley Art Gallery, North Yorkshire; 1981/83 Contemporary Art from , The Scottish Gallery, Hawick museum Aberdeen Art Gallery; Royal Cornwall museum, Truro; Burton Art Gallery and museum, Bideford, Devon Edinburgh (SAC tour) Hepworth Wakefield Gallery, Wakefield Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield; City Art Gallery and 2018–19 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Sea, Rock, Earth and Ice, 1982 Art from Cornwall, Galerie Artica, Cuxhaven Hocken Library, University of Otago, New Zealand museum, York; Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University; Jerwood Gallery Hastings, touring to Graves Art Gallery 1984 Homage to Herbert Read, University of Kent, Canterbury Kelvingrove Art Gallery and museums, Glasgow Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull; Lillie Art Gallery, Sheffield 1985 St Ives 1939-64, The Tate Gallery, London Kettle's Yard, Cambridge milngavie; Hawick museum. 1986 Forty years of modern Art, The Tate Gallery, London Kirkcaldy Art Gallery Selected Group Exhibitions (in her lifetime) 1988 The Experience of Landscape, Leeds City Art Gallery Later Solo Exhibitions (Public Galleries) 1935–43* Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh Arts Council touring exhibition Lillie Art Gallery, milngavie 2007 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Movement and Light 1941/44/86/88 Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 1989/90 since 1900, Scottish National Gallery of modern maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr Imag(in)ing Time, Tate St Ives 1942–99* Newlyn Society of Artists Art, Edinburgh and tour to Barbican Art Gallery, London manchester City Art Gallery Elemental Energies: the Art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 1942–49* St Ives Society of Artists 1992 New Beginnings, Postwar British Art, michigan University museum, USA Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1945–46 St Ives Society of Artists, travelling exhibition Scottish National Gallery of modern Art Newhall College, Cambridge A Different Way of Working, Gateway Gallery, in UK and South Africa 1995 Porthmeor Beach: A Century of Images, Tate St Ives New South Wales Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia University of St Andrews 1946 Living Artists, National Gallery of Scotland William Gear Friends Past and Present, Nuffield College, Oxford Evolution: the Work of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 1947/48 Crypt Group, St Ives museum and Art Gallery Pallant House Gallery, Chichester Sherborne House, Sherborne, Dorset 1949–99* Penwith Society of Arts, St Ives 1998–2004* Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Edinburgh Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University 2009–12 A Discipline of the Mind – The Drawings of Wilhelmina 1951 Danish, British and American Abstract Artists, 1998–2004* Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney Barns-Graham, Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney, Riverside museum, New York (RSW), Edinburgh Plymouth City Art Gallery and tour to Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University 1953 International watercolour exhibition, *Indicates consecutive annual exhibitions Portsmouth City Art Gallery of Leeds; Plymouth City museum and Art Gallery; Brooklyn museum, New York Scottish National Gallery of modern Art, Edinburgh Burton Art Gallery and museum, Bideford, North Devon; 1954 British Painting and Sculpture, Works in Public and Corporate Collections Sheffield Art Gallery Perth Art Gallery and museum Whitechapel Art Gallery, London Southampton City Art Gallery Abbot Hall Art Gallery. Kendal 2012–13 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: a Scottish artist in St Ives, Art from the South West, Arts Council touring exhibition St Ives Borough, Cornwall Aberdeen Art Gallery Fleming Collection, London and City Art Centre Edinburgh 1955 Seven Scottish Artists, Scottish Arts Council Tate Arts Council of Great Britain, London A Different Way of Working. The Prints of Wilhelmina touring exhibition The Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation, London Birmingham City museum and Art Gallery Barns-Graham, Inverness museum and Art Gallery and Annual exhibition, City Art Gallery, Bradford British Council, London tour to St Fergus Gallery, Wick; Iona Gallery, Kingussie; Abstract Art 2, milan (invited artist) University of Leeds, Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery British museum, London Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries: Dick Institute, Kilmarnock 1960 Painters from Cornwall, Plymouth City Art Gallery Victoria and Albert museum, London Dundee museum and Art Gallery 2015–16 The Prints of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Scottish National Contemporary Scottish Artists, Scottish Arts Council Whitworth Art Gallery, University of manchester Edinburgh City Art Centre Gallery of modern Art touring exhibition in Canada Wolverhampton City Art Gallery Ferens Art Gallery, Hull 2016 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: a Scottish artist in St Ives, International exhibition of works in gouache, New York Government Art Collection Penlee House Art Gallery, Penzance British Watercolours, Waddington Gallery, London 50 51 (tour to Sweden) The artist heading north from La Santa, Lanzarote Photographer unknown

52