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Writer's pictureReading Foundation for Art

A TRUSTEES SELECTION: Part Five

The late prints of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004) are the focus of Trustee Katie Newman's selection from the Reading Foundation collection.

The Young Wilhelmina Barns Graham at her Porthmeor Studio. Image courtesy Ross Irving on behalf of the Barns-Graham Trust
"Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was one of Britain’s most significant 20th century modern artists. I was fortunate enough to see her original artwork at the Bohun Gallery in Henley on Thames, working closely with the Barns-Graham Foundation who continue to promote the name of this leading modernist. "

Scottish born and a prominent member of the post-war St Ives group, she was a sublime painter, draughtswoman, printmaker and a brilliant colourist.


Dividing her time between studios in St Ives and St Andrews she followed a consistent artistic vision throughout her sixty-five-year career. The Reading Foundation for Art is fortunate enough to have two silkscreens by the artist in the collection 'November IV' and 'Another Time'.

'Another Time' 1999 silkscreen print from an edition of 75 56x75cm Collection of Reading Foundation for Art

Born in 1912, in to a well-to-do Scottish family in St Andrews, Barns-Graham had to fight paternal opposition to be allowed to study art rather than follow a more genteel course to marriage and family life. She succeeded in entering the Edinburgh College of Art in 1936 before moving to St Ives, Cornwall in 1940. From this moment on, Barns-Graham became an active part of the brilliant, experimental, increasingly European-connected group of artists that clustered in St Ives in the 1940s and 1950s who explored new abstract forms in paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculpture.


'View of St. Ives by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham © Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust. Photo credit: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust

'St Andrews Looking West' by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham© Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust. Photo credit: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust

Drawing and painting in the open air near the coast was forbidden by law during the Second World War, so it was when she was working in a factory at St Ives making camouflage nets that Barns-Graham developed the pared-down abstract language that was to distinguish much of her work. She loved architectural and what she termed ‘gritty’ subjects, particularly rubbish dumps with their haphazard assemblage of objects, shapes and colours. St Ives remained a primary residence for the artist throughout her life, although from 1960 this was balanced by time spent in St Andrews (she inherited a house there in 1960), and her native Scotland remained an important site for both ideas and exhibitions.

'November IV' 1991 silkscreen print from an edition of 30 56x75cm Collection of Reading Foundation for Art

"For all that she achieved throughout her artistic career, it is probably the work she created in the last decade of her life for which she is most well-known.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, or Willie to those that new her, is an example of one of these fascinating female artists whose work ‘bloomed’ late in life. She turned eighty and there was a sudden burst of colour and 'joie-de-vivre' and an outpouring of paintings and prints, reflecting in her own words, a form of “letting rip.”
She achieved this as an octogenarian and it makes me think there is hope for us all!!" Katie Newman RFA Trustee

The late paintings and prints reveal a fundamental dedication to resolving the timeless problems of combining colour, shape and form that informed her entire practice. In her final decade, while in her eighties, the diversity of her creativity is truly astounding and inspirational. The outpouring of paintings and the powerful late body of prints introduced a new dynamic to her art, reflecting in her own words, a form of “letting rip.” In a conversation with John McEwen, art critic for The Daily Telegraph in 2001, her response on being asked to provide an artistic credo was the following:


Image courtesy of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust

‘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.’ Wilhelmina Barns-Graham


Above: A selection of silkscreen prints by Wilhelmina Barns Graham, images courtesy of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust


The last period of her life is when she challenged herself as an artist to an extraordinary degree, despite being in advanced old age. These late silkscreen prints represent the work of an artist drawing on 70 years of experience and experimentation, yet taking risks as never before.

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was awarded a CBE in recognition of her achievement as an artist in 2001. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham died in 2004.


For more information on the artist, visit https://www.barns-grahamtrust.org.uk/

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