Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004), a Scottish painter, one of the main artists of the “St Ives School”, an important figure in British modern art. We learned about her work, and her foundation preserves boxes of her studio materials.
Barns-Graham knew from a young age that she wanted to be an artist. Her formal training began at Edinburgh School of Art in 1931, but in 1940 she joined other British avant-gardes in Cornwall due to the war situation, her ill health and desire to distance herself from her unsupportive father artist .
In St Ives, she found like-minded people, and it was here that she discovered herself as an artist. Both Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo became important figures in the development of her art, and through their discussions and mutual admiration, she laid the groundwork for her lifelong exploration of abstract art.
The trip to Switzerland provided the impetus needed for abstraction and, in her own words, she was brave enough. Barns-Graham’s abstract forms are always rooted in nature. She sees abstract art as a journey to essence, a process of feeling the truth of the idea of letting go of “descriptive incidents”, rather than exposing patterns of nature. For her, abstraction should be firmly grounded in perception. Over the course of her career, the focus of her abstract work has changed, becoming less connected with rock and natural forms and more with thought and spirit, but it has never been completely disconnected from nature.
Barns-Graham also traveled across the continent many times in her life, and the geography and natural forms she encountered in Switzerland, Lanzarote and Tuscany returned again and again in her work.
Since 1960, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham has lived between St Andrews and St Ives, but her work truly embodies St Ives’ core ideas, sharing the values of modernism and abstract nature, capturing the inner energy. However, her popularity in the group is very low. The atmosphere of competition and the fight for advantage made her experience with other artists a bit of a bitterness.
During the last decades of her life, Barnes-Graham’s work became bolder and more colorful. Created with a sense of urgency, the pieces are full of joy and a celebration of life, and acrylic on paper seemed to liberate her. The immediacy of the medium, its fast drying properties allow her to quickly layer colors together.
Her Scorpio collection showcases a lifetime of knowledge and experience with colors and shapes. For her, the remaining challenge is to identify when the piece is complete and when all the components come together to make it “sing”. In the series, she’s quoted as saying: “It’s funny how they were a direct result of punishing a piece of paper with a wielding brush after a failed interview with reporters, and suddenly Barnes-Graham was in those angry obliques. The line realized the potential of the raw material.”
Post time: Feb-11-2022