WILHELMINA BARNS-GRAHAM

EVOLUTION WILHELMINA BARNS-GRAHAM EVOLUTION

Barns-Graham sketching from a vantage point above Porthgwidden, 1947 Photo: Central Office of Information, London Sherborne House

2 3 EVOLUTION

In discussing the art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham one is struck by the variety of imagery. On cursory viewing, she appears to have kept altering her style; her work has been representational, hard edge abstract, expressionist. This variability is likely to have made her appear as contrary, reflecting a painter who did not know what she was doing or where she wanted to go.

In hindsight it is possible of course to look back on Barns-Graham’s career and to see the links that reveal her as an ever-investigative painter who remained true to her artistic principles and who was constantly evolving a personal visual language. Within the context of this exhibition it is aimed to identify some of these links that illustrate the evolution of her imagery.

From the beginning, Barns-Graham’s primary source of inspiration has been the world around her, the environment in which she lived and worked. Early paintings from c.1940 indicate the manner in which she was beginning to deconstruct the landscape, simplifying shapes and forms with their respective colours. However it was not long after her arrival in St Ives in 1940, through the influence the artists whom she quickly met there ( and , , Borlase Smart, , for example), that she began to question the direction in which her painting was heading.

The most significant innovation in her work from the 1940s derived from the ideas of Naum Gabo, a Russian émigré artist who was living with Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. Gabo was interested in the principle of stereometry – defining forms in terms of space rather than mass. Hepworth was exploring this notion within her sculpture. In Barns-Graham’s work, it is first seen in the studies, and subsequent paintings, of the Grindelwald Glacier in Switzerland, which she visited in 1949. In describing the glacier she enthused “It seemed to breathe! Enormous standing forms, polished like glass with sharp edges,... which could include buried in it and on it, huge and tiny stones and rubble. This likeness to glass and transparency, combined with solid rough ridges made me wish to combine in a work all angles at once, from above, through, and all around, as a bird flies, a total experience.”1 ‘Study of Upper Glacier’ and ‘End of Glacier’ (both 1949) represent this breakthrough. In ‘Cliff Face’, 1952, one of the last of the series, there is a sense that the rock face has been turned inside out. Later, she was to revisit the glacier idea in 1977 (Glacier Grindelwald) and again in 1987, with a variation of the theme, inspired by the shattered ice on puddles found on a walk through the woods of Balmungo, her St. Andrews home - ‘Variation on a Theme Splintered Ice No.1’.

STUDY OF UPPER GLACIER GRINDELWALD 1949, offset drawing, 44.2 x 61.2 cm

4 5 CLIFF FACE GLACIER 1952, oil on canvas, 101.5 x 91.5 cm 1978, gouache on paper, 77.3 x 57.3 cm

6 7 The principal elements of Barns-Graham’s working method – the paring down of forms, the investigation of the internal structure of the landscape – come together in the rock and field paintings made between 1952 and 1958. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s she had continued to redefine the local landscape – ‘White Cottage, ’, 1944; ‘Tregarthen Farm, ’, 1949; ‘Porthleven’, 1951 Each of these three paintings contains characteristics that pave the way for the future. ‘White Cottage, Cornwall’ consists of a ghostly white cottage with a sketchily drawn landscape and sea; but it is the strong pink form suggesting a pier to the house’s left that is the most striking feature. The handling of this form is significant when seen in relation to the foreground standing stones shapes of ‘Three Rock Forms’, 1951, which are quite loosely defined, set against the background sea. As the work evolved, shapes became more solid and crisper; the geometry of ‘Composition – Sea’, 1954, is more static, with a feeling for distance alluded to rather than clearly described, and less the notion of being a representational landscape painting.

Barns-Graham was continuing to explore new places. As in the first glacier sketches her drawings of the period are some of her most revealing works. Not unexpectedly, drawing was an important part of the working process; “I have sessions of drawing and consider it important to make studies, to develop one’s awareness of to inner perception....I attempt to seek out sculptural, architectural and linear qualities... always to study the function of forms and formations, drawing with simplicity. I get at the real essence of things which can be as miraculous as anything devised by the imagination...”2 ‘Clay Workings, Chiusure’ (1954) typifies her investigations of the Tuscany landscape, where the field shapes on the landscape surface are juxtaposed with an impression of the unseen structural forms beneath, while the later lava studies of the 1980s show her continued interest in land formation, and the abstract possibilities of the volcanic rock forms of Lanzarote (‘Lava Forms 3, Lanzarote’, 1993).

Nonetheless, the drawings were not studies for particular paintings. “I seldom work from my drawings. The discipline used releases me in my paintings, to work more freely, expand with ideas and imagination involving joy in colour, texture and harmony, I start creating (sic)”.3 They acted only as part of a working process, recording observations for future use.

‘Tregarthen Farm, Zennor’ and ‘Porthleven’ are precursors to a series of paintings based on the Yorkshire Dales. In 1956 she briefly took up a teaching position at Leeds School of Art. ‘Snow at Wharfdale 2’ of 1957 is less descriptive of a particular place, less topographical than the two earlier works. In this picture, the inter-relationship and arrangement of the fields is the dominant subject, emphasized by a lack of colour of the winter landscape. The curvature of the dark lines (dry stone walls) gives the illusion of the shape of a hillside which, through the diminishing scale of randomly angled shapes retreats back to a leaden grey sky. VARIATION ON THE THEME SPLINTERED ICE NO.1 ‘Yellow’ Painting’ of the same year, takes this concept one stage further, by not only removing any sense of 1987, oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cm visual perspective but extending the pattern making of irregular shapes.

8 9 TREGARTHEN FARM, ZENNOR WHITE COTTAGE 1949, oil on paper, 29.5 x 40 cm 1944, gouache on paper, 44 x 58 cm

10 11 THREE ROCK FORMS CLAY WORKINGS, CHIUSURE 1951, oil on canvas, 45.2 x 60.5 cm 1954, pencil on tempera ground, 43 x 54.5 cm

12 13 ‘Yellow Painting’ takes away the representation of landscape almost entirely, the artist stepping towards delivering a purely abstract image. It goes further than ‘White, Black and Yellow (Composition February)’, also of 1957, to which it is also strongly related. Their principal relationship lies in the underlying construction of the compositions, in her use of the ‘Golden Section’, a method of division in a mathematically determined rectangle, as illustrated by the exposed lines of the underlying grid. (Barns- Graham often repeated this mechanism. See ‘Wind Movement No. 1’ and ‘Celebration VE Night’ of 1995.) Black vertical bars that accentuate the picture’s perspective and visual movement are attached on to the underlying grid. Not only do these enhance a sense of space but they lead the eye across the picture from left to right, before eventually drawing the eye towards a vanishing point in the top right corner. A form of the bars reappears in different guise as the dancing brushstrokes of the Scorpio images forty years later, where they serve a similar purpose.

Barns-Graham’s imagery, diverse as it came to be from the early 1960s onwards, is constantly a synthesised reflection of the natural world. Working through a hard edge abstraction using only colour and basic geometric forms - the square and circle - the paintings are often more descriptive of actual objects than is apparent on first impression. Titles can give clues though titling of pictures was usually left until a painting was finished; at the outset of the painting process no such idea may have been directly in the artist’s mind though an association may reveal itself as the picture progressed. ‘Cinders’ (1964) is composed of small stamped squares, irregularly placed, that give the composition considerable visual movement. The animation is further enhanced by the carefully modulated fiery reds and oranges that blanket the image. Even without such a stated title, the painting is very evocative of burning embers. Similarly, the multitude of brown and orange disks in the less suggestively titled ‘Brown and Orange’(1972), from the ‘Migration’ or ‘Birds In Flight’ series, carries the possible interpretation of a flock of birds caught in the act of rising (or descending) in the air. On a simplistic level the painting is composed of coloured circles on a plain background, but it is quite possible to interpret it in terms of the real world.

One of the last expressions of this formal play of shapes is the expansive 1985 painting ‘Summer Painting No.2’, in which triangles, circles and rhombuses cluster together in a single image. Inspired by the holiday makers on Porthmeor Beach, over which her studio house looked, the beach towels, kites and screens literally fly across the canvas, blown by an unseen wind.

SNOW AT WHARFEDALE II 1957, oil on canvas, 50.8 x 76.2 cm

14 15 YELLOW PAINTING WHITE, BLACK AND YELLOW (COMPOSITION FEBRUARY) 1957, oil on canvas, 51 x 76.5 cm 1957, oil on canvas, 122 x 198 cm

16 17 Porthmeor Beach, St Ives was a constant source of inspiration, as were the West Sands of St Andrews. Clodgy Head, a point adjacent to Porthmeor Beach, was painted regularly in a straightforward style reminiscent of the 1950s paintings ‘Porthleven’ and ‘Tregarthen Farm, Zennor’. Barns-Graham’s election to be this representational at this time, 1983, suggests that paintings like these are perhaps studies, as a mechanism to synthesizing ideas in a similar way to her sketches. But Barns-Graham’s fascination with the sea reached its full flowering in the 1980s with an extensive series of finely lined drawings in which she played with the swell and mass of the water, the shifting of sands. These explorations into the movement and internal mass of the sea bring to mind the formative Grindelwald Glacier drawings.

Barns-Graham was inspired by a wide selection of natural forms: feathers, mussels, pebbles, trees, to name but a few. On occasion she developed an idea into a series, one of the finest of which evolved from mushrooms found in full colour while on a walk around Balmungo’s woods (Mushroom Series No.10, 1991). Large expressively painted circular forms dominate the image, offset against suggested other flora. In evolving the circle idea further, much of the extraneous material is stripped away to leave coloured disks floating on open special voids (Untitled 37/92, 1992). Indeed, disks, as solid forms or as rings, became important features in much of her late work, as counterpoints or as elements in their own right - Celebration (VE Night), Scorpio Series 3 No.9, and White Circle Series.

On one level these might be seen as re-inventions of the earlier circles of ‘Brown and Orange’, but they have become much more than that. The new images have a different energy. By 1990 her painting style, the handling of the brush and choice of medium, had become freer and clearly more vibrant. In part, her choice of, initially, gouache and then acrylic paints, on paper, led to the work being very expressive and spontaneous. This newly found freedom led her in new directions.

CELEBRATION (VE NIGHT) INCOMING MOVEMENT OF WATER 1995, acrylic on paper, 58 x 75.8 cm 1988, pen, ink, oil on card, 20 x 26.5 cm

18 19 CINDERS BROWN AND ORANGE 1964, oil and acrylic on paper on hardboard, 58.5 x 91.5 cm 1972, oil and acrylic on board, 66 x 66 cm

20 21 In the last decade of her life, Barns-Graham made some of the most extraordinary paintings of her entire oeuvre. Elements of her previous painting were re-embraced and re-invented in new and exciting ways. By way of example, ‘Celebration VE Night’, an image that celebrates fireworks, takes forward many of the elements of ‘White, Black and Yellow (Composition February)’ and adds a broader, heightened palette. ‘Scorpio Series No.1’ (1995) and ‘Scorpio Series 3 No.9’ (1997) have evolved out from different ideas from previous decades in their visual movement; but they have taken on a completely new life. In the Scorpios the bars of colour, often made by just single brushstrokes, dance in celebrations of life across the paper. “In my paintings I want express the joy and importance of colour, texture, energy and vibrancy, with an awareness of space and construction. As a celebration of life – taking risks so creating the unexpected”.4 (This is a statement of intent from an artist at the age of 89!) ‘Autumn Series No.4 Balmungo’(1998) sees her describing the giant trees of the estate in bars of colour in the Scorpio mode, a further development in describing the world around her.

Colour, movement, form are the three fundamental elements that underpin all Barns-Graham visual vocabulary. That they are re-invented in so many ways is testament to her talent and imagination. The circle form, the painterly brushstrokes and her deep insight into the nature of colour find their last apogee in the large number of screen prints made with Graal Press. The possible permutations of screen printing particularly excited Barns-Graham, offering her visual options to play with. In effect this meant she could create whole series of variations of an image, through varying the choice of marks and colours. With her work constantly evolving, one wonders what she may have gone on to do next.

Geoffrey Bertram, October 2007

Notes:

1. Lynne Green ‘W.Barns-Graham: a studio life’, Lund Humphries 2001, p.105. Extract from WBG letter to the Gallery 1965. Tate Gallery Archive, London: ‘as a bird flies, a total experience’ is a quote from Gabo, I partly used at the time in speech & was quoted by someone’, WBG to Lynne Green, July 2000. 2. W. Barns-Graham, Some Thoughts on Drawing, from exhibition catalogue W.Barns-Graham Drawings, Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews, 1992, p.9 SUMMER PAINTING NO.2 3. W. Barns-Graham, Some Thoughts on Drawing, ibid 1985, oil on canvas, 92 x 124 cm 4. WBG statement to author, October 2001

22 23 CLODGY POINT, ST IVES WEST SANDS, ST ANDREWS 1983, oil on board, 32.5 x 40 cm 1981, acrylic on paper on board, 27 x 38 cm

24 25 MUSHROOM SERIES NO.10 UNTITLED 37/92 1991, gouache on paper, 56 x 76.5 cm 1992, gouache on paper, 57.2 x 75.2 cm

26 27 SCORPIO SERIES 1 SCORPIO SERIES 3 NO.9 1995, acrylic on paper, 56 x 76 cm 1997, acrylic on paper, 57.5 x 76.5 cm

28 29 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham CBE RSA RSW 1912-2004

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, known as Willie, was born in St Andrews, Fife, on 8 June 1912. As a child she showed very early signs of creative ability. Determining while at school that she wanted to be an artist she set her sights on Edinburgh College of Art where, after some dispute with her father, she enrolled in 1932, and, after periods of illness, from which she graduated with her diploma in 1937.

At the suggestion of the College’s principal Hubert Wellington, she moved to St Ives in 1940. This was a pivotal moment in her life. Early on she met Borlase Smart, and Bernard Leach as well as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo who were living locally at Carbis Bay. she knew from her Edinburgh days. 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 Society of Artists. She was one of the initial exhibitors of the significant Crypt Group.

Barns-Graham’s history is bound up with St Ives where she lived and worked until her death. The St Ives Group, as it came to be known, began to form in the period after the war, with , Terry Frost, Bryan Winter, and Roger Hilton all living or staying frequently in St Ives. Barns-Graham more than held her own artistically within this challenging milieu and in recent years her pro-active contribution to development of St Ives art has been re-assessed. During the early decades Barns-Graham felt herself to be becoming sidelined by the more ambitious members of the group, which led to her not having the same high profile of those best known today. However important shows surveying her work at the in 1999/2000 and 2005 have done much to change people’s perceptions of her achievements and repositioned her as one of the key contributors of the St Ives group.

In 1960 Barns-Graham inherited from her aunt 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 Cornish one. The house, Balmungo, was to become the heart of her business and will continue in the future to be the base for the charitable trust which she established in 1987. Her Scottish heritage plays a significant part in her art.

Barns-Graham exhibited consistently throughout her career, both in private and public galleries. Though not short of exposure throughout the 1960s and 1970s her greatest successes came in the last decade of her life, that brought her new audiences and accolades, crowned by the publication of the first monograph published on her life and work, Lynne Green’s ‘W.Barns-Graham – a studio life,’ now followed by Ann Gunn’s ‘The Prints of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham - a complete catalogue.’ She was made CBE in 2001, and received four honorary doctorates (St Andrews 1992, Plymouth 2000, Exeter 2001 and Heriot Watt WHITE CIRCLE SERIES 1 Universities 2003). Her work is found in all major public collections within the UK. She died on 26 January 2003, screenprint, edition of 70, 56 x 56 cm 2004.

30 31 Selected Biography 1912 Born 8 June, St Andrews, Fife 1932 - 37 Edinburgh College of Art, Diploma course (Painting) DAE 1940 Went to Cornwall with award as recommended by Hubert Wellington. Met , Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Naum Gabo, Bernard Leach and Alfred Wallis. 1942 Became member of Newlyn Society of Artists and St Ives Society of Artists. Met John Wells 1946 First meetings of Crypt Group in her studio 1948 Met David Lewis (married 1949 - marriage annulled 1963) 1948 Worked on glacier drawings and gouaches in Switzerland 1949 Worked in Paris Founder member of the Penwith Society of Artists 1951 Worked in Italy and Scilly Isle 1956 - 57 On staff of Leeds School of Art 1963 Returned to St Ives 1992 Received Honorary Doctorate, University of St Andrews Honorary Member Penwith Society and Newlyn Society 1987 Establishes The Barns-Graham Trust (activated upon her death in 2004) 1999 Honorary Member RSA and RSW and Scottish Arts Club 2000 Received Honorary Doctorate, University of Plymouth 2001 Awarded CBE Awarded Honorary Doctorate, 2003 Awarded Honorary Doctorate, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh 2004 Died 26 January, St Andrews Solo Exhibitions 1947 / 49 / 54 Downing Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall 1949 / 52 Redfern Gallery, London 1954 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London 1956 / 59 / 60 / 81 Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 1957 City Art Gallery, Wakefield 1976 Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives 1978 The New Art Centre, London 1984 The Pier Arts Centre, Orkney 1989 Scottish Gallery, London 1989 - 90 W. Barns-Graham Retrospective 1940 - 1989, touring: Penzance; Edinburgh; St Andrews; Ayr 1992 W. Barns-Graham Drawings. Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews and The , Truro 1992-3 W. Barns-Graham at 80, William Jackson Gallery, London touring to Milngavie; Kendal; Exeter; Dundee; Wakefield 1995 / 97 / 99 / 01 Art First, London 1996 - 67 / 2001 The Scottish National Gallery of , Edinburgh 1999 - 2000 ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: An Enduring Image’, Tate Gallery, St Ives Barns-Graham in St Ives Studio, 1988 2002 - 2004 'W.Barns-Graham: Painting as Celebration', Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews, travelling to Photo: Rowan James Aberdeen; Truro; Sheffield; York; Lancaster; Kingston upon Hull; Milngavie; Hawick

32 33 2004 ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham 1912 – 2004 : A Tribute – Recent Paintings and New Prints’, Art First, Selected Bibliography London 2005 ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham : Movement and Light Imag(in)ing Time’, Tate St Ives Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue, Homage to Herbert Read, 1984, Canterbury College of Art 2006 ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham : Important Works from her Career’, Art First, London Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue. Freeing the Spirit, Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews 2007 ‘Paintings and Drawings 1952 – 2003’, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue Collected Thoughts, W. Barns-Graham Retrospective 1940 - 89, City of ‘Elemental Energies: the Art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’, Trinity Hall, Cambridge Edinburgh Museums & Art Gallery, 1989 ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Evolution’, Sherborne House, Sherborne, Barns-Graham, W. Statement in catalogue, Some Thoughts on Drawing, Crawford Art Centre, 1992 ‘A Different Way of Working: the Prints of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’, Gateway Centre, University of Gooding, Mel ‘Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Movement and Light Imag(in)ing Time’, Tate St Ives exhibition catalogue, St Andrews 2005 ‘A Life in Print’, Penwith Galleries, St Ives Gooding, Mel ‘Elemental Energies: the Art of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’, Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 2007 Green, Lynne Wilhelmina Barns-Graham – An Enduring Image, Tate Gallery, St Ives, 1999 Selected Group Exhibitions: Public Galleries Green, Lynne W. Barns-Graham: a studio life, Lund Humphries, 2002 Gunn, Ann The prints of Wilhelmina Bans-Graham – a complete collection, Lund Humphries, 2007 1946 ‘Living Artists’, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh Hall, Douglas Introduction to exhibition catalogue, W. Barns-Graham Retrospective 1940-1989, Edinburgh City Art 1951 ‘Danish, British and American Abstract Artists’, Riverside Museum, New York Centre, 1989 1953 International watercolour exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, New York Kemp, Prof. Martin Introduction to exhibition catalogue, W. Barns-Graham Drawings, Crawford Art Centre, St Andrews, 1954 British Painting and Sculpture, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1992 1960 Contemporary Scottish Artists, Scottish Art Council touring Canada Lewis, David Introduction to catalogue, St Ives 1939 - 64, The Tate Gallery, London International exhibition of works in gouache, New York Loppert, Susan Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in Conversation, Contemporary Art, Spring 1996, Vol. 3, No. 2 1969 Paintings 1940 - 1949, Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition Saunders, Linda W. Barns-Graham, Modern Painters, Vol. 2, No. 3, Autumn 1989 1977 British Artists of the 60s, The Tate Gallery, London Taylor, John Russell Introduction to catalogue, W. Barns-Graham at 80: a New View, William Jackson Gallery, London, 1984 Homage to Herbert Read, University of Kent, Canterbury 1992 1985 St Ives 1939-64, The Tate Gallery, London Yakir, Nedira Women Artists and Modernism, edited by Katy Deepwell, Manchester University Press, 1998 1986 Forty Years of Modern Art, The Tate Gallery, London 1989 / 90 Scottish Art since 1900, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh and tour to Barbican Art Gallery, London 1990 Festival of Fifty-One, Arts Council Collection, touring exhibition 1995 William Gear Friends Past & Present, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 1999 Liberation and Tradition – Scottish Art 1875 – 1963, Aberdeen Art Gallery and McManus Gallery, Dundee 2001 St Ives in the 60s, Tate St Ives The Colourist Connection, McManus Gallery, Dundee 2002 Critic’s Choice (Mel Gooding), Newlyn Art Gallery Works in Selected Public Collections Aberdeen Art Gallery; Arts Council of Great Britain, London; Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery; British Council, London; British Museum, London; Dundee Museum and Art Gallery; Edinburgh City Art Centre; , Hull; Government Art Collection; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museums, Glasgow; Kettle's Yard, Cambridge; Kirkcaldy Art Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery; Manchester City Art Gallery; New South Wales Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia; Peter Scott Gallery, University of Lancaster; Portsmouth City Art Gallery; Plymouth City Art Gallery; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Sheffield Art Gallery; Southampton City Art Gallery; Tate Gallery, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Whitworth Art Gallery, University opf Manchester; Wolverhampton City Art Gallery

34 35 Acknowledgements Exhibition Sponsors

Exhibition developed by Amanda Wallwork and Geoffrey Bertram for Sherborne House Arts and presented at Sherborne House, 3rd November - 16th December 2007 HUMPHRIES KIRK, Solicitors Humphries Kirk is an innovative law firm based in Exhibition curated by Geoffrey Bertram Dorset. The firm has grown to answer the needs of both businesses and private individuals by offering a Thanks to the The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust for first class legal service in this large and rapidly the loan of the works in this show and to Helen Scott expanding community. The firm has offices in for her administrative assistance. Bournemouth, Dorchester, Parkstone, Poole, Swanage and Wareham as well as consulting rooms in London and associated practices in France and Germany. 40 High West Street, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1UR Telephone: 01305 251007 Website: www.humphrieskirk.co.uk The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust Email: [email protected] The Barns-Graham Charitable Trust was created by Fax: 01305 251045 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham in her lifetime, and came into full effect following her death in January 2004. The aims of the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust are: • To foster, protect and promote the reputation of DUKE’S – The local auctioneer with an • Wilhelmina Barns-Graham international reputation • To advance the knowledge of the life and work of Established in 1823 and now one of the leading Fine • Wilhelmina Barns-Graham through exhibitions, Art Auctioneers in the country, Duke’s pride • research and publications themselves in offering a personal service, specialist • To create an archive of key works of art and expertise and international marketing. At our Fine Art • papers Saleroom in Dorchester, we regularly hold sales of • To support and inspire young artists fine furniture, paintings, silver, jewellery and Kinburn Castle, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9DR ceramics. These specialist sales have fully illustrated 01334 477 107 Fax: 01334 476 862 catalogues, are promoted on the Internet and attract [email protected] worldwide buyers. www.barns-grahamtrust.org.uk The Dorchester Fine Art Salerooms, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1QS Catalogue design by Simon Barber Telephone: 01305 265080 Photography by Colin Ruscoe and Richard Sainsbury Website: www.dukes-auctions.com St Ives studio portrait courtesy of Rowan James Email: [email protected] Exhibition and catalogue sponsored by Humphries Kirk and Dukes

Sherborne Town Council The Simon Digby (Sherborne) Memorial Trust

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